Book Review: The Hound Of The Baskervilles; Arthur Conan Doyle.

I'm slowly working my way through these Sherlock Holmes books, and I'm glad that I am getting to read these as they are very enjoyable! Often I find that classics are less fun to read than watch (unpopular opinion alert) as they can be so heavy! But I think that Conan Doyle has hit the nail on the head here!

SOURCE: Borrowed
TYPE: Hardcover

TITLE: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (The Hound Of The Baskervilles)
AUTHOR: Arthur Conan Doyle
SERIES: Sherlock Holmes (#6)
PUBLISHER: Barnes & Noble Classics
PAGES: 98
GENRE: Mystery, Classics, Historical Fiction, Horror

RATING: 5/5 Stars

Blurb:
Could the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound that is said to have haunted his family for generations? Arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes characteristically dismisses the theory as nonsense. And immersed in another case, he sends Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir and observe the suspects close at hand. With its atmospheric setting on the ancient, wild moorland and its savage apparition, The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the greatest crime novels ever written. Rationalism is pitted against the supernatural, good against evil, as Sherlock Holmes seeks to defeat a foe almost his equal.

What I Liked:

• Who doesn't love a good old-fashioned, chilling mystery set on the moors of England? With most of the Sherlock Holmes cases, it is usually clear that a human is behind it all. I liked that Doyle took a spookier route with this one and decided to add a sprinkle of the supernatural to keep the reader guessing.
• The characters are just as well-written as I remember. We get to see a lot less of Holmes himself this time, but more of a solitary Watson doing some digging of his own. This made a nice change, as it sometimes feels that Holmes keeps him around more to add to the decor than for anything particularly useful. Doyle gives a lot of flare and personality to every character he writes, no matter how prominent in the story they are.

What I Disliked:

• Okay, so I guess Doyle has dropped Watson's wife Mary for good? How...disappointing. Also, one of the problems of this being the most famous of Sherlock Holmes' cases? I kind of knew what was going to happen. It made the ending a tiny bit anti-climactic.

Overall Conclusion:

This was a really enjoyable story. Possibly...my favourite so far? Wow, a bold statement I know, but I really liked how Doyle changed things up a bit. Everyone knows I like a good dash of horror every now and then and this was actually really tense to read at times! I wish that Doyle had done a little more with his previously introduced female characters and I also wish that I hadn't already known so much about the story. But overall, I liked this a lot!