The Hounds of Baskervilles Written by Canon Doyle

The title of my story book is The Hounds of Baskervilles

The Hounds of Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialized in the Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's west country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr Wantson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in The Final Problem and the success of The Hounds of Baskervilles led to the characters eventual revival. Dr Mortimer calls on Sherlock Holmes in London for advice after his friend Sir Charles Baskerville was found dead in the yew alley of his manor on Dartmoor in Devon. The death was attributed to a heart attack, but according to Mortimer, Sir Charles face retained an expression of horror, and not far from the corpse the foot prints of a gigantic hound were clearly visible. According to an old legend, a curse runs in the Baskerville family since the time of the English civil war when a Hugo Baskerville abducted and caused the death of a maiden on the moor, only to be killed in turn by a huge demonic hound. Allegedly the same creature has been hunting the manor ever since causing the premature death of many Baskerville heirs. Sir Charles believed in the plague of the hound and so does Mortimer who now fears for the next in line Sir Henry Baskerville.

Even though he dismisses the curse story as nonsense Holmes agrees to meet Sir Henry in London as soon as Sir Henry arrives from Canada where he has been living. He is a young and jovial good looking fellow, sceptical toward the grim legend and eager to take possession of Baskerville Hall even though he has just found anonymous note in the mail warning him to stay away from the moor. When someone shadows Sir Henry while he is walking down a street however Holmes asks Wantson to go with the young man and Mortimer to Dartmoor in order to protect Sir Henry and search for any clues about who is menacing his life. The trio arrives at Baskerville Hall, an old and imposing manor in the middle of a vast park managed by a butler and his wife the housekeeper. The estate is surrounded by the moor and borders the Grimpen Mire where animals and humans can sink to death in quick sand. The news that a convict named Selden, a murderer has escaped from the near by Dartmoor Prison and is hiding in the near by hills adds to the barren landscape and the gloomy atmosphere.