The Valley of Fear (Sherlock Holmes #7)
Only Holmes and Watson can get to the bottom of this baffling murder mystery. John Douglas is found in his study blasted faceless with a sawn-off shotgun. There is no obvious motive or suspect. Douglas and his wife, Ivy, a rich and locally popular couple, have lived for years in the ancient, moated Birlstone Manor House. Despite Douglas' nightly ritual of raising the drawb...more
Audio CD, 0 pages
Published
June 1st 2002
by Tantor Media Inc
(first published February 27th 1915)
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Let’s face it, Sherlock Holmes is a prig. A vainglorious bombast whose every breath seems devoted, at least in part, to extolling his prodigious and ubiquitous knowledge and singular mastery over every form of argument, logical deduction or investigative strategy (he's a little like that last sentence). It’s amazing the man can dress himself given that one arm is forever employed in the constant motion of slapping palm to his own back in congratulations for his monumental genius.
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Holmes and Watson investigate a murder in a country mansion, a man shot in the face with a sawn off shotgun. Things quickly prove not to be as they seem. But what does the murder have to do with the Valley of Fear...
First off, I'm not the biggest Sherlock Holmes fan and was at a loss when Valley of Fear was announced as a book in the Hard Case line. While I respect Arthur Conan Doyle as one of the pioneers of detective fiction, I was never really interested in him or Holmes. In m...more
First off, I'm not the biggest Sherlock Holmes fan and was at a loss when Valley of Fear was announced as a book in the Hard Case line. While I respect Arthur Conan Doyle as one of the pioneers of detective fiction, I was never really interested in him or Holmes. In m...more
Not enough Holmes!
Finally found a copy of this to read and, unfortunately, it is too much like The Scarlet Thread. NO ONE wants to read a book about some whackjob American with a secret mysterious past! We already did that once! We want to hear about HOLMES, by God! That's why we are reading this book-- because it is a SHERLOCK HOLMES BOOK. I don't care how spectacular Birdy Edwards is. I don't care what became of him. I want to see a classic character being classic.
Surely, by the ti...more
Finally found a copy of this to read and, unfortunately, it is too much like The Scarlet Thread. NO ONE wants to read a book about some whackjob American with a secret mysterious past! We already did that once! We want to hear about HOLMES, by God! That's why we are reading this book-- because it is a SHERLOCK HOLMES BOOK. I don't care how spectacular Birdy Edwards is. I don't care what became of him. I want to see a classic character being classic.
Surely, by the ti...more
So I have now finished the Conan Doyle Holmes novel entitled 'The Valley of Fear' as I work through a one volume complete collection of the all the novel s and stories (so ignore the random 'The Valley of Fear' book cover I have chosen for this review – oddly Goodreads only seems to have an audio CD listed cover not the actual book).
This is a doubly memorable Holmes tale in that - SPOILERS AHEAD - Moriarty sort of wins, though he does not actually appear, but more importantly one ca...more
This is a doubly memorable Holmes tale in that - SPOILERS AHEAD - Moriarty sort of wins, though he does not actually appear, but more importantly one ca...more
“Restammo così in silenzio per minuti interminabili, mentre quegli occhi carichi di destino sembravano lacerare il velo col fuoco delle loro pupille”.
Tra tutti i romanzi di Conan Doyle che ho avuto modo di leggere nel corso degli anni “la valle della paura” è senza alcun dubbio il più sconvolgente(devo essere sincera, non mi aspettavo un simile colpo di scena finale, chi lo ha letto sa a cosa mi riferisco).
In un misterioso castello abbarbicato su una collina avviene un brutale om...more
Tra tutti i romanzi di Conan Doyle che ho avuto modo di leggere nel corso degli anni “la valle della paura” è senza alcun dubbio il più sconvolgente(devo essere sincera, non mi aspettavo un simile colpo di scena finale, chi lo ha letto sa a cosa mi riferisco).
In un misterioso castello abbarbicato su una collina avviene un brutale om...more
Sherlock Holmes investigates a murder in Part I of The Valley of Fear and in part II exits stage left to allow the American set story of Jack McMurdo and the murderous society of the Scowrers in the Valley of Fear which brings everything full circle and ends in an unexpected turn of events.
