The hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Well Halloween was wondering what to read and though oh I ll reread the Hound of the Baskervilles it is a short book and can be easily read in a day ,Now this was my first reread since my early twenties of this book ,I first read under the covers as a ten-year old ,this time I was struck by a number of things ,the cleverness of the writing using diary ,and telegrams as different chapters .The way Doyle built up the moor as a character in itself ,dark sorrowful and full of mystery .The other thing I had in my head was a spinning wheel of the versions of this book I ve seen on dvd and film from Basil Rathbone ,Peter Cushing ,Jeremy Brett and their sidekicks ,at different points in the book I had a different Holmes in my mind’s eye .one my favourite lines is .

why should a man walk on tiptoe down the alley ?

he was running ,watson -running desperately ,running for his life ,running until his heart burst and fell dead upon his face .

running from what ?

there lies our problem .there are indications that the man was crazed with fear before ever he began to run

how can you say that ?

I m not going to mention much on the story I think most people know the story SIR Charles Baskerville ,dies under strange circumstances ,his nephew comes to england ,there is a myth of an evil curse of a demon hound on the Baskerville family ,Watson goes the Baskerville seat in devon on the dark moors ,e

he meets the locals reports to Holmes ,then Holmes comes into the picture again and there is a shocking climax ! .Watson is the main character in most of this book ,he comes across as an able doctor ,a fairly observant man and a prefect sounding board for Holmes ,Watson’S view is very black and white he is the parts that Holmes character doesn’t have ,compassion ,able to interact with people more openly .well as ever I loved this book it is a true classic in crime lit and the best of the Holmes novels .Now as I said I imagined the different film versions ,I think the best of them is Jeremy BNretts it is in many ways nearest the novel ,but can recommend the Ian Richardson version as it has Brian Blessed ,doing what he does best shouting .

HAVE YOU READ THIS ?

DO YOU LIKE ANY OF THE FILM VERSIONS ?

R.I.P V CHALLENGE

As ever I m late signing up for a challenge ,seen other people doing this challenge so thought why not ,the theme seems to be books dealiong with dark subjects so  I ve choose these to try and read –

Artic chill by Arnaldur Indritdason –

An icelandic novel ,following detective Erlendur ,investigating the death of a dark skinned young boy and his missing half brother .

The she devil in the mirror by Horacio Castellanos Moya –

Not quite sure if this fits in ,but follows Laura River who best friend has been killed and Laura won’t rest til she finds out ,all set in the chaos of post war s=San Salvador .

The haunting of hill house by Shirley Jackson –

follows four ghost hunters staying at Hill House a haunted house i,from the well known short story writer consider a classic horror novel .

There are my three books ,what you think ?