The Valley of Fear

Summary

“The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry…”

The final full-length novel in the Sherlock Holmes canon, The Valley of Fear is a fascinating, two-part mystery that bridges classic Victorian detection with American secret-society lore.

A cryptic, coded warning from an informant inside Professor Moriarty’s criminal network sends Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson rushing to Birlstone Manor. But they arrive too late. The master of the estate, John Douglas, lies dead in a secured room, his face horrific and unrecognizable, with a mysterious calling card left beside his body: “V.V. 341."

How would a killer vanish from a heavily guarded, moat-ringed manor? As Holmes untangles the inexplicable  clues, the investigation takes a gripping turn across the Atlantic. In the second half of the novel, the story delves into a dark, gritty flashback which takes place in a lawless American mining community, where a brutal secret society ruthlessly rules through terror and extortion.

As the two worlds violently collide, Holmes must match wits with the invisible shadow of his arch-nemesis, Professor James Moriarty. The final full-length Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear is a brilliant blend of classic locked-room mystery and hard-boiled American noir, delivered with the brilliant deduction listeners expect from the great detective.