The Boscombe Valley Mystery

"The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
Watson and Holmes on the train to Boscombe Valley, 1891 illustration by Sidney Paget
Author	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Series	The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Publication date	1891

"The Boscombe Valley Mystery", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the fourth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1891.

Lestrade summons Holmes to a community in Herefordshire, where a local landowner has been murdered outdoors. The deceased's estranged son is strongly implicated. Holmes quickly determines that a mysterious third man may be responsible for the crime, unraveling a thread involving a secret criminal past, thwarted love, and blackmail.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson take a train to Boscombe Valley, in Herefordshire. En route, Holmes reads the news and briefs Watson on their new case.

John Turner, a widower and a major landowner who has a daughter named Alice, lives there with a fellow expatriate from Australia, Charles McCarthy, a widower who has a son named James. Charles has been found dead near Boscombe Pool; it was reported that he was there to meet someone. Two witnesses testify that they saw Charles walking into the woods followed by James, who was carrying a gun. Patience Moran, daughter of a lodgekeeper, says that she saw Charles and James arguing and that, when James raised his hand as if to hit his father, she ran to her mother, and while she was telling her mother what she saw James rushed to their house seeking help. The Morans followed James back to the Pool, where they found his father dead. James was arrested and charged with murder. Alice Turner believes that James is innocent and has contacted Lestrade, a Scotland Yard detective who in turn has asked Holmes’ help.

James confirms the testimonies of the witnesses, but explains that he was going into the woods to hunt, not to follow his father. He later heard his father calling "Cooee" and found his father standing by the pool, surprised to see him. They argued heatedly, and James decided to return to Hatherley Farm. Shortly after that he heard his father cry out, and returned to find his father lying on the ground. James insists that he tried to help him, but his father died in his arms. James refuses to give the cause of their argument, despite the coroner's warning that it could be damaging to his case if he does not reveal it. James also remembers that his father’s last words were something about "a rat", but James is uncertain of their meaning in the situation. He also thinks he saw a cloak disappear nearby while he was trying to help his father.