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When a second member of the Baskerville family dies, Sherlock Holmes investigates and finds murderous greed behind the supposed curse.
Laurie R. King is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve Mary Russell mysteries (one of which, The Moor, was inspired in part by The Hound of the Baskervilles), five contemporary novels featuring Kate Martinelli, and the acclaimed novels A Darker Place, Folly, Keeping Watch, and Touchstone. She lives in Northern California.
Once, wearying of Holmes, his creator killed him off, but was forced by popular demand to resurrect him. Sir Arthur -- he had been knighted for this defense of the British cause in his The Great Boer War -- became an ardent Spiritualist after the death of his son Kingsley, who had been wounded at the Somme in World War I. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in Sussex in 1930.
Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA).
CHAPTER I
Mr. Sherlock Holmes
Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he stayed up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a “Penang lawyer.” Just under the head was a broad silver band, nearly an inch across. “To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.,” was engraved upon it, with the date “1884.” It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry—dignified, solid, and reassuring. “Well, Watson, what do you make of it?” Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation. “How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head.” “I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me,” said he. “But, tell me, Watson, what do you make of our visitor’s stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the man by an examination of it.” “I think,” said I, following so far as I could the methods of my companion, “that Dr. Mortimer is a successful elderly medical man, well-esteemed, since those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation.” “Good!” said Holmes. “Excellent!” “I think also that the probabilityis in favour of his being a country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot.” “Why so?” “Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one, has been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. The thick iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking with it.” “Perfectly sound!” said Holmes. “And then again, there is the ‘friends of the C.C.H.’ I should guess that to be the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly given some surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation in return.” “Really, Watson, you excel yourself,” said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. “I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt.” He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his words gave me keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued by his indifference to my admiration and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity to his methods. I was proud, too, to think that I had so far mastered his system as to apply it in a way which earned his approval. He now took the stick from my hands and examined it for a few minutes with his naked eyes. Then, with an expression of interest, he laid down his cigarette, and, carrying the cane to the window, he looked over it again with a convex lens. “Interesting, though elementary,” said he, as he returned to his favourite corner of the settee. “There are certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions.” “Has anything escaped me?” I asked, with some self-importance. “I trust that there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked?” “I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous. When I said that you stimulated me I meant, to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong in this instance. The man is certainly a country practitioner. And he walks a good deal.” “Then I was right.” “To that extent.” “But that was all.” “No, no, my dear Watson, not all—by no means all. I would suggest, for example, that a presentation to a doctor is more likely to come from an hospital than from a hunt, and that when the initials ‘C.C.’ are placed before that hospital the words ‘Charing Cross’ very naturally suggest themselves.” “You may be right.” “The probability lies in that direction. And if we take this as a working hypothesis we have a fresh basis from which to start our construction of this unknown visitor.” “Well, then, supposing that ‘C.C.H.’ does stand for ‘Charing Cross Hospital,’ what further inferences may we draw?” “Do none suggest themselves? You know my methods. Apply them!” “I can only think of the obvious conclusion that the man has practised in town before going to the country.” “I think that we might venture a little farther than this. Look at it in this light. On what occasion would it be most probable that such a presentation would be made? When would his friends unite to give him a pledge of their good will? Obviously at the moment when Dr. Mortimer withdrew from the service of the hospital in order to start in practice for himself. We know there has been a presentation. We believe there has been a change from a town hospital to a country practice. Is it, then, stretching our inference too far to say that the presentation was on the occasion of the change?” “It certainly seems probable.” “Now, you will observe that he could not have been on the staff of the hospital, since only a man well-established in a London practice could hold such a position, and such a one would not drift into the country. What was he, then? If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff, he could only have been a house-surgeon or a house-physician—little more than a senior student. And he left five years ago—the date is on the stick. So your grave, middle-aged family practitioner vanishes into thin air, my dear Watson, and there emerges a young fellow under thirty, amiable, unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor of a favourite dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff.” I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his settee and blew little wavering rings of smoke up to the ceiling. “As to the latter part, I have no means of checking you,” said I, “but at least it is not difficult to find out a few particulars about the man’s age and professional career.” From my small medical shelf I took down the Medical Directory and turned up the name. There were several Mortimers, but only one who could be our visitor. I read his record aloud. “Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, Grimpen, Dartmoor,Devon. House surgeon, from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital. Winner of the Jackson Prize for Comparative Pathology, with essay entitled ‘Is Disease a Reversion?’ Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Society. Author of ‘Some Freaks of Atavism’ (Lancet, 1882). ‘Do We Progress? (Journal of Psychology, March, 1883). Medical Officer for the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley, and High Barrow.” “No mention of that local hunt, Watson,” said Holmes, with a mischievous smile, “but a country doctor, as you very astutely observed. I think that I am fairly justified in my inferences. As to the adjectives, I said, if I remember right, amiable, unambitious, and absent-minded. It is my experience that it is only an amiable man in this world who receives testimonials, only an unambitious one who abandons a London career for the country, and only an absent-minded one who leaves his stick and not his visiting-card after waiting an hour in your room.” “And the dog?” “Has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master. Being a heavy stick the dog has held it tightly by the middle, and the marks of his teeth are very plainly visible. The dog’s jaw, as shown in the space between these marks, is too broad in my opinion for a terrier and not broad enough for a mastiff. It may have been—yes, by Jove, it is a curly-haired spaniel.” He had risen and paced the room as he spoke. Now he halted in the recess of the window. There was such a ring of conviction in his voice that I glanced up in surprise. “My dear fellow, how can you possibly be so sure of that?”
