The Valley of Fear

This is an okay book written by Arthur Doyle. John Douglas lived in a feudal manor house built upon the ruins of a castle surrounded by moat. Every night he lifted up the drawbridge to make sure no intruders could get in. Nevertheless, someone shot him in the face with a peculiarly American weapon: a sawed-off shotgun. The murder has roots 20 years in the past in the coal-mining area of upstate Pennsylvania where a secret terrorist organization of Irish miners operated.

The story is loosely based on the Molly Maguires and security agent James McParland. This is the final Sherlock Holmes novel and was published in 1914.