The Boscombe Valley mystery

Watson receives a telegram from Holmes, inviting him to join for a case outside London, in Hereford shire. Mary supports the idea, so John meets his friend a few hours later. While they travel, Holmes reads the newspapers about the case: a young man, James Mc Carthy, found is father dead. They had been seen having an argument a little sooner. Everything seems to point to the son's guilt, but Holmes has a doubt.

James Mc Carthy has another supporter: Miss Turner, a very lovely young person who knows him since childhood. Her father is a wealthy man. He settled in England after having made his fortune in his native country, Australia, where he met Charles Mc Carthy, the murdered man. When Mc Carthy arrived in the Boscombe Valley with his baby boy, Turner let him use a farm for free. But that gift was not enough for the man, who wanted his son to marry the rich heiress. Turner is now very ill, dying, but he would never accept this.

Although the plot is rather simple, this short story in the country is rather pleasant. It is the first of the adventure that takes place outside London. 

Lestrade is here, too. Watson already met in "A study in scarlet", and describes him as :

"A lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking"

The story is well made, with witnesses -a young girl, a gamekeeper, whose testimonies are not so clearly evidences for the prosecution, but can be read this way.

After a short visit to the crime scene, where Holmes shows, beside his extraordinary faculties of observation, his lust for a chase, will come the time for a confession. This crime follows another one, twenty years sooner. 

Holmes and Watson listen, they don't judge, and won't do anything -there is no need to anymore. But Holmes will make sure that the young Mc Carthy will be declared innocent.