Cruel Aspects Of Life. Review on Valley of Fear, The - Arthur Conan Doyle

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the famous Detective Sherlock Holmes in 1887,where Mr. Sherlock Holmes of 221B Baker Street first showed his skills of deduction in The Study In Scarlet.Sherlock Holmes became so popular that when Doyle killed off Holmes in “His Last Bow”,published in 1893,he was forced by public demand to restore Holmes to life again in “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”...

Sherlock Holmes has wonderful skills for crime-detection and he is a real gifted detective who works not only for money but for his passion for the job.He is always accompanied in most of his cases by the faithful Dr. Watson who is generally the narrator of the events that occur…

The Valley of Fearis a little different from the other three Sherlock Holmes-novels because it is not actually suspense-based.This novel is in two parts-The Tragedy Of Birlstone and The Scowrers- in the first part only does Sherlock Holmes, his skills of deduction and Dr. Watson exist;the second part has nothing to do with them! The Valley of Fear mainly shows the cruelty of a murdering organization, the fear in which the poor citizens spend their lives, the injustice done to the common people and finally the freedom from tyranny!

THE VALLEY OF FEAR- THE STORY

The Tragedy Of Birlstone

Sherlock Holmes gets a letter from a man Porlock, who works for the master-mind criminal and Sherlock Holmes renowned archenemy, Prof. Moriarty, wherein it was coded that a man named Douglas of Birlstone is to be murdered and just an hour afterward Holmes and Watson come to know that the man, Douglas was brutally murdered the night before! Sherlock Holmes is called to help the official force and so they all go to Birlstone for investigation.

Douglas lived at a manor house with his wife and was occasionally visited by his friend Barker.It was believed that there was something of an affair between the wife and the friend! Douglas has stayed in America all his life before he came to England.His second wife did not seem too distressed at his murder and his friend was lying about the time of murder;there was supposed to have been an intruder who had shot Douglas on the face;but the peculiarities of this case were that: the murderer has used the most noisiest of all weapons,beside the dead body there was a card with ‘V.V.341” on it and that Douglas’s wedding ring was missing! On cross-examination his wife had given evidence that there was some kind of danger which always seemed to be over her husband and that in a delirious condition once Douglas has mentioned things like-The Valley Of Fear, Bodymaster McGinty…Barker has also said that shortly after Douglas left America, some men came inquiring after him! And above all Douglas had a branded triangle inside a circle on his forearm, which proved that he had been related to some secret society in America and that he had offended them, and they were out for revenge…

But everyone gets a big shock when Holmes solve this perplexing mystery and it gets revealed that the murdered man is not Douglas but an American man(Ted Baldwin) who came to murder Douglas(both of them had similar physique and as the face was smashed no one could recognize)…that the wife and Barker were helping Douglas, who had been hiding in the ancient house and who did all this so that the avengers would think that he was dead and would leave his trail forever.And rather than telling his story he gives a written account of it to Dr. Watson...

The Scowrers

Well a man named John McMurdo arrives at the Vermissa Valley. On the train only he shows that he hates the law! He was an attractive young man of thirty who became the center of attraction wherever he went!Even before he arrives at the valley he is told that the Eminent Order of Freemen(a charitable society), here in the valley is actually the Scowrers(a murdering society)…he refuses to believe it because he himself is a member of the Freemen of Chicago but the people tell him that it is different here…

McMurdo arrives at the Valley and stays at the lodge of Shafter where he falls in love with Ettie but Ettie is engaged to a Scowrer,Ted Baldwin who she couldn’t cheat with for fear of her life but the brave McMurdo takes up a fight with Ted and is warned by Ted that he will soon pay for it.On Ettie’s advice McMurdo goes to create an impression on Bodymaster McGinty of the Vermissa Lodge,who is the head of the cruel scowrers,and as expected McMurdo wins over this cruel giant.And now he is one among the Freemen of Vermissa Valley! But he believes that the Scowrers are not the Freemen…though the common people of the valley start hating him as he is among the members of Freemen!

And gradually McMurdo comes to know the ways and methods of this lodge 341 of Vermissa Valley and now he knows that he is also one among the Scowrers…but even then he thinks they are good and remains loyal to them…he also gets associated with murders,plundering,beating and torturing the citizens and very soon he becomes a popular man among the scowrer.Even the Boss McGinty took his advice before doing anything.Ettie though in love with him asks him to abandon all this …and McMurdo at last promises her that they would soon leave this Valley of Fear…

Well one day McMurdo gets news that the Big organizations of this valley(who were blackmailed by the Scowrers;whose employer were killed mercilessly) has hired a professional detective of Pinkerton(a private detective firm),Birdy Edwards,who was hot on the track of the Scowrers and was one of the best detectives ever.He reported this to the Bodymaster who decided that they must finish off this detective.And so McMurdo is trusted to form a plan for the job…he chalks out a plan and asks the leading scowrers to come to his house where he would call this Birdy Edwards and they will finish him off together.

Consequently on the arranged date the Headmen came to McMurdo’s house and wait there till they hear a knock on the door.McMurdo after opening the entrance comes back to the room where the murderes are eagerly waiting for their prey…When they asked him where is Edwards he answers that : “I am Birdy Edwards” and brings in cops and gets the Scowrers arrested.He tells them that all along he has hated them and has tried spoiling all their cruel plans…though he has been unable to stop some of the murders yet he has done his best to collect evidence…and he will see to it that these Scowrers get punished for their inhuman deeds!The scowrers promise to avenge this...

And from that time onwards Birdy Edwards(John McMurdo) knew that he would be hunted down some day(though the cloud was lifted forever from the Valley of fear, that is., the Scowrer organization was broken up) and he kept running from place to place with Ettie and after Ettie’s death he came to England and yet the Scowrers found him out!

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