The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Death prowls the haunted moor
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“We’re at close grips at last,” said Holmes as we walked together across the moor. “What a nerve the fellow has! How he pulled himself together in the face of what must have been a paralyzing shock when he found that the wrong man had fallen a victim to his plot. I told you in London, Watson, and I tell you now again, that we have never had a foeman more worthy of our steel.”
A gruesome family legend, suspicious caretakers, escaped convicts, secret love affairs, and murder suck readers into this classic Sherlock Holmes novel as surely as the treacherous Grimpen Mire drags victims into its inescapable bogs. The story opens with an account of the terrible episode from the Baskerville family history in which its lord summoned a hound of hell to help him pursue an escaped local maid kidnapped by him for his bedtime pleasures. Even hundreds of years later the supernatural hound is still said to be heard upon the wild moor adjoining the ancient estate of the Baskervilles. Sherlock Holmes becomes involved when the strange death of the contemporary Sir Baskerville is brought to his attention by the deceased's friend, Doctor Mortimer, who despite his modern education fears that a supernatural threat may truly hang over the Baskerville heirs. Mortimer worries that the new heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, is in danger and therefore Sherlock Holmes is engaged to protect Sir Henry and solve the mystery surrounding the death of his predecessor who apparently died of fright on the edge of the moor.
Sherlock Holmes is deeply captivated by the case, but, surprisingly, stays in London while sending only Doctor Watson along with Sir Henry as he claims his ancient family home. The Hound of the Baskervilles is very much a novel of Doctor Watson. Although he is the narrator of all adventures of Sherlock Holmes, he is often at the forefront of this novel, which adds to its delightful and endearing qualities. The pistol-packing man of action, Doctor Watson shrinks from no threat, not even the creepy moor with its ancient stone houses from the Neolithic period and the strange shrieks of its bogs. Watson dutifully gathers information for the voracious mind of Sherlock Holmes while serving almost as a bodyguard for Sir Henry.
As the exciting mystery unfolds, clues pile up amid characters both mysterious and charmingly colloquial. Sherlock Holmes applies his famous intellect to the facts as surely as a hound on a strong trail and he builds his trap for an adversary he considers to be most wily and cruel. Devotees of the crime and mystery genre should definitely read The Hound of the Baskervilles as should anyone who loves to read a good story. Venture onto the moor today and download this classic mystery in your choice of DRM-free ebook formats.
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See Also The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
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