2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss the Arthur Conan Doyle book, The Valley of Fear, the 7th book in the Sherlock Homes Series.

Pages: 194 pages

Length: 1 month

Participants: Ashley, Ilona, RJ, Scott, Suki

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

I'll be starting this one around the 10th, and finishing right before Christmas. This is the final Holmes novel in the series, although there are two more short story collections which we will be reading in January and February.

Professor Moriarty does not appear in this book but he is mentioned early in the story from my understanding. With that in mind, I read an article about the real life basis for Moriarty and thought I would share it with the class: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/scien...

I started this but am not very far yet. (view spoiler)[ This one is about a murder, but it seems different so far. There are some clues and lots of ideas, but nothing concrete. Will be interesting to see where this story goes. (hide spoiler)] I am only on chapter 5 in the first part.

Ashley wrote: "I started this but am not very far yet. [spoilers removed] I am only on chapter 5 in the first part."

I am on the third chapter and we really don't know much yet.

On chapter 7 and starting to get somewhere. Have some evidence and different theories.

Starting part 2 today. This book seems to be set up a lot like A Study in Scarlet with the mystery solved in the first half, then the 2nd half gives a background story.

Almost done! I should finish in the next couple of days...

Finished it.


The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Only two more books in the Holmes series, both are short story collections. I'll be taking a couple weeks break from Holmes then starting His Last Bow around Jan 10.

I finished the Return of Sherlock Holmes. Most of the stories were really good.

I finished this today. This first half was the investigation and the second half was what happened before the first half. This was fitting for this book. Both halves made an interesting read.

Didn’t see it coming the clues where all there but it totally stumped me.

I got burned by the second half of this one as well. Really excellent book.

One question did the writer of the note from the first chapter appear elsewhere in the book? And how did he get the information in it? Not sure if I missed something

Scott wrote: "One question did the writer of the note from the first chapter appear elsewhere in the book? And how did he get the information in it? Not sure if I missed something"

The writer of the note, Fred Porlock, is an associate of the notorious Professor Moriarty. He never appears again in the book, however we assume that his association with Moriarty allowed him to come across the information in the note. How Moriarty is associated with the criminal enterprises featured in the story is never explained.

There's more interesting stuff at the wilipedia entry for the novel, for example the story is loosely based on the true life story of Pinkerton agent James McParland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Val...