Books in The Best of Sherlock Holmes series

For generations the curse had hung over the Baskerville family. Now another life had been claimed by the mysterious and terrifying beast. Was it a demon or an animal lurking on the desolate moor? Would the new master of the Baskerville home be its next victim?Sherlock Holmes and Watson set out to solve the most bewildering and bloodcurdling case of their careers in this world-famous classic of mystery and suspense.

Clive Merrison stars as Holmes with Michael Williams as Watson in this collection from the unique, fully dramatized BBC Radio 4 canon. These 12 stories range from Holmes' very first case to the epic struggle between Holmes and Moriarty high above the Reichenbach Falls. The stories are "Silver Blaze," "The Yellow Face," "The Stockbroker's Clerk," "The 'Gloria Scott," "The Musgrave Ritual," "The Reigate Squires," "The Crooked Man," "The Resident Patient," "The Greek Interpreter," "The Naval Treaty," "The Second Stain," and "The Final Problem". Gripping, suspenseful, and hugely entertaining, these acclaimed dramatisations bring the world of Holmes and Watson to life, and are guaranteed to appeal to any fan of the great detective. Duration: 9 hours approx.

"There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it." Arriving in the wilderness of London and in need of lodgings, Dr. John Watson finds himself living at 221B Baker Street with one Sherlock Holmes. When a corpse is discovered in a derelict house Watston, fascinated by his brilliant, eccentric companion, is soon drawn into Holmes’ investigations. There’s no sign of a struggle, no wounds on the body, yet scrawled in blood across the walls is the word "RACHE"—revenge. Watson is baffled but, for Holmes, the game is afoot. . .4 CDs. 4 hrs 42 mins.

It is the summer of 1868, and Sherlock Holmes is fourteen. On break from boarding school, he is staying with eccentric strangers--his uncle and aunt--in their vast house in Hampshire. When two local people die from symptoms that resemble the plague, Holmes begins to investigate what really killed them, helped by his new tutor, an American named Amyus Crowe. So begins Sherlock's true education in detection, as he discovers the dastardly crimes of a brilliantly sinister villain of exquisitely malign intent.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Dr. James Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes for advice following the death of his friend, Sir Charles Baskerville. Sir Charles was found dead on the grounds of his Devonshire estate, Baskerville Hall. Mortimer now fears for Sir Charles's nephew and sole heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, who is the new master of Baskerville Hall. The death was attributed to a heart attack, but Mortimer is suspicious, because Sir Charles died with an expression of horror on his face, and Mortimer noticed "the footprints of a gigantic hound" about 50 yards from where Sir Charles lay dead. The Baskerville family has supposedly been under a curse since the era of the English Civil War when ancestor Hugo Baskerville allegedly offered his soul to the devil for help in abducting a woman and was reportedly killed by a giant spectral hound. Sir Charles believed in the curse and was apparently fleeing from something in fright when he died.

"To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman," says Watson of Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia. "In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex." Holmes and Watson are hired by the King of Bohemia to purloin an incriminating photograph. But in one of his few failures, Holmes's best plans are beaten by Irene Adler's brilliance. In The Redheaded League, Holmes is engaged upon two seemingly unrelated cases, a daring bank robbery and the disappearance of a pawnbroker's assistant. Using minute details of the small mystery, he is able to solve the larger one. "Depend upon it," says Holmes to Watson in A Case of Identity, "there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." Holmes is as fascinated by the story of a common young woman whose groom has vanished on the way to the altar as he has been by the woes of kings. He sharpens his powers of detection by putting together scattered facts to form a powerful and unexpected accusation. Holmes tells Watson about one of his first cases, The Musgrave Ritual; one that helped make him famous. Two servants of an English nobleman disappear. By following a trail of obscure clues left behind in an old parchment, Holmes discovers the crown of a former King of England.

"It is the Valley of Fear, the Valley of Death. The terror is in the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn. Wait, young man, and you will learn for yourself." Sherlock Holmes is intrigued and disturbed when he receives an ominous coded message: a Mr. Douglas of Birlstone House is in terrible danger. Before Holmes can act, shocking news arrives. Douglas has been founded dead—his face blown off by a shotgun. Scotland Yard is stumped. Was this suicide or murder? But Holmes is in no doubt. For he recognizes the calling card of his nemesis: Professor James Moriarty. In this thrilling tale of fear and tyranny, stretching from the stark American coal valleys to an English country manor, Holmes must battle his greatest—and most lethal—enemy.6 CDs. 6 hrs 17 mins.

Holmes encounters one of his most formidable adversaries and must unlock the mystery of the demonic hound, the curse of the Baskerville family. Published in The Strand magazine in episodes between August 1901 and April 1902, The Hound of the Baskervilles became one of the most popular of all the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and received a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh. He said of Dr. Joseph Bell, one of his instructors, “I thought of Joe Bell, of his eagle face, of his curious ways, of his eerie trick of spotting details. If he were a detective he wold surely reduce this fascinating business to something nearer to an exact science. “