A dead captain, six pearls, and a treasure that ruins everyone who touches it.
Who drives the story
A bored, cocaine-using deduction machine who comes alive only when a problem is hard enough. He solves a ten-year mystery in days but cannot talk his friend out of marrying for love.
The loyal narrator who scolds Holmes about the needle and falls for the client. He shoots an islander dead mid-chase and ends the book engaged, richer in love and poorer by a fortune.
The client, left fatherless by a treasure she never saw. Six anonymous pearls a year keep her hope alive; in the end she keeps the pearls and loses the gold, and calls it a fair trade.
A wooden-legged convict who spent decades guarding a treasure that cost him his leg, his freedom, and everyone he conspired with. He scatters the jewels rather than let them ruin anyone else.
A small Andaman Islander whose life Small once saved, repaying the debt with lethal loyalty. His poisoned thorn kills Bartholomew, and a bullet kills him on the Thames.
The ornate, bald, guilt-ridden twin who sent the pearls to make amends for his father's sin. His reward is a night in a police cell for a murder he did not commit.
Thaddeus's twin, the clever one who finally finds the Agra treasure in the attic. He enjoys it for hours before a poisoned thorn finds his ear.
The dying patriarch who buried a friend's body and kept a stolen treasure. A bearded face at his window finishes what his conscience started.
Also in the story
The confident Scotland Yard man who arrests the wrong twin within minutes of arriving. A reliable foil for Holmes's superiority.
How they are connected
Dr. John WatsonSherlock Holmes
The loyal narrator who scolds Holmes about the needle and falls for the client.
A small Andaman Islander whose life Small once saved, repaying the debt with lethal loyalty.
His poisoned thorn kills Bartholomew, and a bullet kills him on the Thames.
Bartholomew SholtoThaddeus Sholto
Thaddeus's twin, the clever one who finally finds the Agra treasure in the attic.
Inspector Athelney JonesSherlock Holmes
A reliable foil for Holmes's superiority.
Go deeper
The curse of treasure · Guilt and its inheritances · The imperial reckoning · Reason versus love
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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