Sherlock and Watson are two of the most iconic literary characters ever written and when you read their stories there is always that little bit of extra weight that comes with them, the weight that...more
Sherlock and Watson are two of the most iconic literary characters ever written and when you read their stories there is always that little bit of extra weight that comes with them, the weight that...more
Having just read the best of the Holmes novels, I turn now to what is definitely the worst. There is one really good twist, as Holmes works out what really happened in the shooting incident (though I must say I'd have expected a bit more evidence of it at the scene of the crime). But we take quite a long time getting there, and several other bits of the story have been done better before; Homes and Watson are off-stage for quite a lot of the book; and we never quite sort out the Moriarty connect...more
I don’t like Doyle’s habit of having effectively two stories in his books as I choose the book depending on what I feel like reading about at the time and then suddenly half way through you are in another country with another plot altogether – that is frustrating! However, I liked this book.
The first section was set in Sussex (my home county which held appeal for me) and at a nice country house. The details of the murder when revealed when satisfying in that I felt I had been provi...more
The first section was set in Sussex (my home county which held appeal for me) and at a nice country house. The details of the murder when revealed when satisfying in that I felt I had been provi...more
4.0/5.0
Гоё гэж хэлмээр л байна, даанч хоёр хэсэг болгочихоор ийм юм утгагүй байдаг юм. Би уг нь үргэлж Уатсон, Холмс хоёрыг зурган дотор харахыг хүсдэг. Гэтэл ингэж тэр хоёрыг зурагнаас арилгасан нь тийм ч их таалагддагүй юм.
Дээрхи дутагдалыг эс тооцвол үндсэн плот нь өмнөх бүрэн хэмжээний туужуудаас нь сонирхолтой байсан. Өмнө нь би ном дуусахаас нь өмнө үр дүнг нь бараг л таачихаад байсан бол энэ удаад яагаад ч юм минийх оноогүй. Магадгүй Доел туршлагажсаных байх л даа. (хэхэ...more
Гоё гэж хэлмээр л байна, даанч хоёр хэсэг болгочихоор ийм юм утгагүй байдаг юм. Би уг нь үргэлж Уатсон, Холмс хоёрыг зурган дотор харахыг хүсдэг. Гэтэл ингэж тэр хоёрыг зурагнаас арилгасан нь тийм ч их таалагддагүй юм.
Дээрхи дутагдалыг эс тооцвол үндсэн плот нь өмнөх бүрэн хэмжээний туужуудаас нь сонирхолтой байсан. Өмнө нь би ном дуусахаас нь өмнө үр дүнг нь бараг л таачихаад байсан бол энэ удаад яагаад ч юм минийх оноогүй. Магадгүй Доел туршлагажсаных байх л даа. (хэхэ...more
The first "novel" of Sherlock Holmes I've read; thus far I had stuck to the short stories. And I have to say, I prefer the stories. I like their structure and pace, whereas this book was a bit less fun to read. The first half of the book follows Sherlock and Watson as they solve the case, the second half flashes back to the murderer's past and describes what made him the man he is. My guess is that this was a small attempt on the part of Arthur Conan Doyle to write a Sherlock Holmes st...more
Over the last year I’ve re-read ‘A Study in Scarlet’, ‘The Sign of Four’ and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. It’s been an incredibly enjoyable experience, not least because each of the novels performed the charming trick of being much better than I remembered it. I take the orthodox view that it’s in the short stories where you find the true magic of Sherlock Holmes (particularly ‘The Adventures’ and ‘The Memoirs’), but this seems to have had the odd effect of downgrading the qualities of the n...more
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The last Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle was published in The Strand in 1914 and in America the following year. I was surprised to find this Hard Case Crime edition as their December 2009 novel, their #63.
The wonderfully lurid new cover painting by Glen Orbik, the author listed as "A.C. Doyle, Best-Selling Author of 'The Lost World'" and "inspired by a True Story," along with acclaim for Doyle on the back cover, brought a huge smile to my face. The fi...more
The wonderfully lurid new cover painting by Glen Orbik, the author listed as "A.C. Doyle, Best-Selling Author of 'The Lost World'" and "inspired by a True Story," along with acclaim for Doyle on the back cover, brought a huge smile to my face. The fi...more
Of the four novels, this is one of my top two favorites. The storytelling is sweeping, detailed, involved and evocative, and Sherlock himself is but a small piece of this puzzle. That Holmes and Watson are very minor characters in this particular story reminds me of A Study in Scarlet, where the reader is taken on a journey far away from England, the 1900's, and the case that the detective is working on.
