Published in serial form in 1914–15, The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel — divided into two distinct sections, the first a classic English country-house mystery, the second a vivid historical narrative set among the violent labor disputes of the Pennsylvania coalfields. The contrast between the two halves is bold, and the American sequences carry a raw energy unlike anything else in the Holmes canon.
The novel also features Professor Moriarty, Holmes’s great nemesis, in an important role. Download this free EPUB from Better Gutenberg for the complete text of this underrated Holmes novel.