Blurb
Sir Charles Baskerville is dead. His body was discovered on the grounds of his Devonshire estate, face frozen in fright, not far from the footprints of a large beast. The cause of death has been determined to be a heart attack, but family legend tells another tale, and Detective Sherlock Holmes is determined to uncover the truth. So whodunit on the foggy moors of Baskerville Hall? In one of literature’s greatest original page-turners, the answer is a classic.
My Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ & ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎
5 stars. What a masterpiece this mystery is! Of all the Sherlock novels & mysteries, this one is the most complex and mysterious—and perhaps even the most fascinating and memorable.
The setting is gorgeous—the wild Darbyshire moor. Doyle’s writing style is excellent, and he was fantastic at description, really making the place come to life, with its craigs and cairns and bogs, its butterflies and ponies and legendary devil hound. The mood of the book is rain and clouds, gloom and fear, yet sunbeams cross it and slowly rise after one terrible foggy night…
The characters are even more striking than the setting. Hot-tempered, soft-hearted Sir Henry, the last of a great race. Kindly, enthusiastic Dr. Mortimer; anxious, exotic Beryl; keen, unprediactable Stapleton; pugnacious, boisterous Frankland and his broken daughter; the sad Barrymores and the wicked convict; hardworking, sensitive Watson and sharp Holmes, pushing himself to the fullest to end the career of a terrifyingly intelligent and daring criminal—one of the most frighting villains in literature.
The plot is an absolute succession of twists. Things are constantly being enlightened, yet remain as dark as before until Holmes draws back the veil—which even he cannot do fully until the very end. The humour, as always, is fantastic, and the deductions are brilliant. The book can be creepy upon the first read—especially if read by a sensitive reader, and even more especially at night—yet Holmes’ stories, like cookies, improve by keeping. Each reread finds me liking the stories better and appreciating the brainwork more.
Again, as a mystery, this is one of the very best I’ve ever come across—a delightful autumnal read.
Content: Drinking & smoking; a murder; mentions of leaving your husband and divorce; swearing. An old story of a Cavalier wanting a girl and locking her in a room, then visiting her “to carry food and drink—with other worse things, perchance.” Not finding her, he chases her across the moor. She dropped dead, and he is discovered killed by a dog. There is thenceforth belief that a certain hound is a devil/a family is haunted by a demon hound. Some slightly gruesome references to being killed by a hound. Violence against a wife. Recommended ages: 16+.
A Favourite Quote: “The more outré and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it.”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “Rolling pasture lands curved upwards on either side of us, and old gabled houses peeped out from amid the thick green foliage, but behind the peaceful and sunlit countryside there rose ever, dark against the evening sky, the long, gloomy curve of the moor, broken by the jagged and sinister hills.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “But these, of course, are afterthoughts. At the moment I was simply conscious that I was in the presence of a very handsome woman, and that she was asking me the reasons for my visit. I had not quite understood until that instant how delicate my mission was.
“I have the pleasure,” said I, “of knowing your father.”
It was a clumsy introduction, and the lady made me feel it.”
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Tags: 5-of-10-hearts, adventure-genre, autumn-fiction, british-fiction-and-nonfiction, classics-genre, contemporary-to-their-time-genre, friendship-story-books, gloomy-or-gothic-feels-books, hisfic-1800s, historical-fiction-genre, my-favourite-books, mystery-suspense-thriller-spy-etc, romance-genre, secular-books, series, violent-content-books, well-done-characters-books, well-done-plot-books, well-done-writing-style-books, young-adult-genre.
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