Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Am I never going to get out of the Valley of Fear?", 17 Jun 2008
The last of the four complete Sherlock Holmes novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Valley of Fear gives the reader two plots for the price of one. More accustomed to writing short stories than well-developed novels, Doyle creates two story lines, only loosely connecting them. He then throws Moriarty, the arch-villain, into the mix, though Moriarty was killed off in a previous novel.
In the first plot, which directly involves Sherlock Holmes, a letter warns, in code, that something dreadful will happen at Birlstone, an ancient manor house surrounded by a forty-foot moat. Before Holmes can act, however, the owner, Jack Douglas, is found shot to death, his face destroyed in the blast from a sawed-off shotgun. Douglas was an American, and the nature of his death and the weapon "prove" to the local police that the killer was also an American. As Holmes investigates, with the help of Scotland Yard, the mystery deepens. Douglas always raised the drawbridge at night, the moat was too big to leap, and there were no strangers in the house. Gradually, Holmes uncovers Douglas's background in America.
In the second plot, a group of coal miners belonging to a secret society welcome a new member, Jack McMurdo, someone accused of murder in Chicago who needed to escape to a place where no one knew him. His lodge has recommended that he go to the Vermissa plain and "the Valley of Fear," and see Boss McGinty, the Bodymaster of the lodge there. McGinty and his men wreak havoc on the community when they believe injustices have occurred. Seemingly above the law, they have avoided being caught, though rumor has it that a Pinkerton man has been sent to unmask the members of the group. Holmes plays little or no part in this whole section.
The two plots have seemingly little in common, except that the dead man from Part I is branded with the mark of the lodge of miners. The second part, about these miners, suggests the motivation for the murder of Douglas in the first part. It is too bad that Doyle did not separate these two stories, since the story of the miners, though not involving Holmes, could have been developed as a powerful "one-off." It is a story filled with all the ingredients of great fiction--even including a love story--a dramatic and relevant mystery with connections to the social issues of the day. For anyone interested in watching a writer try to bridge the gap between short stories and novels, this "novel," though fun, shows the weaknesses of using two plots with too little integration of ideas. Mary Whipple
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