The Hound of the Baskervilles

Starred review from November 24, 2014
Of all Doyle’s stories about the redoubtable Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend and chronicler Dr. John Watson, arguably the best known is their investigation into what appears to be a homicidal “gigantic hound” pursuing the Baskerville clan. There have been numerous film, radio, and television adaptations, but rarely has one been as flat-out entertaining as this radio-like full-cast performance, directed by Alexis Jacknow and recorded before a live audience. Much of this is due to the clever script by Pichette and Wright, which includes most of Doyle’s original plot but manages to be as humorous as it is thrilling and, though set in Victorian times, ends with a refreshingly contemporary noirish twist. Assisted by splendid sound effects, the cast performs with energy, enthusiasm, and invention. For example, Moira Quirk portrays the 221B Baker Street housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, with an amusingly flippant attitude. Seamus Dever is a sharp-witted and sharp-tongued Holmes, but, as in the novel, the character spends quite a bit of time observing events from afar (and is therefore often away from the mike). In his absence, Watson and potential victim Sir Henry Baskerville carry the plot, with Geoffrey Arend presenting the good doctor as a capable and humane straight man considerably out-charmed by actor James Marsters’s Sir Henry. The production also features comments by Leslie S. Klinger, editor of the Edgar Allan Poe Award–winning New Annotated Sherlock Holmes.

April 1, 2002
Sherlock Holmes aficionados will welcome the first two volumes in the Baker Street Irregulars manuscript series: Arthur Conan Doyle's Angels of Darkness: A Drama in Three Acts edited by Peter Blau, and The Hound of the Baskervilles: Chapter XI. The former contains a facsimile of an unpublished play based on the second part of A Study in Scarlet, while the latter includes not only a holograph reproduction and linear transcription of the chapter manuscript but also several scholarly essays on what many consider the best detective novel ever.

August 24, 2009
This better than average comics version of the quintessential 1901 Sherlock Holmes novel shows the first private detective's cool rationality confronting gibbering horror in order to thwart an ancient curse, a hound from hell that kills the male heads of a wealthy family. Patriarch Sir Charles Baskerville just having been frightened to death, Holmes and Dr. Watson set out to protect the family heir, Sir Henry. Few trappings of gothic mystery are missing from the action, but they are countered by Holmes's instructions that Watson should observe closely and analyze skeptically everything he sees. Edginton's script is much closer to Conan Doyle's original than most adaptations, although that does mean that the characters get to talk a lot. Culbard's energetic layouts and darkly sinister backgrounds are effective; when he turns to the story's people, unfortunately, the Seth-like brushwork stretches their heads until they look like animated kidney beans. Overall, though, Hound
gives modern readers a taste of what makes Sherlock Holmes an immortal character.