The Boscombe Valley Mystery

The Adventure of the Boscombe Valley Mystery is believed to be set in 1889 or 1890. It is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1891.  Holmes asks Watson to accompany him to Ross on Wye in Herefordshire. He has been contacted by Lestrade of Scotland Yard who has asked for his help in investigating the murder of Charles McCarthy the tenant of Hatherley Farm. Circumstances point to McCarthy’s son being guilty but Miss Turner, daughter of McCarthy’s old acquaintance John Turner, a major landowner in the area, does not believe in his guilt. Holmes surveys the ground and concludes that the true motive behind the crime, and the criminal, lies in McCarthy’s Australian past. The story has the distinction of containing the illustration featuring Holmes’ distinctive deerstalker cap. The countryside was known to Conan Doyle as he had stayed in the area.