The Valley of Fear
Arthur Conan Doyle, Frank Wiles, ICU Publishing
eBook
(ICU Publishing, Feb. 2, 2011)
The Valley of Fear is the final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915. The first book edition was published in New York on 27 February 1915.The Valley of Fear, notable for Professor Moriarty's involvement, is set in the late 1880s, some years before "The Final Problem", the short story in which Moriarty was introduced. This introduces a logical difficulty, as in The Final Problem Dr Watson has never heard of Moriarty, whereas by the end of The Valley Of Fear he is, or should be, familiar with his name and character. The "Moriarty" element in the story is tied into the fate of the informer in the story. It ties the Molly Maguire background to another sensation of that period. This was the death of James Carey, the informer on the Irish National Invincibles who committed the Phoenix Park Murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke. Carey was shot on board a ship off the coast of Natal in 1883 by Patrick O'Donnell, a committed Irish revolutionary. O'Donnell had relatives in the Mollies, and briefly visited the Pennsylvania coal mining district, supposedly looking for the suspected informer among them. He left the U.S. long before the Mollies were broken up. It is just possible that William Pinkerton the son and successor to Allan Pinkerton in running the famous detective agency, mentioned this and much of the story to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the latter took the fate of Carey for the similar fate of Jack Douglas on board a ship off St. Helena (on the opposite side of Africa).Few film and television adaptations have included these allusions to Professor Moriarty, as the story is otherwise a stand-alone tale. Among the few film adaptations are the 1935 British film The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes, starring Arthur Wontner as Holmes and Ian Fleming as Watson, and the 1984 animated Sherlock Holmes and The Valley of Fear, starring Peter O'Toole as the voice of Holmes. The 1962 film Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, starring Christopher Lee as Holmes, is loosely based on The Valley of Fear.The novel uses the same structural device as the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet; both stories include a lengthy flashback to America, and both stories involve people running around the world to avoid paying for a vengeance with their lives.The book includes original illustrations by Frank Wiles, active table of contents and free audiobook link for download (which can be downloaded using a PC/Mac) at the end of the book.