cover

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Format: Digital (ty Project Gutenberg)

I finally got around to reading another Sherlock Holmes novel after the last two. Without spoiling anything (I guess?), I found The Hound of the Baskervilles to be a much more cohesively told story than either of A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four; overall, the characters feel more developed and the story carries the reader along much more smoothly than in either of the other two novels. In large part, this is because most of the action of the story is told from Watson’s POV (as usual), but without Holmes being present at all (supposedly off in London solving some other case). Although the reader is usually left mostly in the dark for the bulk of detective stories, this turns the novel from a pure mystery into more of a thriller mystery type thing, as Watson manages to get himself into many more Incidents than typically would happen with Holmes around. The focus on a select group of characters with a bit more time to breathe, (Barrymores, Stapletons, Henry Baskerville, etc.) also means that each character feels like more than a prop for the mystery to unfold. I particularly enjoyed the repeated intrusions of Dr Mortimer into random bouts of literal skull measuring phrenology, and the clear exasperation of every other character whenever it happened.

Valley of Fear next, I guess. I think its the one of these novels I know the least about so that should be fun.