I loved the twist at the end of the tale of the Scowrers. I loved the breathless ...more
I loved the twist at the end of the tale of the Scowrers. I loved the breathless ...more
"The Valley of Fear" is very similar in structure to "A Study in Scarlet": divided into two parts, one narrated by Watson, set in England and dominated by Holmes' deductive brilliancy, and a second part told by a third-person narrator, set in the USA and stylistically changing tone (or genre rather) from detective story to a mixture of crime, thriller and western. The second part serves mainly one function: to provide the reader with the background story to the murder and at ...more
As a Sherlock Holmes novel goes The Valley of Fear aspired to, but did not meet the high standard that earlier novels and short stories of the detective set. The Valley of Fear hearkens back to the two-part structure of A Study in Scarlet, where the mystery and solution is handled almost completely in the first part, and then the second part fills in the background on how the mystery came to be in the first place. The Valley of Fear even imitates A Study in Scarlet in the fact that the second pa...more
The seventh book of the Sherlock Holmes canon is also the fourth and final full length novel featuring the great detective and his loyal companion Dr Watson. Holmes receives a coded message from one of the henchmen of Professor Moriarty warning of an imminent danger to Mr Douglas or Birlstone Manor House. No sooner has the message been decoded when Inspector Alec MacDonald arrives at the Baker Street flat to ask for Holmes to help solve the very murder that he has just been forewarned. After tra...more
I went into "The Valley of Fear" hesitantly, as I'd heard that it was the dud of the canon. Well, I can't say I agree...
The first half of the book is a satisfying little mystery. It's certainly clear that Conan Doyle was bored with Holmes by now, as he continued to fill the gaps in the timeline rather than further the adventures, and indeed he spends as much time with other characters as he does with the formerly addicted detective. However, the author's ability to write th...more
The first half of the book is a satisfying little mystery. It's certainly clear that Conan Doyle was bored with Holmes by now, as he continued to fill the gaps in the timeline rather than further the adventures, and indeed he spends as much time with other characters as he does with the formerly addicted detective. However, the author's ability to write th...more
A Hard Case Crime reprinting of the final full length Sherlock Holmes novel. I was clueless, as the cover and the writing of the author's name suggest nothing related to the hero of Baker Street (and I don't read the back covers of books I'm reading for fear that some plot point will be given away). The story is told, essentially, in two parts: a crime, with the solution given, and then a flashback, justifying the reasons for the crime. I found the first part to be fantastic and the second half ...more
This adventure is even more enjoyable than the first, containing a really puzzling setup that is at the same time perfectly understandable once the razor mind of Holmes explains it all. I didn’t guess the solution at all, I must admit, although all the clues were right there in front of me. It is a nice touch to make the two detectives who are actually on the case that Holmes is helping with not obtuse in the slightest, but still completely off the right track. As in the very first Holmes sto...more
The Hard Case Crime edition of this book is a fun object: While pretty much everyone else putting out something Holmes-related is making sure that they use the same typeface as the new movie's logo, Hard Case has fun deliberately obscuring that this is a Sherlock Holmes novel - the writer is listed as "A.C. Doyle, author of 'The Lost World'", the front cover is the same sort of pulp illustration as the rest of the line, and Holmes isn't mentioned until the end of the description on th...more
First of all, let me say that although I have only given this 3 stars, it is still an enjoyable read, it's just that the latter half of this book is not a Holmes story. I know that Holmes officianados will not need this explaining, but for relative new-comers like me, this is worth mentioning. Essentially, what you have here are too seperate novellas, albeit with the link of the second being a prelude to the first half. Both are enjoyable stories, written in the typically vivid, exciting style w...more
I sped through this novel which in my opinion was a superb tale of mystery, fear & tyranny that stretched from an English country manor to the American coal fields.
It is written in a similar style to the first ever Sherlock Holmes novel "A Study in Scarlet" in that it is split into two parts, with Holmes solving the murder during the first part, before the motive behind the crime is revealed in the second.
