Discussion Post: The Valley of Fear

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday and welcome back. Let's talk canon, shall we? What did you think of our fourth novel The Valley of Fear? As always, I've written up a few of my own random thoughts and questions to start. Please add your own!

- I find the last Sherlock Holmes novel grows on me the more I think about it after reading. With multiple high-quality revelations and reversals, it begs for extra readings to see how all the pieces come together once you know the full picture. Also, I found the faint, ominous background presence of Moriarty to be surprisingly effective. He is all the more threatening as a deadly genius for hire on top of being a criminal mastermind by himself. The foreshadowing of the past/future is deliciously painful too, with Holmes closing the story begging for time to beat Moriarty, and the reader feeling the weight of the long years and sacrifice behind those words.

- Valley of Fear, like Study in Scarlet before it, is two stories in one: Holmes and Watson on the case, and a backstory involving the victim set in a desperate corner of America. But VALL ends up being two detective stories in one, and that gives it a curious quality. It gives the reader a unique opportunity to closely view the method and character of Holmes and a different detective for comparison and contrast. Which leads directly to my next question.

- What would have happened if Holmes had been hired to investigate the Scowrers rather than Edwards/McMurdo/Douglas? What would he have done differently? What would he have done the same? Holmes and Douglas have a similar dogged, single-minded determination to see a job to its end, regardless of how much work or pain that entails. But do they share the same cold calculation to witness and abet (if not commit) beatings and murders of innocents in the pursuit of justice? That point I'm not so sure on. Interesting to imagine Holmes faced with that choice.

- According to Holmes, the past and present rhyme, and Jonathan Wild was the Professor Moriarty of London's 1750's. Now that is an idea I love. Do you think Wild had his own version of Holmes dogging his steps? What were the two of them like? Did 1750!Holmes have a 1750!Watson at his side? Who was the Moriarty before Wild? Who is/was the Moriarty after Moriarty?

Comments

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I guessed most of the riddle in the first part of the book, and pretty much everything in the second, which left me quite disgruntled and bored by the last pages. The very last paragraphs though bring the story to a wonderful, sinister, almost realistic conclusion, and I love the book for that part. It makes everything before so much better.

"Dear me, Mr Holmes. Dear me!"

Extra credits though for the pages and pages of Holmesian snark in the beginning chapters. Ah~ that was nice.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I found the second part really hard going and whilst I did like the revelation of who McMurdo was, I wish it had come somewhat quicker.

[methylviolet10b]

I find VALL one of the more problematic stories. The Holmes-and-Watson mystery part is very good, although the mention of Moriarty - in a story set in 1886, when Watson had never heard of him in EMPT in 1888 - is problematic to say the least. The American-set mystery would be fine on its own, but a bit of a drag in the middle of a Holmes and Watson story. Still, far, far better than some of ACD's other novel-length digressions! ;-)

The ending though - that was great. And the beginning, with the free and easy banter between Holmes and Watson, is absolutely classic.

[debriswoman]

I think this may be the only Holmes' book I had not read before. I enjoyed both parts, though there seemed to be far too many named characters in the Valley to get to grips with them all. The ending worked well, and yes, the Holmes and Watson interaction worked very well:-)

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is a serious problem. Moriarty is obviously shoehorned into VALL to give him more relevance and menace in the overarching history. But this is the peril of retcon -- now things don't fit anymore.

I find with ACD you have to just accept that he wasn't overly careful with all the details and you just have to gloss over some things. Alternately, you can come up with elaborate cover stories, which is always a good time. :)

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

God, yes. I got quite bored in the second part until the end, with too many characters and not enough interest to keep me going. But after the reveal, I was interested again, and it gave me a chance to reassess what I'd just read, raising it in my esteem. But yeah, first time through? Rough going.

[methylviolet10b]

Yes, dear ACD was a hack in many ways. But from little slips in chronology and consistency a million fanficts are born, so we all win!