Classics for Your Collection:

goo.gl/U80LCr

---------

There is an old legend of the Baskervilles, that they are tainted by a centuries-old curse. The curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles, a spectral hell hound that chases down members of the family if they should venture out upon the moors at night and brings about their early demise. Many believe it is fairy tale nonsense, but what then is the explanation for the misfortune of the Baskerville family members?

And what is that piercing howl that can be heard across the dark, misty moors at night? When the doctor James Mortimer of the late Charles Baskerville pays Sherlock Holmes a visit, both Holmes and Watson get pulled into something very old and dangerous, even the level-headed Sherlock Holmes begins to question whether his most recent villain is even of this world.

The image of the old, haunted mansion used in many horror stories seems rather overdone today but Doyle's example of this still works all these years after the book's publication. The atmosphere created by setting this mystery miles from civilisation and out on some creepy moors is highly effective, that kind of setting can make anyone start to believe in ghosts. This tale is told through the discovery of secrets that are hidden away in the house's very corridors and come out to play at night, red herrings are thrown in and everyone has a secret - it's hard not to be caught up in the creepiness and tension.

The Hound of the Baskervilles leans more towards horror than the usual Sherlock crime-solving mystery, but Arthur Conan Doyle worked his hero into this genre with the easy of slipping on a finger-print hiding glove.

Scroll Up and Grab Your Copy!
About the Author:

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(22 May 1859 - 7 July 1930) was an Irish-Scots writer and physician, most noted for creating the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and writing stories about him which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction.

He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.

Supported by wealthy uncles, Doyle was sent to the Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst, at the age of nine (1868-70). He then went on to Stonyhurst College until 1875. From 1875 to 1876, he was educated at the Jesuit school Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria.

From 1876 to 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, including periods working in Aston (then a town in Warwickshire, now part of Birmingham), Sheffield and Ruyton-XI-Towns, Shropshire.

Doyle struggled to find a publisher for his work. His first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, A Study in Scarlet, was taken by Ward Lock & Co on 20 November 1886, giving Doyle £25 (£2500 today) for all rights to the story. The piece appeared one year later in the Beeton's Christmas Annual and received good reviews in The Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald.

While living in Southsea, Doyle played football as a goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club, an amateur side, under the pseudonym A. C. Smith.