Genre: Literature, mystery.

The first time I read this book, it was somewhere in Sec 1, where I had a voracious appetite for any horror / mystery stories. This time round, was merely browsing in the library for something, anything to read, to get me out of the ditch. (Yes, reading is a fantastic form of escapism.) In the past, I remembered being really freaked out by the ghostly hound. Think I had it classified under the same category as Anubis (Egyptian god with a dog’s head that weighs the dead man’s heart against a feather. If it’s heavier than the feather, Anubis gobbles his heart up. And I suppose the poor soul goes to hell. Boy, it freaked me out so much I was real good for like 2 weeks), and same category as Cerebrus the 3-headed hounds that guard the gates of hell.

Now you must be wondering, what a warped 13-year-old kid I was!

Hound of Baskervilles

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are probably more well-known than their creator, Sir Conan Arthur Doyle. In this book, one may note the deductive and elementary approach that the author has taken towards solving the mystery of the hound of Baskervilles, a legendary curse that has claimed the lives of two Baskervilles, and is threatening to do the same for the third. This approach was adapted from his medical training at Edinburgh. Can tell, you know, reading the book felt like going through a superb tutorial… History, examination (where inspection was vital), differentials and management! The plot is seamlessly woven into a net of deceit and lies, of subplots and clever guises such that the reader will also enjoy working through the mystery with Holmes and Watson.

In fact, I wouldn’t wonder if other modern detective novels such as the Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene were adapted from these age-old masterpieces. Check out ‘The Secret of Shadow Ranch’ in that series and you’ll get what I mean!