story this way in order to introduce her to the reader, so that we can understand how important she is to Holmes.  She is not just an opponent or a girlfriend.  She is both a nemesis and a soulmate.  Holmes is not an ordinary man, and Adler is not an ordinary woman.

Adler is clever, and basically got the best of Holmes.  For this, he holds her in high esteem.  This is why she is “the woman.”  When he describes her, it is in terms of what others think of her.

"Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the Serpentine-mews, to a man.

Yet, while Watson says Holmes is incapable of love and above it, because he believes in cold, hard calculation, it is clear that he feels something for Irene Adler.  Otherwise he would not have been so interested in her.  It is more than just academic.  Watson’s point when he says that Holmes is “the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen,” but no lover, is that Holmes puts himself above all that.  Why then, mention her at all?  Why call her “the woman” then?  No, she means something to him.

“A Scandal in Bohemia” is about Sherlock Holmes trying to get a photograph that would embarrass the King of Bohemia from Irene Adler.  He is unable to do so.

Watson ends the tale this way:

And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman's wit. 

Some men would have been upset by this, but Holmes was impressed.  He was so impressed that while he never gave a woman thought before, he did then.  In fact, when the king comments that Irene is not on his level, Holmes agrees, saying she is far superior!

The main point of this paragraph—and this story—is that Sherlock Holmes actually is a red-blooded man.  He is not immune to the wiles of a woman.  He is just more of an intellectual.  He cares more about a woman’s wit than her body.  He loves Irene Adler in his own way.  She is the only woman for him.  She is the one who got away—literally!

The first paragraph of "A Scandal in Bohemia" creates suspense because Dr. Watson recounts that Sherlock Holmes refers to a character in the story as "the woman." For some reason, this woman has lodged herself in Holmes's mind as the person who surpasses and eclipses all other women. As Holmes is not sentimental, there must be another reason that this woman, whose name is revealed to be Irene Adler, has remained fixed in his mind. For Holmes to become so obsessed is a disruption in his ordinarily detached personality, and it is a disturbance in the instrument—his mind—he uses to unravel crimes. Therefore, the reason that Irene Adler has disturbed him must be somewhat extreme. In addition, Watson refers to her at the end of the first paragraph as "the late Irene Adler," so that reader knows that she is dead. The reason for her impression on Holmes and the method of her death pose questions in the reader's mind that result in suspense.

The opening paragraph of "A Scandal in Bohemia" is very successful in creating suspense in two ways.

First of all, it is through the introduction of Irene Adler, a previously-unknown character, that the reader's interest and curiosity is piqued. Specifically, it is Holmes' intense admiration for her: "In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole her sex." Considering Holmes' cold and almost mechanical emotional nature, it is very unusual for him to be so moved by a person and this is why her appearance in the text is so interesting. 

Secondly, at the end of the paragraph, Watson refers to the "late Irene Adler." The reader is thus left with the impression that Irene is either missing or dead and the hint of her disappearance again piques curiosity. The reader is instantly drawn to the sense of mystery which surrounds Irene Adler; we want to know what has happened to her and how such a fate has arisen.

At the start of the story we find the newly-married Watson returning on an impulse to his old Baker Street quarters to see how Holmes is doing. He finds him with a royal client, the King of Bohemia, who requests Holmes’s help in his private affairs. He is engaged to be married to a princess, but a former lover of his, the soprano singer Irene Adler, has vowed to wreck the marriage. Irene threatens to expose the King’s former affair with her by means of a compromising photograph. The King wants Holmes to try and get this photograph away from her.

Holmes disguises himself as a groom and goes to the neighbourhood where Irene lives, to get information. He learns that Irene is now seeing someone else. He arrives, coincidentally, when the two of them are about too be married, and he is roped into attending the wedding as a witness. This marraige increases the urgency of his quest to secure the photograph, as Irene and her new husband are now about to leave the country.

For his next move, Holmes disguises himself as a clergyman and also enlists Watson’s help. He goes to Irene’s house in his disguise and is, seemingly, caught up in an altercation in the street outside, leaving him wounded. Irene has him brought into her house so that she can tend to him. At this point Watson, having been instructed by Holmes, throws a smoke-bomb into the room, and the people outside start crying fire. Holmes and Watson leave and Holmes explains what has just happened. He arranged the scene outside the house and only pretended to be wounded, in order to gain entry to Irene’s house. He further organised the false fire alarm to see where she would go in an emergency. He knows that the photograph is one of her most important possessions and that in an emergency she would rush to it first. Holmes has thus discovered where in the house the photograph is hidden, and he resolves to return next day and take it for himself when Irene is not about. During their walk home, a strange youth passes by and wishes Holmes goodnight. He is surprised by this.

Next morning, on arriving at Irene's house, Holmes, Watson, and the King find that she has already left, taking the photograph with her. Holmes is stunned at her ingenuity. She has left a note explaining everything. Having been previously warned that the King might hire someone to get the photograph from her, she guessed that Holmes was acting on the King’s behalf and had deliberately gained entry to her house the night before in his disguise as a clergyman. Realising this, she put on her own disguise as a young man and tracked Holmes and Watson back to Baker Street before leaving the country. Although she has taken the incriminating photograph, she declares that she will not use it against the King after all, as she now has married a better person than he. The King is relieved but Holmes is mortified, although also full of admiration at the way that Irene has outwitted him. Watson makes Holmes's admiration for her quite clear at the very start of the tale:

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.

To Holmes, then, Irene appears unique;  in his eyes she holds a special place among women in her rare combination of beauty, passion, intelligence and resolve.