Suspense is built by the appearance of an escaped convict loose in the area, and the appearance of a mysterious stranger roaming the moors. Watson investigates the few residences around Baskerville Hall and finds them all to be rather suspicious in their own way. Watson to do much of the investigation himself allows the mystery time to develop rather than be solved immediately by Holmes. This point was a brilliant maneuver by Doyle. Holmes has announced himself to busy in London to be able to make the trip himself. Watson travels to the Baskerville home to investigate. After a series of threats and strange circumstances, Dr. Not one for superstition, Henry moves to the homestead from America after he inherited the land when the previous owner, Sir Charles Baskerville, fell dead of fright. The patriarchs of the family have befallen many a nary end in this home. It seems his family has been haunted by a demon hound for generations. The story revolves around Henry Baskerville and his inherited homestead amongst the moors of England. Still with a mere 174 pages, Doyle managed to create a more well rounded story and develop enough mystery to satisfy my tastes. With more pages, surely Doyle would prepare a better mystery for his hero to unravel. This being said, I was looking forward to reading a longer length novel about this super sleuth. There are too many possibilities as to why our neighbor has a bit of mud on his pants cuffs to be able to surmise the reason out of sheer reasoning. Upon some contemplation, though, it is easy to realize that paying attention to details will not bring us the answers the super detective seems to collect from the air at will.

We are briefly marveled by his powers of observation and deduction, to the point that we begin trying to concentrate our own powers to the mundane tasks of our lives. Most of these never develop any real sense of mystery because Holmes is too brilliant for the readers good. They consist of a setup for the mystery and then a detailed description of Holmes using his near supernatural ability of observation to determine the culprit. I have a collection of Sherlock Holmes' short stories, but those are a little too simplified for my tastes. In my determination to read all of the classic detective fiction I recently picked up Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles.

Conan doyle the hound of baskervilles