The first part of the fourth Sherlock Holmes novel, "The Valley of Fear" (1914-15), takes place in the English county of Sussex in 1888. Following the murder of Mr. Douglas from Birlstone Manor House, the logical detective skills of Sherlock Holmes and the support of his assistant, Dr. Watson, are needed to determine the identity of the murderer and to capture him. The true and complex background of the crime is revealed, however, only after a flashback, which, in the second part of the novel, leads the reader to a coal-mining area in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in 1875...