Showing posts with label Sherlock Holmes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sherlock Holmes. Show all posts

Monday, February 10, 2025

Ranking January Reads

The year's first book ranking video is now out! In this video, Eric ranks his top ten reads of January 2025. This is the widest span of reading in the show's history - the 1800s all the way to 2024! All ten books are presented here with capsule reviews, loads of amazing artwork, and tidbits about authors. Stream below or on the YT channel HERE.



Friday, February 7, 2025

Sherlock Holmes - The Hound of the Baskervilles

Enjoying the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, I decided to read and review another of the Holmes novels. The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four Holmes novels authored by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. It was originally serialized in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 until April of 1902. It was published by George Newness as a hardcover in March of 1902.

It's interesting to read the history of the character and novel and how it scopes the existence of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Initially Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes in the short 1893 story “The Final Problem”. After that story's publication, Doyle volunteered as a physician during the Second Boer War and abandoned writing about the character for eight years. The character's popularity led Doyle to write another Sherlock novel, setting this book two years prior to the character's death in “The Final Problem”. Later, Doyle brings the beloved sleuth back to life in “The Adventure of the Empty House” in a soap opera way that mandates readers suspend disbelief and just roll with it.

In The Hound of the Baskervilles, a Dr. James Mortimer visits Holmes and Watson and asks for their assistance in investigating a bizarre murder. He prefaces the details of the murder with the history of the Baskerville family. The most intriguing part of the lesson is that a Hugo Baskerville kidnapped a local farmer's daughter and then was apparently killed by a demonic hound when he attempted to retrieve the young woman after she escaped.

The central murder mystery concerns Charles Baskerville, who succumbed to death on the moors. Was it cardiac arrest? Frightened to death? The clue may lie in the mysterious hound prints found near Charles' corpse. Could this region truly be haunted by a demonic hound?

This third novel-length Holmes mystery is brimming over with atmosphere. The foggy moors, the black of night, and the pretense that something supernatural has draped itself over the small nestled community is simply riveting. Watson, void of Holmes for three-fourths of the novel, pours though the clues with an emphasis on brother and sister caretakers that have...an unusual relationship. An Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard becomes mixed up with the investigation along with an escaped convict from the local prison. 

While I haven't read many Holmes stories or novels, I can't imagine there is one better than this. The shades of Goth combined with the sensational chemistry between Watson and Holmes (later) is just an unbeatable combination. Whether there is, or will be, supernatural happenings in the series remains to be seen. I'm anxious to read more. The Hound of the Baskervilles is a mandatory read. 

Friday, January 3, 2025

Sherlock Holmes - A Study in Scarlet

The canon of Sherlock Holmes includes 56 short stories and four novels authored by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The character first appeared in the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet, first published in Beeton's Christmas Annual and then in book format a year later. Thanks to my friend and Sherlockian expert Paul Bishop, an author/blogger/podcaster, I've taken my first plunge into the literary escapism of the Victorian detective era.

A Study in Scarlet begins by way of an introduction between Dr. John Watson, who narrates in first-person, and the enigma himself, Sherlock Holmes. Readers learn of Watson's experience in the Anglo-Afghan War, his service as a surgeon with the Army Medical Department, and his education at University of London, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and Edinburgh University. As the book begins Watson is searching for room and board and is urged to meet with Holmes, an eccentric in need of a roommate to offset rent.

Holmes is described as having a profound knowledge of chemistry, sensational literature, and British law. He has a feeble knowledge of politics, an accurate understanding of anatomy, and variable degrees of knowledge in botany. Holmes is an expert boxer and swordsman, plays the violin, and, most importantly, is a consulting detective.

A telegram arrives requesting assistance in a murder case. A body has been discovered in an abandoned house on Brixton Road. Watson joins Holmes in the investigation. At the crime scene Holmes shows up Scotland Yard by deducing that the murderer used poison. The German word for “revenge” is scrawled on the wall and a ring is discovered that may lead to the murderer's identity. Eventually, Holmes locates the killer and the mystery is solved. All of this takes place in Part I, titled “The Reminiscences of Watson”. 

Reading the murder investigation as closed, I was surprised that half of the book remained unread. Part II is “The Country of the Saints”, a detailed explanation of what kickstarted the victim pursuit, motive, and the murderer's ultimate goal. Surprisingly, Holmes and Watson have no participation in this part of the book. Instead, this portion of the narrative takes place in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah years before the Brixton Road murder. In this account, a man named John Ferrier and a young girl named Lucy are rescued from the desert by Brigham Young's Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). Ferrier is forced into a Mormon faith and becomes a prisoner to the religion. Despite his reluctance, Ferrier becomes wealthy and gains a great swath of land. However two of the Mormon leaders vow to make Lucy their bride. Ferrier is provided a deadline to turn Lucy over to one of them for adoption into their harem. Lucy is adamant in her intentions to never marry either of them and Ferrier is left between a rock and a very hard place – both being killed or giving up Lucy.

I found both parts of Doyle's novel riveting in different ways. The first adventure of the famed Watson/Holmes crime-solving duo was just so enjoyable. There's a touch of dry humor and an ebb and flow between the two as they pounced on the details of the case and the list of suspects and motives. It was easy to follow the investigation (a lesson some writers today should adhere to) and see the case through to the conclusion. Thankfully, Doyle spends an equal amount of time instilling in the reader the reasons and motive for the murder. I found this portion of the book to be slightly more superior. This was an exceptional western-style novella complete with a “long-rifle hero” attempting to save a homesteader and his daughter from land barons. It is the classic western tale that ascends into a crescendo of violence, death, and revenge.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Sherlock Holmes book and I'm looking forward to devouring the remaining novels and short-story collections. A Study in Scarlet is my highest possible recommendation. Get it HERE.