Arthur Conan Doyle

The Boscombe Valley Mistery 1892: Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle

Publisher Marketing: Lestrade summons Holmes to a community in Herefordshire, where a local landowner has been murdered outdoors. The deceased's estranged son is strongly implicated. Holmes quickly determines that a mysterious third man may be responsible for the crime, unraveling a thread involving a secret criminal past, thwarted love, and blackmail. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson take a train to Boscombe Valley, in Herefordshire. En route, Holmes reads the news and briefs Watson on their new case. John Turner, a widower and a major landowner who has a daughter named Alice, lives there with a fellow expatriate from Australia, Charles McCarthy, a widower who has a son named James. Charles has been found dead near Boscombe Pool. It was reported that he was there to meet someone. Two witnesses testify that they saw Charles walking into the woods followed by James, who was carrying a gun. Patience Moran, daughter of a lodgekeeper, says that she saw Charles and James arguing, that, when James raised his hand as if to hit his father, she ran to her mother, and that while she was telling her mother what she saw James rushed to their house seeking help. The Morans followed James back to the Pool, where they found his father dead. James was arrested and charged with murder. Alice Turner believes that James is innocent and has contacted Lestrade, a Scotland Yard detective who in turn has asked Holmes' help. Contributor Bio:  Doyle, Arthur Conan Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish physician and prolific writer most renowned for his ingenious Sherlock Holmes detective stories A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Valley of Fear, His Last Bow, and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. His collected body of work includes science fiction stories, historical novels, plays, romances, poetry, and nonfiction. Conan Doyle was knighted by King Edward VII in 1902 after writing a widely acclaimed pamphlet defending the British position in the Boer War.