Finished! Just in time... (Spoilers for the whole book)

[Allison]

Whew.

Ok, for some reason it was hard to read this month. At least, hard to read the pre-selected books. My brain was all a-flitter, doing other things. But! I buckled down, showed my brain who was boss, and read.

And I'm so glad I did. I had read Hound years ago, and I forgot how good the characters are. Specifically, the relationship between Watson and Holmes. They are friends. They hurt each other, but they also praise each other. They count on each other.

Also, the book was filled with enjoyable turns of phrase. Several times I would go back over something and read it out loud. It was lovely.

[Nathaniel]

It was unavoidable to compare this to Some Buried Caeser from last month, and I noticed something.

This felt like we were along for the adventure, but didn't have enough clues to solve it until they were given to us. The biggest examples would be "She's not his sister?" and "He's a Baskerville?"

Some Buried Caesar felt more like a mystery we *could* solve. Perhaps it's because the Detective figure in Caesar DID have most of it solved quickly, and the Detective figure in Baskervilles was having to investigate.

Perhaps it's an evolution of the genre? These were written with many decade separating them, with stories based on different continents, and both long before any contemporary mysteries we might have read or watched.

I definitely have to agree about the language. I posted my favorite line to my social networks, but I'll post it again here it here:

“Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.”
— The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, page 4.