'Good Heavens, Holmes!' (The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle)

Member Name: helican

Product:	The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
Date:	05/10/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots of classic Holmes gems & a great story

Disadvantages: Homes is actually out of the action for quite a big chuink of the tale

For lovers of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, this is an absolute treat. It opens in classic Conan Doyle style with Holmes & Dr Watson trying to guess the identity of a visitor to their rooms from the clues on his walking stick. When the visitor returns we find Homes has it spot on, of course - & there are Holmes trademarks like this a-plenty.

The visitor is a young Devonshire doctor, & the tale he tells of hellhounds & dead lords sets the scene brilliantly with a perfect atmosphere of tension & mystery.

Sir Charles Baskerville has been found literally scared to death at his manor house on bleak Devonshire moorland, & the culprit appears to be the huge demonic hound of local legend.

His successor seems to be in similar danger & the young doctor hopes to enlist Sherlock Holmes' help, but a mystery stalker is already one step ahead of them. Dr Watson goes to stay at Baskerville Hall & his suspicions fall on the butler & his wife who clearly have secrets to keep, but as the investigation progresses the surrounding countryside - itself sinister & treacherous to the unwary - seems to be full of eccentric characters with their own mysteries & hidden agendas.

The story is written as usual from Watson's point of view, from his journal & the letters he writes to Holmes from Devon. It does seem strange to have Holmes missing from so much of the action, but it makes his reappearance at the end all the more welcome, & there's more than enough going on in the story to compensate.

The clues to the mystery are present throughout the story & it all comes together very pleasingly at the end, with no off-the-wall surprise elements to make us feel cheated.

More used to the short stories, I was concerned that The Hound of The Baskervilles might seem overlong & saggy, but I've since discovered it was originally serialised in Strand magazine which presumably is the reason it's so tightly written & gripping, & - despite being written in 1901 - an easy, rattling read.

Summary: a wonderful, gripping mystery that's aged well