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The Valley of Fear: The Sherlock Holmes Series
When a strange coded message arrives at 221B Baker Street, sent by a member of Professor Moriarty's criminal organization, Sherlock Holmes soon deciphers it and finds a someone is about to be murdered.
A visit from a Scotland Yard inspector confirms that one John Douglas has been mysteriously killed in Sussex. Even Sherlock Holmes, well accustomed to the bizarre, finds the elements of this case unusual. John Douglas lived at Birlstone Manor House, built on the ruins of a castle surrounded by a moat. Every night he drew up the bridge as a precaution against potential villains.
Nevertheless, Douglas was found dead, shot in the face at close range with a sawed-off shotgun. And the bereaved are strangely dry-eyed.
The mystery spans the Atlantic, from Sussex and the foggy streets of London to a coal-mining region in Pennsylvania, and the ultimate twist can only be untangled by the incomparable skill of the legendary Holmes.
A visit from a Scotland Yard inspector confirms that one John Douglas has been mysteriously killed in Sussex. Even Sherlock Holmes, well accustomed to the bizarre, finds the elements of this case unusual. John Douglas lived at Birlstone Manor House, built on the ruins of a castle surrounded by a moat. Every night he drew up the bridge as a precaution against potential villains.
Nevertheless, Douglas was found dead, shot in the face at close range with a sawed-off shotgun. And the bereaved are strangely dry-eyed.
The mystery spans the Atlantic, from Sussex and the foggy streets of London to a coal-mining region in Pennsylvania, and the ultimate twist can only be untangled by the incomparable skill of the legendary Holmes.
Audible Audio
Published October 30, 2013
About the author
Arthur Conan Doyle
17.4k books25.1k followersSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.
Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.
Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 16, 2026
The Valley of Fear contains one of the more satisfying displays of Holmes’s deductive machinery in Conan Doyle’s work. The sequence by which he picks apart the apparent murder is elegant, precise and, crucially, given enough room to breathe. The circumstances of the crime are suspicious almost from the beginning, but Doyle wisely leaves just enough unresolved that Holmes can arrive and do what Holmes does best: turn a room full of odd details into something resembling inevitability.
The problem is that Doyle then reaches for one of his old structural habits.
As in A Study in Scarlet, the story effectively stops midway through so that we can be transported elsewhere for a lengthy account of events that took place before the main mystery. I was not especially fond of this device the first time, and seeing it return did not exactly make me reach for the bunting.
That said, it works considerably better here.
The second half is more compelling, more carefully constructed and, importantly, contains a mystery of its own. It is not merely explanatory scaffolding bolted onto the back of the Holmes story. There is genuine tension in it, and enough intrigue that I remained interested even while wondering whether Doyle had accidentally started writing a different novel.
In fact, that may be my main reservation. There is a perfectly respectable crime novel hiding inside this second section, and part of me suspects it might have worked even better if Doyle had allowed it to become one: longer, fuller and entirely independent. As it stands, the two halves fit together, but the join is never quite invisible.
A few character decisions in both parts also struck me as rather questionable. Then again, literary criticism becomes dangerously easy when one is judging desperate people from the comfort of an armchair. I have never been trapped in circumstances involving murder, secret societies and Sherlock Holmes, so perhaps I should not be too confident about how splendidly rational I would be.
Despite its structural awkwardness, The Valley of Fear is a strong Holmes novel. The central deduction is excellent, the historical section is far more engaging than its equivalent in A Study in Scarlet, and the whole thing has enough intelligence and momentum to survive Doyle temporarily turning one book into two.
The problem is that Doyle then reaches for one of his old structural habits.
As in A Study in Scarlet, the story effectively stops midway through so that we can be transported elsewhere for a lengthy account of events that took place before the main mystery. I was not especially fond of this device the first time, and seeing it return did not exactly make me reach for the bunting.
That said, it works considerably better here.
The second half is more compelling, more carefully constructed and, importantly, contains a mystery of its own. It is not merely explanatory scaffolding bolted onto the back of the Holmes story. There is genuine tension in it, and enough intrigue that I remained interested even while wondering whether Doyle had accidentally started writing a different novel.
In fact, that may be my main reservation. There is a perfectly respectable crime novel hiding inside this second section, and part of me suspects it might have worked even better if Doyle had allowed it to become one: longer, fuller and entirely independent. As it stands, the two halves fit together, but the join is never quite invisible.
A few character decisions in both parts also struck me as rather questionable. Then again, literary criticism becomes dangerously easy when one is judging desperate people from the comfort of an armchair. I have never been trapped in circumstances involving murder, secret societies and Sherlock Holmes, so perhaps I should not be too confident about how splendidly rational I would be.
Despite its structural awkwardness, The Valley of Fear is a strong Holmes novel. The central deduction is excellent, the historical section is far more engaging than its equivalent in A Study in Scarlet, and the whole thing has enough intelligence and momentum to survive Doyle temporarily turning one book into two.
August 3, 2026
This one was pretty similar to the first Sherlock Holmes novel. I still enjoyed it quite a bit and I still didn't see the last twist that happened. I also thought the foreshadowing of another villian was pretty cool.
April 16, 2026
Another case where Homes and Watson investigate but then there is a lengthy back story. Good story but I found some of the back story annoying with many superlatives about the characters, particularly the main one.
April 6, 2026
did the audio book with Sir Christopher Lee. A Holmes mystery with the legend Mr. Lee reading it? I call that a winner in my book!
July 11, 2026
Absolutely riveting. I could not put this book down.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews