Kavi Reads

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was the first book I remember reading that I chose for myself at a book sale. However, I didn’t read the other stories (like A Study in Scarlet or A Sign of Four) until much later. For some reason, I’ve always saved some Sherlock Holmes to read at some point in the future, so I can keep enjoying new material. The latest of these was The Hound of the Baskervilles. A classic in crime fiction, I first read this book just two years ago. After all that Agatha Christie, I decided to back to the first detective I fell in love with (and that was before Benedict Cumberbatch even played him).

Legend has it that Baskerville Hall is under the curse of a demonic hound, when, at the time of the English Civil War, a Sir Hugo Baskerville abducted and murdered a woman and then was killed by the hound. The hound haunts the place resulting in premature deaths of heirs. It all seemed like hogwash to Dr Mortimer until his friend, Charles Baskerville was found dead and lo and behold, there were the footprints of a gigantic hound, not too far away. Believing the curse to be true, Dr Mortimer goes to Sherlock Holmes for advice and help before the arrival of the latest heir and another prospective victim, Henry Baskerville.

When I first read The Hound of the Baskervilles, I had some idea of what to expect, having watched the rendition of it on BBC’s Sherlock. However, I knew subjects shown in the episode like genetic testing and secret military bases, which are very modern, would not be present in the book. Having watched the episode first, then read the book, I was able to enjoy the story in a very different way. The names of the characters were similar, but the roles they played in each were quite different. The overall story doesn’t change though. Henry Baskerville’s life is in danger due to a gigantic hound and it is up to Sherlock Holmes and John Watson to save him.

All in all, I thought this was a great Sherlock Holmes story and a wonderful detective novel, one that I can see myself coming back to once every few years.