| Foreword | ix | |
| 1 | Mr. Sherlock Holmes | 1 |
| 2 | The Curse of the Baskervilles | 11 |
| 3 | The Problem | 27 |
| 4 | Sir Henry Baskerville | 41 |
| 5 | Three Broken Threads | 59 |
| 6 | Baskerville Hall | 74 |
| 7 | The Stapletons of Merripit House | 88 |
| 8 | First Report of Dr. Watson | 108 |
| 9 | Second Report of Dr. Watson | 119 |
| 10 | Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson | 145 |
| 11 | The Man on the Tor | 160 |
| 12 | Death on the Moor | 179 |
| 13 | Fixing the Nets | 197 |
| 14 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | 214 |
| 15 | A Retrospection | 231 |
pod49
Posted August 30, 2011
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Before there was CSI and the magic of solving a crime in less than 60 minutes we had Sherlock Holmes. This was always my favorite Sherlock Holmes story and the most scary Holmes book I ever read. Many movies were made from this book, but if you want the real deal, without the interpetations, you have to read the book. Plenty of atmosphere in a Holmes book, with a little imagination you can find yourself knocking on the door at 221B Baker street with a curious matter that needs Mr. Holmes attention. R Hemingway
10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This is an excellent story. I've read it several times over the years. I would not, however recommend getting this version. I downloaded it as a free version and as they say you get what you pay for. This version has a lot of characters and symbols inserted in the text and, while it is not impossible to read, it is highly annoying.
9 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.HattieJean
Posted September 16, 2010
I know this is a free edition, but why are so many words misspelled? It really detracts from my enjoyment of the book.
8 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.dandubovoy
Posted May 31, 2012
The book by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles would make a reader very entertained, scared, and relieved in the end. It starts off slow and later hooks the reader to the point that you don’t want to stop reading. When the plot unfolds the person reading will sit and read until the end, it is truly a great detective book. The use of the language can be hard at times, however if using a dictionary it wont be hard. The book starts at 221B Baker St where Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson live. Watson finds a walking stick with a bite mark in the middle from a dog. Later there is a man telling the two men that there is a curse on the Baskerville family, and a mysterious hound is killing the family members for decades. The plot gets more interesting when the reader finds out that recently the hound kills one of the members of the family. There is more to tell, but my job is to write what I think about the book. This book should be read by people of all ages, even adults. It is truly a great mystery fiction novel about friendship and knowledge. If you are looking for something that is not huge and something that can keep you interested look no further. Meanwhile I will go back to reading it again.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I wanted to re-read The Hound of the Baskervilles now that I have my nook. However I couldn't get through the first 5 pages with all of the spelling errors, random symbols and strange page breaks and inserts. This review is not against Arthur Conan Doyle's work, but rather the shotty job of the transcribers...
4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 11, 2012
This book is so frickin confusing.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 22, 2011
I got to page 9 and gave up because of the misspelled words.
