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A review by readingrobyn
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
4.0
This is the final Sherlock novel for me to read, now with all four under my belt, I'm excited to say that this one was probably my favourite.
The Hound of the Baskervilles has a mystery that edges on the supernatural as our Sherlock and Watson duo go up against a Hell dog in the bleak English country side. This mystery was just plain ol' fun to get into. I loved how the idea of the Hell dog constantly hinged on reality. If a hound is really involved how would such madness actually translate to murder?
Much to my surprise most of the book is spent with just Dr. Watson solo (as Sherlock is predisposed) and I found that this worked really well. Watson sort of comes into his own, he's still just the observer, but is decidedly working to collect facts and clues without Sherlock's guidance. That fact alone really played into the mystery, we didn't always have Sherlock looking two steps ahead. Instead we were introduced to a situation where the murderer is still lurking, and with a doubt planning to strike again, without Sherlock there to see it coming.
This book has a very different feel then my second favourite Sherlock novel [b:The Valley of Fear|736131|The Valley of Fear |Arthur Conan Doyle|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177850131s/736131.jpg|1343585]. This one is a continuous story, more about the chase and trying to pin down the killer then understanding the crime. The reason this book is probably my favourite has a lot to do with the ending, so I won't go into that here, but the excitement created with those final events was excellent!
In the end, this book has gotten me really looking forward to reading more Sherlock and getting into those short stories sooner rather then later!
The Hound of the Baskervilles has a mystery that edges on the supernatural as our Sherlock and Watson duo go up against a Hell dog in the bleak English country side. This mystery was just plain ol' fun to get into. I loved how the idea of the Hell dog constantly hinged on reality. If a hound is really involved how would such madness actually translate to murder?
Much to my surprise most of the book is spent with just Dr. Watson solo (as Sherlock is predisposed) and I found that this worked really well. Watson sort of comes into his own, he's still just the observer, but is decidedly working to collect facts and clues without Sherlock's guidance. That fact alone really played into the mystery, we didn't always have Sherlock looking two steps ahead. Instead we were introduced to a situation where the murderer is still lurking, and with a doubt planning to strike again, without Sherlock there to see it coming.
This book has a very different feel then my second favourite Sherlock novel [b:The Valley of Fear|736131|The Valley of Fear |Arthur Conan Doyle|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177850131s/736131.jpg|1343585]. This one is a continuous story, more about the chase and trying to pin down the killer then understanding the crime. The reason this book is probably my favourite has a lot to do with the ending, so I won't go into that here, but the excitement created with those final events was excellent!
In the end, this book has gotten me really looking forward to reading more Sherlock and getting into those short stories sooner rather then later!