The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes, Book # 5
Signet
August 1901
Paperback
256
English
November 25, 2020 December 27, 2020
We owe The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) to Arthur Conan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursed Baskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir Charles Baskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretive servant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasing Stapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone's been signaling with candles from the mansion's windows. Nor can supernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson--left alone by Sherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel--save the next Baskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound's fangs?
About the book
The Hound of the Baskervilles is perhaps Doyle’s most famous book. And I have to say that it is the one that I liked most. We finally get to know Mortimer and I must advise against reading the books in the order that Goodreads says to read them. Read the anthologies of short stories after the novels. Unfortunately in the anthologies there are references to Mortimer that come out of nowhere and therefore the story is not known. Indeed, it is not known even now after reading a novel with him as the protagonist (or almost).
Be that as it may, the book is about an old legend or curse that all Baskervilles are forced to endure. But Sherlock doesn’t believe in curses and therefore tries to find out what’s behind this rumour.
What I think
As said, this is Doyle’s book that I liked the most. The narrative is consistent, there are no time leaps as in the first book and the chapters are also easily read. Who the killer was a little obvious from the start but I enjoyed the path to find him.
Conclusion
I still need a few books to complete the series, I know there is still a novel and then there are collections of short stories that I honestly don’t like so much. However I will continue with the series, frankly I’m losing hope of seeing Mortimer as Sherlock’s real enemy…
1 coffee on “The Hound of the Baskervilles”