"The Boscombe Valley Mystery", one of the fifty-six short Sherlock Holmes stories written by 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 October 1891.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Conan Doyle | detective stories | Sherlock Holmes | mysteries | Crime fiction | Murder mystery | Victorian detective | Psychological thriller

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Plot summary
John Turner, a widower and a major landowner who has a daughter named Alice, lives in Herefordshire 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 the two 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 believes that James is innocent and has contacted Inspector Lestrade, who in turn seeks help from Sherlock Holmes.

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 him standing by the pool, surprised to see him. They argued heatedly, and James decided to return to their farm. Shortly after that he heard his father cry out and returned to find him 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 on the ground, which vanished while he was helping his father.

Alice meets Holmes, Lestrade and Dr. Watson in a hotel, and hopes that Holmes has found a way to prove James's innocence. She also believes that she was the subject of the argument between the McCarthys – Charles wanted his son to marry her, but James had refused. Alice had taken James' side out of respect for him, and her father was also against the union. Holmes asks Alice if he could meet her father, but she says his health worsened after the death of Charles, whom he had known since they were in Victoria. Holmes decides to see James.

Holmes mistakenly surmises that James knows who killed his father and is protecting someone. It emerges that Alice is right about the cause of the argument between James and Charles. What she does not know is that James actually loves her but could not follow his father's demand because he had married a barmaid before Alice had returned from boarding school. This burdened him, but he could not tell his father about his marriage because he would have been kicked out of the house and left unable to support himself. When his wife heard of his troubles, however, she confessed that she was already married before they met, and therefore their marriage is invalid.....

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