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 Valley of Fear is quite entertaining and makes for a good read, the first section featuring Holmes is fairly mediocre for Doyle.

 


The specter of the arch-criminal Moriarty is raised, but nothing much comes of it.

 


Holmes reappears at the end for what amounts to a brief epilogue, so the storylines never really converge in a satisfying way.

 


This is definitely the least of the Holmes books up to this point.



"Valley of Fear" (Thai)

"Valley of Fear" (Turkish)

"Valley of Fear" (Indonesian)

"Valley of Fear" (Chinese)

"Valley of Horror" (Persian)

"The Valley of Fear" (Polish)

"Valley of Fear" (Greek)

"Valley of Horror" (Arabic)

"Valley of Fear" (Slovak)

"The Valley of Fear" (Catalan)

"Valley of Horror" (Russian)

"Valley of the Pheasants" (Swedish)

"The Valley of Horror" (German)

"Uncanny Valley" (Bengali)

"Valley of Fear" (Croatian)

"Valley of Fear" (Danish)

"The Valley of Terror" (Spanish)

"Valley of Horror" (Romanian)

"The Valley of Fear" (French)

"Valley of Fear" (Japanese)

"The Valley of Fear" (Italian)

"The Valley of Terror" (Portuguese)

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