3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 18, 2010
I had never read any Sherlock Holmes books and that is why I chose this book to buy. It was a relatively short book compared to most. I enjoyed the descriptions and especially the dry British wit used throughout the book. My biggest "problem" with the book was the fact that it was written over 100 years ago and it took me awhile to get used to the way they talked and many of the sayings they used. I did not find it the kind of book that I can't set down until it is finished but I enjoyed it and am very glad I bought it. As a "classic" I would recommend it to those who like to try a variety of books.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.brian13BC
Posted February 23, 2010
The Sherlock Holmes mystery, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is packed with unexpected turns and surprising conclusions. This fiction novel will keep any audience on the edges of there seats as the plot unfolds.
The story begins at 221B Baker Street, the famous lodging of Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Watson. The two detectives are sitting in there living room listening to the story a man is telling them about the curse that befalls every Baskerville who take up residence at the family estate in the haunted moor. Supposedly there is an enormous hound that haunts the lonely moors around the Baskervilles ancient home. However Holmes and Watson become more intrigued when they find out that the most recent resident at the Baskerville estate has recently been killed by the legendary hound, and thus starts the investigation of the curious case of the hound of the Baskervilles.
as the mystery unfolds, the next heir to the Baskerville estate, Sir Charles, moves into the haunted house on the moor, accompanied by Watson and Holmes. As the two detectives further investigate, they seem to be getting no where, until they discover that Mr. Stapleton is the sole beneficiary to the Baskervilles inheritance, and he will stop at nothing to claim his wealth. Holmes learns that Sir Charles is the next on Stapletons list, so he sets up a trap to catch him red handed in the act of using his over grown hound to kill the last of the Baskervilles. One evening as Sir Charles makes his way through the moor while Watson and Holmes wait, well armed, for the hound to attack. In the final suspense, the hound lunges out from the fog to take out the Sir Charles but, Holmes pulls the trigger before the hound can reach its prey and so the beast is killed in the nick of time.
throughout the book Holmes and Watson are in friendly competition to see who can best solve each part to the puzzle. The two detectives have a unique relationship, because they are continuously one-upping the other and downplaying the others conclusions. However they spur each other on, and are never divisive over a difference in opinion.
this mystery novel was the best book that i have ever read, there was no element to it that i did not enjoy throughly. The unique writing style of the author draws you in and the unexpected manner in which the plot is revealed allowed me to maintain interest in the story from cover to cover. i would recommend this novel to any reader at the high school level or above because of how unexpected and thrilling "The Hound of the Baskervilles" really is.
2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 28, 2012
I am new at this and learned quickly to read reviews first. This copy is impossible to read with all the little formatting errors.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 30, 2012
Still a great.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 15, 2012
I hate this book!I had to read it for school and I did not understand it!:(
1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 16, 2011
There are so many wierd characters & wrong words it is distracting. This review is purely in reference to the electronic verdion & not on the story itself.
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.GraceC
Posted January 2, 2010
The Hounds of the Baskervilles is an outstanding novel. Its so well writen the story flies by with many suprises and questons here and there. In most mystorys tht I read i can guess/expect some of what is to come latter in the story, but in this story most of my guesses were wrong. What im trying to say is it is filled with some unexpected twists. Read this story anyone will like it!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 9, 2013
I have to read this for school. Is it good?
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Posted March 21, 2013
Amazing!!! Highly recommended!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted March 10, 2013
I am 12 years old, sixth grade. I am reading this book in my literature circles. Although I am only about half way through the book, I can definately say it is a great book. We have to read 9 novels by the end of the year (we only get to choose from a certain pile of nine books) and i have to admit, this was one of my last picks, i was really hesitant to read it. I have now learned that i do not only like girl stories and romance novels among funny books, but now i have been exposed to a whole nother world of literature. For this, i very much thank my teacher. Now, reguarding the actual book, I am very much enjoying it. I do have to admit that some words i need to look up, but that is easy on nook! It really grabs your attention in some parts, but sometimes, more in the beginning, you can get a little bored. Many people say that kids cannot enjoy these books, they are wrong! ~alicia s.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 27, 2013
This is an amazing book. My school class read it, I was the only one who actually read it. All though I think there was too much detail, and I was confused about scene changes... such as I thought they were in a hotel and they were on a road. It was still amazing!!!
Anonymous
Posted December 26, 2012
Do NOT read the free ebook. The OCR is terrible. Get the real book.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 28, 2012
I have to read this book for summer reading, and i wanted to know if this was the real one, because the other versions that seem real are $4.99 instead of just $.99. If someone xould reply, i would be very happy. Thank you for your time.
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Overview
When a second member of the Baskerville family dies, Sherlock Holmes investigates and ...