The Hound of the Baskervilles

What a delightful little read!  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous adventure of the one and only Sherlock Holmes is probably one of the shortest novels of the list of 100, but it was rather fun to read.  To be honest, I have not read any other Holmes adventures, but I did take a class about Sherlock Holmes in middle school.  Here's the scoop: when we moved to Florida, I was placed in a gifted program called PATS (Program for Academically Talented Students), which sadly now no longer exists.  Now, this particular program was different than other gifted/enrichment programs in which I had been enrolled because the classes weren't before or after school or even on Saturdays...no, you took a day off from school and went to this entire other building with an entire other staff.  It was cool because you got to meet students from other schools, and you got to take some interesting classes.  The only negative was making up the work you missed during the regular school day, but for the most part, that wasn't a big deal.

PATS offered some great classes that were designed to help the students expand their horizons, learn new skills, and develop productive hobbies.  Some of the subjects included drama, creative writing, physics, music, law and one in which we formed our own town by role playing.  I owned the construction company, and I made boo-coos of money (fake money, that is) off of my classmates, by the way.  In one drama class, we wrote our own script and then cast our classmates in our plays and presented them to the rest of the PATS students.  Our play was called 'Hypnotic State' and was stinkin' hilarious.  Oh yes, imagine a big black basketball player wearing a tutu and dancing around on stage...because that is what Willy did.  Funniest thing I have ever seen.  In another class, we learned more about the law and famous cases.  This class is where Laina and I learned more about the role Jell-O played in the Lindbergh kidnapping.  To this day, we believe the flavor was lemon-lime...

I relate all of these memories to you because 1) it's simply fun to take trips down memory lane and 2) one of the most memorable classes I took at PATS was Mrs. Kerr's Sherlock Holmes class.  One of my dearest friends Laina and I took this class together and had a ridiculously good time throughout the course.  Mrs. Kerr had these set of Sherlock Holmes mystery cards; you read the scenario and tried to solve the case somehow.  I can't remember how it all worked because Laina and I spent the vast majority of the class under one of the tables reading magazines, listening to music, and eating contraband food.  We solved the bare minimum of cases to pass the class and then pretty much took the rest of the class off.  And we also witnessed one of the funniest moments in PATS history; our classmate Marshawn absolutely freaking out because he couldn't solve the very last case.  During his entire tirade, Mrs. Kerr simply sat and listened to Marshawn complain about the unfairness of it all while Laina and I remained under the table, wondering how in the heck he got to the last case to begin with (note: Marshawn never joined us under the table; perhaps that is the reason for his success).

Sherlock Holmes is forever linked in my brain to Laina, Mrs. Kerr, and Marshawn.  Be that what it may, perhaps I did an injustice to Doyle and his characters by not reading any of the mysteries until now.  I must say, the experience was quite enjoyable.  Doyle does an excellent job of producing a sensational mystery that does not have to rely on blood, guts, and gore or even the supernatural.  That's talent, my friends.  The atmosphere of mystery and suspense was only heightened by the fact that I read the book at night...alone...while it was raining.  I was almost as scared as when I read Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher in high school...at night...alone...while it was storming.  *Shudder*

Regardless, I highly recommend The Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle.  It is rather short, so you can finish it pretty quickly and then move on to enjoy other wonderful Holmes mysteries.  I fully intend to do the same.