New York: George H. Doran, 1915. First edition. First printing, of the fourth and final novel in the Sherlock Holmes series (there were also a number of short story collections). It preceded the UK edition by three months. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Frontispiece and 6 plates by Arthur I. Keller. Penciled ownership inscription of one J. M. Ackerley to front free endpaper. A Fine copy, square and fresh, in slightly worn dust jacket, shallow creases and short closed tears to extremities, but a bright and unusually well-preserved example. Housed in a red quarter-morocco clamshell case.

"A cipher message and a horrible murder in a Sussex village begin this dark and powerful tale as Sherlock Holmes battles with the forces of the criminal mastermind, Professor Moriarty. Central to the novel lies the story of a terrorist brotherhood and the hold it acquired over an American mining valley" (Oxford University Press). The final Sherlock Holmes novel, and critically noted as the darkest and most intense, The Valley of Fear shows Arthur Conan Doyle reaching the pinnacle of his talents as he introduces new characters, shows evolution and even unwinding in his longstanding characters, and tangles together the past and the present.

Green & Gibson A39.c. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. (Item #5188)