A New Sherlock Holmes
A New Sherlock Holmes is an article published in The Tatler on 30 june 1915.
A New Sherlock Holmes
In "The Valley of Fear" (Smith, Elder) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once more resuscitates Sherlock Holmes with tremendous success. Sir Arthur is, of course, a past-master in the art of triumphantly prolonging the too-mysterious-for-words for hundreds of pages. Most of the authors of detective tales let the excitement fizzle out forlornly long before the end, even though their tales be merely short stories. Not so the author of Sherlock Holmes. It seems, indeed, that his detective tales could go on for a thousand pages without losing any of that absorbing interest which is popularly known as "breathless." His characters seem so real — even the sinister ones. He has a way of springing sudden and unexpected surprises upon you which keeps your attention alive even when you think you have spotted the real perpetrator of the crime. In "The Valley of Fear" there are several such surprises. The man who was murdered — was not the real man who was murdered at all. This sounds somewhat paradoxical, but pay attention. The man who was really killed — his face blown away beyond recognition — was given an assumed name in order that the man who was supposed to be the corpse might escape the clutches of a Secret Society, who were hunting all over the world to kill him. And they track him down at last in spite of all his plans of escape. But this is not until the end of the story. One has first of all the murder, then the history of the causes which led up to the murder, and lastly, the solution of the mystery itself. They make one thoroughly exciting tale — one of the best "Sherlock Holmes" tales which Sir Arthur has ever written.
