2. SCOPE
•About the Book
•About the Author
•Story background
•The incident
•Investigation into the
incident
•Conclusion
3. THE BOOK
•The Valley of Fear, is the
fourth and the final
Sherlock Holmes novel.
•It is based on the agent
James Mc Parland.
•The stories in the book
were published between
Sep 1914 to May 1915
4. THE AUTHOR
•Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan
Doyle was a British writer
and physician.
•He created the fictitious
character called Sherlock
Holmes.
•His writing is considered as
a milestone in the field of
Crime Fiction.
5. THE STORY BACKGROUND
•The Tragedy of Brilstone is an
adaptation from the book
called ‘The Valley of Fear’.
•The story is shrouded in
mystery over the death of Mr.
John Douglas.
•Though the chapter of Class IX
does not cover the entire story,
yet it is a good reading and
composition for the students.
6. THE BRILSTONE VILLAGE
•The village of Brilstone is an
ancient cluster of cottages in
the county of Sussex.
•It has been unchanged for
centuries.
•The picturesque appearance
has attracted well to do
residents who have settled
there.
•Number of small shops have
7. THE MANOR HOUSE
•About half a mile from the
town is the Manor house
with moat.
•It is famous for huge
beech trees.
•It had many gables and
small diamond paned
windows.
•The house could be
8. THE MANOR HOUSE
•The drawbridge had broken
chain and windlass. However,
it could be used to hoist the
drawbridge.
•It was drawn up everyday by
sunset.
•This left the Manor house
inaccessible and it was like
9. THE RESIDENTS OF MANOR
HOUSE
•The family residing in the
Manor house consisted of
only two individuals
•John Douglas
•Mrs. Douglas
•Mr. Douglas was genial and
cheery.
•He was popular amongst
the villagers.
10. THE RESIDENTS OF MANOR
HOUSE
•John Douglas had plenty of money and thereby,
had quite a reputation in Birlstone.
•Mrs. Douglas was beautiful, tall, dark and
slender.
•She was about 20 years younger than Mr.
Douglas.
•They were devoted to each other, however, off
late there were some strained relations between
11. THE VISITOR OF MANOR HOUSE
•Cecil Baker was a frequent and
welcome visitor at the Manor
House.
•He was easy going and free
handed gentleman.
•He was at ease with both John
and Mrs. Douglas.
•John Douglas was not
12. THE INCIDENT
•On the 6th of Jan at about
11:45 PM alarm reached the
small local police station
that John Douglas had been
murdered.
•Dr. Wood the investigating
officer came to the Manor
house and seemed to be
unnerved and troubled.
13. THE INVESTIGATION
•Dr. Wood asked Cecil not to
touch anything until the
superiors arrive.
•C Baker confirmed that nothing
had been touched.
•On enquiry C Baker informed
that at half past eleven when
he was in his bedroom seated
by the fire he heard gunshot.
14. THE INVESTIGATION
•On questioning Baker informed that, the door was open
and Douglas was lying as he was.
•He heard Mrs. Douglas arriving from the rear and
prevented her from seeing her husband’s body lying in
the room.
•When asked about lowering the drawbridge, he said
that the drawbridge was up until he had himself
lowered it.
•When Dr. Wood speculated that Douglas might have
short himself, Baker indicated to the open window and
15. THE INVESTIGATION
•Dr. Wood suspected that the killer might have
waded through the moat and both Dr. Wood and C
Baker agreed to the theory.
•However, they were unsure of the culprits entry
into the Manor house especially when the
drawbridge was raised at 6 O’clock PM.
•It was concluded that if anyone had come to the
house then it could have been before 6 O’clock and
must have remained hidden in the house till
16. THE CONCLUSION
•It is left to the students to work on three different
possibilities:-
•John Douglas committing suicide by shooting himself.
•Someone who came from outside for robbery,
murdered John.
•Someone from with the house including Cecil Baker,
the Butler and the house helps of having murdered
John.
•There is more to solving the mystery around the
