The Hound of the Baskervilles

⚖The case for it

Holmes and Watson investigate a curse on a Devonshire family: a supernatural hound stalking the moor. Doyle achieved a perfectly paced puzzle with genuine atmosphere of dread, and the moor itself becomes a character. No other Holmes adventure has been adapted as frequently or loved as deeply.

— the canon

✕The case against

Holmes vanishes for the middle third, leaving Watson to file reports from the moor, and the book sags exactly there. Strip away the fog and the hound is a large dog with phosphorus paint, a solution faintly deflating after all that dread. Atmosphere is the whole trick; the puzzle barely exists.

— the honest librarian