All things considered, "The Valley of Fear" is...more
It is written in a similar style to the first ever Sherlock Holmes novel "A Study in Scarlet" in that it is split into two parts, with Holmes solving the murder during the first part, before the motive behind the crime is revealed in the second.
All things considered, "The Valley of Fear" is...more
This is an odd Sherlock Holmes mystery that is actually two stories in one. In the first story, we have the usual brillian detective work of Sherlock Holmes when a man is found murdered from a terrible wound to his head. It appears to be a murder, but there is no one to suspect and footprints disappear where they should carry on if someone is escaping. It is the classic "locked room mystery," which Holmes unravels splendidly.
Then comes the second part in America which is...more
Then comes the second part in America which is...more
Sherlock, my darling, it is good to have you back, with more fisticuffs than ever.
Valley of Fear confirms my feelings that you are best in short bursts. Your often saracastic bon mots are delightful, but the passages full of description that a novella encourages can be rather dull. Plus, the entire second half is all back-story and your wonderful self is not a part of it. It's a decent little stand-alone adventure story in and of itself, and a way for Doyle to satisfy Holmes lovers ...more
Valley of Fear confirms my feelings that you are best in short bursts. Your often saracastic bon mots are delightful, but the passages full of description that a novella encourages can be rather dull. Plus, the entire second half is all back-story and your wonderful self is not a part of it. It's a decent little stand-alone adventure story in and of itself, and a way for Doyle to satisfy Holmes lovers ...more
Judging from Goodreads reviews, The Valley of Fear takes a lot of flak. It's criticized for having the same style of flashback as A Study in Scarlet and for ignoring Sherlock Holmes for half the story.
However, I thought the American flashback scenes were excellent. They reminded me a lot of Dashiell Hammett; I wonder if he was influenced by Arthur Conan Doyle? At any rate, Doyle's background in spiritualism is clear: his characters dabble in secret societies and cults, and the story ...more
However, I thought the American flashback scenes were excellent. They reminded me a lot of Dashiell Hammett; I wonder if he was influenced by Arthur Conan Doyle? At any rate, Doyle's background in spiritualism is clear: his characters dabble in secret societies and cults, and the story ...more
Every time I pick up a Holmes novel, I have to remind myself that it should be done in one sitting. The first part of the story, where Holmes does his method of finding things out excited me, and I found that I was baffled myself until everything was solved. (This happens every time. I try to figure out Holmes's method and attempt to employ it but fail to end up with the same results.) The second part is usually something I don't look forward to. Interesting plot in itself, surely, but it felt l...more
I have come to enjoy A. Conan Doyle's odd construction of "A Study in Scarlet" and this book. I think I like "Valley of Fear" even more for its bifurcated country-house mystery and rough-and-tumble American gangsterism. For all its British condescension, "Valley of Fear" looks forward to the rise of 20th-century American crime writing (especially in its inclusion of a Pinkerton agent!). I'll be teaching this book in the spring and I can't wait. I have in my possessi...more
London, 7. Januar 1889. Sherlock Holmes erhält anonyme Briefe, bzw. Briefe unter dem Pseudonym Fred Porlock. Porlock scheint ein Mitarbeiter Professor Moriartys zu sein und er warnt Holmes kodiert, dass ein gewisser John Douglas von Birlstone House ermordet werden soll. Kurz darauf kontaktiert Inspektor MacDonald Holmes genau wegen dieses angekündigten Mordes an John Douglas und das Trio Holmes, Watson und MacDonald reisen nach Sussex nach Birlstone Manor wo die örtliche Polizei alles so gut es ...more
I started reading the Sherlock homes books on my Kindle for iPad and iPhone while traveling and I have to admit that I could not stop. There are quite a few discrepancies between the books, but I don't think that distracts from the fact that they are so much fun to read. They might generally all be quite similar, but they are like the best of The Mentalist, Lie to Me and CSI combined. There are so many stories in each book (save the first), that I can't choose a favourite or rate them separately...more
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Arthur Conan Doyle was born as the third of ten siblings on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was born in England of Irish descent, and his mother, born Mary Foley, was Irish. They were married in 1855.
Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be understood) is unce...more
More about Arthur Conan Doyle...
Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be understood) is unce...more
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“Everything comes in circles. [...] The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It's all been done before, and will be again.”
—
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“Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her.”
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