Reviews with content warning for Death - The Hound of the Baskervilles

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The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

29 reviews

singalana's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I grew up reading Sherlock Holmes stories, and I’ve seen the movie (with Jeremy Brett) many times. But I don’t think I’ve ever read this book. I happened to win this at StoryGraph’s Giveaway as an Audrey audiobook. I must say I was positively surprised, as I enjoyed the narrator and the guide.

But enough about that and into the book. As many of you know, this is a classic detective story with a hint of the supernatural. There seems to be a curse upon the Baskervilles: a huge hound haunts the members of the family, and Sherlock Holmes is called to help as the curse threatens the last remaining member of the Baskerville family.

The story is told from the perspective of Watson, who is a well-meaning doctor and a faithful friend of Sherlock Holmes. Watson is sent to investigate, as Holmes is otherwise engaged. Soon, he discovers that strange things are indeed happening. But can they protect the last Baskerville before the Hound gets him too?

I like Sherlock Holmes, and I think Doyle does excellent villains, but Watson is sometimes infuriatingly clueless, and Doyle’s women leave a lot to be desired. But I can’t help but like this story nonetheless. It has all the elements of an interesting story: a family curse, a creepy setting, suspicious servants… It’s not perfect by any means, but I think the ending is satisfying, and I had a good time listening to it!

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waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was an assigned reading, but I enjoyed it all the same. I didn't see most of the twists and reveals coming, despite the characters being ubiquitous! I can see why the plots, characters, and themes have had such strong staying power over the last 100+ years. Other than letting a potential reade know about some heavy-handed chunks of exposition that bogged me down, I’d highly recommended it.

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chalkletters's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Thanks to the crime fiction module I took at university, The Hound of the Baskervilles is probably the Sherlock Holmes story I have the most accurate memory of. I remembered the major twists before they happened, but this somehow only made it more thrilling to read, knowing in advance what Doctor Watson was about to find out.

It helps that the writing of The Hound of the Baskervilles is exciting anyway, perhaps because Doctor Watson and Sherlock Holmes are separated for so much of it, forcing Arthur Conan Doyle to give the reader a lot more of Watson's man-of-action than of Sherlock's deductions. This is both a puzzle mystery and a wild adventure on the moors of Yorkshire.

Despite how much time they spend apart, The Hound of the Baskervilles also provides some lovely moments in Doctor Watson and Sherlock's friendship: including the 'conductor of light' speech which inspires the heartwarming resolution in BBC Sherlock’s adaptation of this story.

Despite all this goodness, The Hound of the Baskervilles did still manage to include one moment which may make a modern reader unreasonably angry. Doctor Watson is adamant that they shouldn't let a serial murderer remain on the loose in England as a danger to the public, but has no problem shipping said murderer off to South America where he can be a danger to somebody else. As The West Wing's Will Bailey would say, 'Why is a Kundanese life worth [less] than an American life? I don't know, sir, but it is.' Even if it would relieve the tax payer, let's not send murderers to other countries as if we're happy for them to do their murdering there!

Nonetheless, I did enjoy The Hound of the Baskervilles! It's possibly my favourite Sherlock Holmes story so far on this particular reread. Not to mention, it provided me with a delightful image of Sherlock Holmes sitting in a cardboard box like a cat.

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sarasreading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Almost a 4 star read for me. Casual racism always brings these classics down for me. I read this when I was a teenager but remembered almost nothing, so it was fun to go back to this one. I enjoyed it, even when it was pretty far fetched. Would be a good one to curl up with when it's cold and rainy out.

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cennetalbo's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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happysami's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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stacy_es's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

As a person who is fond of detectives I decided to get back to the core so to say and reread Doyle. The descriptions of both Watson and Holmes are really great as for me, the deduction method in action is as well. But when it comes to the diversity of suspects and hardships to guess who was the killer, the classics seems to be not as powerful here as the modern authors, like Galbraith for instance. I also did not really like both women in the book, it would be much more pleasant even to see them as villains rather than representatives of weaker sex so easily taken advantage of.

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