This, the first Sherlock Holmes novel, includes a long section giving the background for the crime being investigated-a lurid tale of murder and forced marriage inspired by the anti-Mormon literature common in Victorian Britain. As a back-handed recognition of this connection to Mormonism, this edition is in the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for English developed in the Utah portrayed in the book.

This is the first full-length novel published in the Deseret Alphabet and the first book published in the Deseret Alphabet since the 1860's.