Here we have the final novel in my Sherlock Sundays mini-series, The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I can’t lie – I was a little disappointed with this one. While I understand that the Sherlock Holmes story world is vast and covers a great many narrative structures and frameworks, not to mention the characters we come across the and the interactions between Sherlock and Watson, I would have hoped that two of the four novels written didn’t follow the exact same narrative structure and themes.

Before I get too critical over The Valley of Fear, let me address aspects of the novel that I quite enjoyed. I appreciate the fact we are introduced to characters within the law and policing sectors who aren’t considered too dim for investigative work. I have been getting a little sick of seeing Sherlock walk over members of the constabulary because of his wit and expertises. Similarly, I am happy to say that the mystery itself was, to begin with, quite interesting, and the little clues here and there as to what happened weren’t so obvious to follow nor impossible to track.

My biggest grievances with The Valley of Fear are in the narrative structure, which is shared with A Study in Scarlet. There is a little addition in this one where the end of part one alludes to the explanation to take place in part two before the epilogue with conclude the present day mystery. That was a little heavy-handed considering the narrative structure limits the actual investigation and gives a half of the tale to a backstory that feels like sensationalist fiction. Again, we are working with the exoticism of America, but instead of our enemy force being the Mormons, it is the terrorist workings within American unions. Perhaps it was relevant to the political and social happenings of the time, but it doesn’t interest me as a reader today. Once the key details of the myrstery were revealed, I felt like the wind had left my sails a little, and with the mystery wrapping up so quickly before a lengthy backstory began, I didn’t feel all that interested in the rest of the story.

Where A Study in Scarlet pulled off this narrative structure is in its position as the first novel. Sherlock and Watson are new characters to the reader in A Study in Scarlet, and as such the relationship between them is still developing. Having the mystery solved in one part and diving into the circumstances of the culprit in the second didn’t feel like it was taking away from the potential of the character development. In The Valley of Fear, this isn’t the case. The only way it could work, and perhaps this is where the direction of the novel is taking us, is in the comparison between these controlling figures in the unions and Moritary, Sherlock’s newly introduced opponent. I wanted to know more about Moriarty and why Sherlock is so invested in him. Perhaps if the epilogue was longer, and if direct mention of shared themes and possible links between the two were addressed, part two would have felt more relevant.

The Valley of Fear might be my least favourite of the Sherlock Holmes novels, but it doesn’t mean it is a bad novel. It just doesn’t retain my interest. If you did enjoy A Study in Scarlet, I would add The Valley of Fear to your reading list. If you’re unsure whether or not you should read it, I would give it a go anyways because you never know what you’ll discover about your reading preferences. Just because a book didn’t resonate with me, or any reader for that matter, doesn’t mean it won’t resonate with you.