The Demonic Hound of the Baskervilles

My Rating*****

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most loved characters in ‘crime literature’. His oddities, his obsessiveness, his brilliance and even his flaws make him not only a powerful character, but also a memorable one. Created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes certainly stands apart in the literary world. Today, I am going to review ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, which is considered as the most renowned Sherlock Holmes adventure.

This crime-solving mystery brilliantly contains the elements of horror fiction. These horror elements add to the mysterious atmosphere of the book and make it an irreplaceable read. The mystery in this book is not set in the streets of London as is generally the case with books featuring Sherlock Holmes. On the other hand, the mystery is embedded within the lowland English moors. This, for me, was a stroke of genius from author’s side as this allowed him to give solid doses of fright to the readers.

As the title of the book suggests, the story revolves around a hound- the hound of Baskervilles (evidently a demonic giant dog). In the first chapter itself, the readers are introduced to an old legend of this hound. According to this legend, the family members of Baskerville are haunted by a spectral dog due to one Hugo’s reprehensible deeds a long time back. The latest victim of this curse is Sir Charles Baskerville, who returned to Baskerville Hall (located in English countryside of Dartmoor) two years ago after amassing a large amount of wealth. The case reaches in the hands of our dear detective Sherlock Holmes, who does not believe in the supernatural powers. However, even he believes that for the first time he got a case that has got more to it than just mundane agents of crime. Read the book and enjoy this wonderfully written mystery because I am not going to spoil it for you.

You might think that this book would be a wordy prose as books of that time were considered as such. However, this is not a case. While you find some unusual words and odd bit of structure constructions, this is a novel that you can comprehend completely. You will also find a number of descriptions of Victorian era but these also do not get you bog down. The book, as a whole, is fast paced and keeps your eyes glued to the pages. In addition to that, some of the scenes in the main plot are really creepy and may bring shivers in some of the readers.

Do you know that Sherlock Holmes was killed by the author by sending him off a cliff in a previous novel? Wishing to devote more time on Historical novels, Sir Doyle decided to get rid him off. However, the author was forced to resurrect him after resisting public pressure and outrage for eight years. ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is the book where Sherlock Holmes reappears. And, what a comeback it was! This book soon became one of the classic detective stories and many people remember Sherlock Holmes mainly because of this book.

I am floored by this book’s brilliance. Hats off to its creator Arthur Conan Doyle for giving us one of the best detective novels ever.

Don’t miss this one. You will undoubtedly love this.