The Hound of the Baskervilles





By: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle










Genre: Mystery

Set in London, England and surrounding country side in the 1860's The Hound of the Baskervilles tells the story of Sherlock Holmes a detective in his late 40's and, Dr. Watson who acts as Holmes assistant and close friend. Sir Henry Baskerville, a man in his early 50's is the heir to the Baskerville Estate, and is living in fear after the late Baskervilles murder. After the unsolved murder of Sir Charles Baskerville, Holmes is called in to investigate. Slowly he and his colleague begin to unravel the mystery of his death as well as discovering even more than they had expected. In the end everything they thought they knew was really a lie and the book unravels into an explosive ending. The question is will they be able to save the last heir to the Baskerville estate in time.
Doyle uses the theme of deceit to portray the characters and their actions in a way that helps the reader understand what is going on. As the story line develops you can see where the theme applies to the text. When the story line is in its final stages you are able to see to an even greater extent how the theme applies to this story. “What do you think of that Watson,” cried Holmes with glee, rubbing his hands together with satisfaction. “Don't you think that is an admirable sentiment.” This quote comes from Sherlock Holmes. Doyle uses intricate sentence structure like this throughout the whole book. Doyle's descriptive sentences are one of his many strong points in his writing. He does a good job of assisting the reader in creating mental images through his heavily descriptive writing.
Like many other Mystery novels this book will keep you guessing as a reader and interested as well. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are what I would consider the grown up Hardy Boys. This book is an excellent mystery and anyone who enjoys mysteries should read it.

Rating: ****