The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Classic Setting: Dartmoor Release: 1902
It came with the wind through the silence of the night, a long, deep mutter, then a rising howl, and then the sad moan in which it died away. Again and again it sounded, the whole air throbbing with it, strident, wild and menacing.
This beautiful paperback edition of a The Hound of the Baskervilles was found in a small bookshop in Yorkshire and I jumped at the chance to read a story I knew well but had never read. Following the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are visited by a friend of the deceased, Dr. Mortimer, who discloses new information surrounding the late Peer's death. A giant footprint was found by the body and the Baskerville legend goes that any heir to the Baskerville land will be killed by a giant hound that roams the moors.
The premise sets up one of the World's best known detective stories which embraces the wildness of rural Britain. In the early 1900s, Dartmoor would have been even more sparsely populated than it is today and the perfect setting for this obscure, mist-entwinned detective story.
Sir Henry, the new baronet, is warned of the curse that befalls the heir apparent and when he goes to take his seat in Dartmoor, Dr. Watson is despatched by Holmes to act as bodyguard and detective. Locals report having seen the hound roaming the land and the sound of it's cries appear to ring out. Watson is tasked with attempting to decipher whether the problem at hand is supernatural or of a very human nature.
What is interesting about this Holmes mystery (as someone who has not read Holmes before) is how illusive and secondary the master detective is throughout the book. Watson is the storyteller and Holmes appears for a little at the start and end of the story. The effect of this is that instead of trying to unravel the mystery through the eyes of a savant, you do so through the senses of a man as normal as you.
By modern standards, The Hound of the Baskervilles might seem too simplistic a plot. I certainly guessed most elements of the ending before Watson did. However, the atmospheric writing more than makes up for the simplicity of the plot. The pacing is excellent and the writing tightly edited. I loved the book and felt a sense of literary history imbued the read with a profound sense of joyfulness.