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sherlock60It's canon discussion time, everybody! What did you think about Part II of The Valley of Fear? As always, I've written up a few of my own random thoughts and questions, which are behind the jump. Add your own in the comments!
No Granada discussion this week. Our next episode is The Greek Interpreter, coming up December 23.
- The footnotes in Baring-Gould mention that Part II of The Valley of Fear is based on the real story of the Molly Maguires, a secret society of Irish American coal miners in northwestern Pennsylvania who were notorious for their violent tactics to counter the coal companies, and who were successfully infiltrated by a Pinkerton detective using an alias to take them down from the inside. Sound familiar? The difference is that the while the Scowrers were definitely murderers and thugs holding their valley hostage to their demands, the true nature of the Mollies is less clear. Their reputation for violence may well have been dramatically overblown by powerful mining interests eager to crush a rising union of laborers. Either way, their story, along with that of the Pinkerton agent sent to destroy them, lingers. It was even adapted into a movie starring Sean Connery and Richard Harris in 1970!
- There's an obvious connection to be made in the intense undercover mission taken by the bold, unwavering detective Birdy Edwards and the two years Holmes is away at the end of his career, working as a spy in America before His Last Bow and the coming of the Great War. Both of them start their operations in Chicago, and both join Irish American criminal secret societies under an alias in their quests for justice. Edwards' determination and resolve to finish the job must have been inspiring to Holmes. At least our detective only had to suffer through a temporary embarrassing goatee rather than Edwards' rather more permanent (and excruciating) branding scar.
- It's strange to read the love story of Ettie Shafter and Edwards/McMurdo/Douglas. We see their meeting, their courtship, their betrothal. But the entire first part of this novel was about Douglas and his other wife, a different woman devoted to her man and willing to go to any lengths to be with him.
- So did the mysterious "Dear me!" letter to Baker Street come from Moriarty himself? Was this case the one that put Holmes and Moriarty on the inexorable track to the falls? Holmes might not consider it so, as he was already invested in hunting Moriarty. But perhaps this is the first time the detective got in the way of the professor's work, directly crossing his path, even briefly. Crossed his path and got his attention, and now they're both focused on each other, the most threatening enemy of their lives.
Comment away, and join us next week for The Yellow Face!
No Granada discussion this week. Our next episode is The Greek Interpreter, coming up December 23.
- The footnotes in Baring-Gould mention that Part II of The Valley of Fear is based on the real story of the Molly Maguires, a secret society of Irish American coal miners in northwestern Pennsylvania who were notorious for their violent tactics to counter the coal companies, and who were successfully infiltrated by a Pinkerton detective using an alias to take them down from the inside. Sound familiar? The difference is that the while the Scowrers were definitely murderers and thugs holding their valley hostage to their demands, the true nature of the Mollies is less clear. Their reputation for violence may well have been dramatically overblown by powerful mining interests eager to crush a rising union of laborers. Either way, their story, along with that of the Pinkerton agent sent to destroy them, lingers. It was even adapted into a movie starring Sean Connery and Richard Harris in 1970!
- There's an obvious connection to be made in the intense undercover mission taken by the bold, unwavering detective Birdy Edwards and the two years Holmes is away at the end of his career, working as a spy in America before His Last Bow and the coming of the Great War. Both of them start their operations in Chicago, and both join Irish American criminal secret societies under an alias in their quests for justice. Edwards' determination and resolve to finish the job must have been inspiring to Holmes. At least our detective only had to suffer through a temporary embarrassing goatee rather than Edwards' rather more permanent (and excruciating) branding scar.
- It's strange to read the love story of Ettie Shafter and Edwards/McMurdo/Douglas. We see their meeting, their courtship, their betrothal. But the entire first part of this novel was about Douglas and his other wife, a different woman devoted to her man and willing to go to any lengths to be with him.
- So did the mysterious "Dear me!" letter to Baker Street come from Moriarty himself? Was this case the one that put Holmes and Moriarty on the inexorable track to the falls? Holmes might not consider it so, as he was already invested in hunting Moriarty. But perhaps this is the first time the detective got in the way of the professor's work, directly crossing his path, even briefly. Crossed his path and got his attention, and now they're both focused on each other, the most threatening enemy of their lives.
Comment away, and join us next week for The Yellow Face!
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