Sundays with Sherlock – Beast of the Stapletons

Published: 13 October 2020
Publisher: Titan Books
Pages: 404
Series: James Lovegrove’s Sherlock Holmes #5
Format Read: Audible

Blurp:

1894. The monstrous Hound of the Baskervilles has been dead for five years, along with its no less monstrous owner, the naturalist Jack Stapleton. Sir Henry Baskerville is living contentedly at Baskerville Hall with his new wife Audrey and their three-year-old son Harry.

Until, that is, Audrey’s lifeless body is found on the moors, drained of blood. It would appear some fiendish creature is once more at large on Dartmoor and has, like its predecessor, targeted the unfortunate Baskerville family.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are summoned to Sir Henry’s aid, and our heroes must face a marauding beast that is the very stuff of nightmares. It seems that Stapleton may not have perished in the Great Grimpen Mire after all, as Holmes believed, and is hell-bent on revenge…

Thoughts:

Its been a while since I finished this novel as well as had a Sunday with Sherlock post. So I am going to try keep it short. The story is a direct sequel to The Hound of the Baskervilles. Because of events of that book, Watson has developed a fear of dogs of any sort and when Holmes gets given a case that will take him back to Baskerville Hall. Watson declines to go with because of the fear that has manifested from their last visit there and Sherlock goes alone. The story does not follow the classic way of Watson writing things as it happened. I think it was still done pretty well. Lovegrove has a good grasp on the characters and again proved that he could write pretty neat fan fiction that I will be trying to finish this series.

Even though this is book 5 in Lovegrove’s Sherlock Holmes series, can be read as a stand alone, yet, if you read the original Hound novel, the little hints and clues dropped here and there make it all worth it. Watson does explain things as the story goes along, a good example is from where his fear of K-9’s comes from. Sherlock is still written with the original character’s mannerisms from the Doyle series. He does not think highly of himself and is not a pompous ass as many other authors or movies has made the rest of the world believe he is. The relationship between Watson and Sherlock still holds strong and stays true to the original.

I have to say that the “who dunnit” part was done pretty well, the name on the cover should be a dead give away, but that only came apparent to me by the last quarter of the novel. I found the Lovegrove did a good job with this one. I liked how they explored scenes that came from the Hounds novel and how the characters interacted with it.

I gave this a 4 out of 5 on GR and would recommend it to people who want more Sherlock and Watson adventures.

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