The Valley of Fear

A ciphered warning reaches Baker Street moments before the news it tried to outrun: a man has been found dead at Birlstone Manor, his face destroyed by a shotgun blast, a sinister brand on his forearm and a moat around the whole puzzle. Holmes's investigation of this very English country-house murder keeps snagging on details that don't fit (a missing dumb-bell, a bicycle hidden in the shrubbery) until the solution swings the story across the Atlantic. The novel's second half plunges into the Vermissa Valley, an American coal country ruled by a murderous secret society, and follows the man who dared to cross them.

The last of the four Holmes novels borrows its two-part structure from A Study in Scarlet, but the American half here is Conan Doyle at his most hard-boiled, practically a gangster thriller decades early, with an ending that doubles back to sting. And behind it all, glimpsed in the shadows, is Professor Moriarty. A treat for listeners who want Holmes at full length rather than in short bursts.

At roughly 58,200 words, The Valley of Fear runs about 6½ hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The Valley of Fear is in the public domain, so the complete text is free on Project Gutenberg and LoudReader has the entire Project Gutenberg catalog built in. To listen:

1. Download LoudReader for Mac or iPhone (free, no account).
2. Search for “The Valley of Fear” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

LoudReader reads with natural offline voices, so the whole book works on a plane or underground. It is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Listening is unlimited on the free tier.