Rating: WARTY!
The Valley of Fear was the last Sherlock Holmes novel to be written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and was published as a serial in Strand Magazine running from September 1914 through May 1915. I have to say I was disappointed in it and quit it half-way through. I'm not sure what Doyle thought he was doing here, but he told the entire story in the first half, and Holmes of course solved the mystery, which wasn't much of a mystery. The second half of the book explains why the main character did what he did, and this wasn't at all interesting to me.
Holmes has been receiving messages from a man who is known by the pseudonym "Fred Porlock" who evidently works for Moriarty. The most recent message is a book code which doesn't so much reveal as gives an extremely vague hint, that something bad will happen at Birlstone manor. Unfortunately, the hint is too late - or Holmes is far too laggardly in solving it, because the next thing Holmes learns is from inspector MacDonald, and it's that John Douglas of that same address was found murdered the previous night. Holmes and Watson accompany MacDonald to investigate.
Douglas was shot when making his nightly security rounds of his home. His face is blown away and in this era of no DNA testing, it's assumed that the body is Douglas by everyone except Holmes. Meanwhile, Baker, a friend of Douglas's and Douglas's wife both appear to be intimate and sharing secrets which they do not reveal to the police or to Holmes.
The clues seem to indicate that the murderer arrived on a bike, but abandoned it in his escape, leaving a bloody shoe print on the window ledge, fording the shallow moat which surrounds the property and making good his escape on foot. There appears to have been a card left at the scene with the initials VV and a number, and the body has a tattoo branded on his arm - just as Douglass did, which looks like two-thirds of the Deathly Hallows symbol! All that's missing is the wand.
I have to say that this story dragged on and on, with Holmes being completely insufferable, not revealing a single thing to the police, which in this day and age would have had him charged with obstructing an investigation at best, and as an accessory after the fact to murder at worst. It was this, and the poor mystery and stupid clues, together with the unnecessary length of this novel which made me dislike it. I cannot recommend it.
