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The Valley of Fear (Sherlock Holmes #7) (1915)

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by Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes and Watson investigate a mysterious  murder in a remote English castle in the first part of this novel.   After that, there is a lengthy digression as the action moves across the pond to America, where we are treated to the Holmes-free backstory preceding the crime.   Arthur Conan Doyle seems unable to write a Sherlock Holmes novel in which the great detective is present from beginning to end.   Arthur Conan Doyle Of the four he wrote, three of them adopt this same structure, in which the narrative is broken up by a novella-length episode that could easily have been developed as a stand-alone novel.  Even in "The Hound of the Baskervilles," which eschews this structure, Holmes disappears and Watson takes center stage for the middle portion of the story.   This does not mean that the novel must be bad; I gave positive reviews to all of those books.  However, this one is not as successful.   While the goings-on among the miners in the Valle

Frequency (2000)

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Director: Gregory Hoblit Writer: Toby Emmerich Stars: Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Shawn Doyle, Elizabeth Mitchell, Andre Braugher, Noah Emmerich, Melissa Errico, Daniel Henson I love time travel stories.  In this one, nobody actually  travels through time; rather, a father and son (Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel) communicate with each other across the years.  Doing so causes some unexpected and tragic changes in the past, which they are then honor-bound to set right if they can.   I suspect that some mighty big plot holes would open up if I thought about this one too hard, but the basic concept is so appealing that I was willing to go with it.   There is also a good, solid human relationship story at the core of this science-fiction thriller.   Spoiler alert!!! End of the movie!! A very entertaining film.