Hello and welcome back to book cheat, the book club podcast where I've read the book so you don't have to.

My name is Dave Warnocky and on each episode of this show, we look at one of the classics and joining me again to look at the same classic. It's Nick Mason and Matt Stewart. Oh, it's so good to be back here. Dave wouldn't let us leave. I wouldn't let you leave. I invited you here to 221B Baker Street and I said, we'll wait here till a letter arrives. We'll scramble for it. First when he gets it.

We're in the book chook henhouse.

The book chook henhouse.

That's right.

We are back to talk about part two of Sherlock Holmes, the final Arthur Conan Doyle, full-length novel, The Valley of Fear. Part two, still fearing. Oh, still fearing. Whoa. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Did you read ahead in the week? No, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just. Okay, because he's guessed the sequel time. Oh, the tagline. That's right. Should I, should I do a brief recap for people at home? We are recording in a row, so I'm hoping that it's fresh in your minds. Okay, yeah, let's do it.

But previously on The Valley of Fear.

Why do you keep revealing the curtain? row so I'm hoping that it's fresh in your minds. Okay, yeah, let's do it. But previously on The Valley of Fear.

Why do you keep revealing the curtain to show that there's a man with boots on behind me?

Here he is.

So to speak.

So look, so to speak.

So we, Sherlock got a note from someone calling himself Paulock, who apparently works for Professor Moriarty, his archedemesis,

the criminal mastermind, giving them clues to say that someone, and Moriati's probably involved,

was killed at the Douglas Manor home out in the countryside of England.

They get there.

These are all stupid names.

We've got to go through them, though, you know.

We've got to keep going. We don't have time. Paulock, Douglas, stupid names. Stupid, ridiculous. Sherlock Holmes. And it was revealed that this man that they thought dead Douglas was in fact, it wasn't him. It was the man sent to kill him. Different guy. It looked a bit like him but had his face blown off. He revealed at the end of the book after Sherlock Holmes solved everything, of course, that Douglas is alive and the man that tried to kill him. His name is Ted Baldwin. They both used to belong to a secret society. The circle triangles. That's right. They both had the same brand mark on their arm.

And at the end of the last book, Dr. John Watson, who's of course, Shillacom's sight kick in is telling us this whole story. He's like... He's most famously played by John C. Riley or Will Ferrell. That's right. One of those guys, yeah. We didn't even mention that one. No. There's so many adaptations of Shillacom. There's also the version, there's the Mitchell and Webb version where the two actors, they never want to, like, they're two, they're two, like, famous character, famous, like, starring actors and neither one of them wants to be Watson, so they have to switch between scenes. You said that sketch? No. That's good. That sounds sounds really good. So, and then it ended with Dr. John Watson saying, and now my long-suffering readers, I want you to come away with me for a time. From Burlstone to a place far, thousands of miles away, where he will explain the backstory of this mysterious man, John Douglas, who moved from America to England to escape his past. But what is that past? I hear you ask. Well, let's find out on part two, the scourers. Oh, Scourers. That's what part two of this book is. Are you going to the Goldfields? No. Oh, no, this is pre-Goldfield. Pre-Goldfield. It was. It's just those two guys, and they're selling those, like, steel wool things. They used to scrot. They made their fortune in those steel wool. Yeah, that's just started a business called Ajax. That's right. You can clean anything. Yeah, they meet a guy called Mr. Jiff, who has a great idea for a serum of sorts, a cleaning serum.

And they murder him.

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