The Valley of Fear

Like every other book. This one is one long story only, and as with previous ones, there is a story within a story.

This sub-story was too much for me. Again, nothing to do with Holmes, long, trivial and boring.

I really liked this one. The story consists of two parts. The first part tells a story of a murder of a rich english man that Sherlock Holmes tries to solve. The second part tells the tale of the valley of fear, a story that takes place in the USA a few years earlier.

That moat was worthless
rootin' tootin' face shootin'
assassins can swim.

Holmes helps out some country police when the Lord of the Manor is found dead in mysterious circumstances. Another great Holmes mystery.

This story is told in two parts One in England and then moves to America in the west and then back to England. A man is killed and Sherlock is called in to figure out who did it and how. Of course he does it but then the story moves to America to fill in the story before the murder. I found the American part of the story a bit drawn out but by the end it was very satisfying.

It’s a shame that Arthur Conan Doyle didn’t do more of these A-part, B-part mysteries, because this was great! His passion for historical fiction really shines through here, which makes me really want to check out some of his other works at some point.