The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Unabridged Audio Version

I recently listened to the unabridged version of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and read by Grahame Stevens. Playing time for this audiobook is approximately 5 hours, 25 minutes. 

I am very familiar with the character names of Sherlock Holmes and his side kick Dr. John H. Watson as there have been countless movies and television series featuring both characters. But, I have yet to read or listen to anything written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle until now.  

Here's the plot details for The Hound of the Baskervilles from Audible:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the legend of a supernatural hound, a beast that may be stalking a young heir on the fog-shrouded moorland that makes up his estate. The best of the Holmes novels!

I wasn't overly impressed with this story, the characters or the plot development... I also felt that Grahame Stevens did an okay job of reading The Hound of the Baskervilles. 

The story was a bit difficult for me to get into. I wasn't sure if this was due to the way Grahame Stevens was reading The Hound of the Baskervilles or if it was the writing/story itself that was the issue. Things finally became more captivating a few chapters into The Hound of the Baskervilles.  

The ending of it, however, was a let down... I don't like stories where the author has the leading characters give a final analysis of the events as a way to wrap/tidy things up. If the author writes a great story there is no need to have the leading characters wrap up the story line. It's just odd! 

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were also quite a bit different in this story than I expected them to be after seeing a movie and two different television series in recent years about them. Then again, I know Hollywood puts their own artistic license into things, so I shouldn't be too surprised if Hollywood didn't stay true to the characters.

All in all, The Hound of the Baskervilles was a decent read. I didn't love or hate it... Just felt 'Meh' about it on the whole. I won't be going out of my way to read another Sherlock Holmes story in the feature.

Until my next post, happy reading!