The story in one page
After Sir Charles Baskerville dies of fright on his estate, Dr. Mortimer brings a centuries-old legend of a demonic hound to Sherlock Holmes. The new heir, Sir Henry, arrives from Canada to find himself shadowed in London and warned by an anonymous letter to stay away from the moor. Holmes dispatches Watson to Baskerville Hall to act as a bodyguard and reporter. Amidst the treacherous Grimpen Mire and the escape of a local convict, Watson finds the neighbors suspicious and the butler furtive. However, the detective has been closer than Watson realized, hiding in a stone hut to unmask a killer using local folklore as a murder weapon.
Who's who
- Sherlock Holmes
A consulting detective who uses logic to dismantle supernatural myths.
- Dr. Watson
Holmes’s associate who conducts the field investigation at Baskerville Hall.
- Sir Henry Baskerville
The American heir who inherits a fortune and a deadly curse.
- Stapleton
A butterfly-collecting neighbor with a hidden claim to the Baskerville estate.
- Barrymore
The hall’s butler who signals a convict across the moor at night.
What it's really about
- Rationalism vs Superstition
- Holmes treats a demonic legend as a problem of chemistry and footprints.
- Inheritance
- A hidden lineage motivates a complex and lethal long-game conspiracy.
Why it's memorable
- A boot stolen from a London hotel to give a hound a scent.
- The silhouette of a man standing on a tor against the moon.
The ending, explained
Spoilers — show the ending
Stapleton is revealed as a Baskerville relative who used a phosphorus-painted dog to kill; he disappears into the Grimpen Mire, and Holmes treats Watson to dinner and the opera.
For your book club
- The effectiveness of Watson as a solo investigator before Holmes intervenes.
- How the atmospheric setting of the moor functions as a character.