The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialized 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. Holmes and Watson investigate the case.
This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in The Final Problem, and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character’s eventual revival. Not only was it the first Sherlock Holmes story to be released in the twentieth century, it was the first story that seemingly endeavored into the world of the supernatural which would challenge Holmes’s idea of rational existence.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was born of Irish parentage in Scotland. He took a degree in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, but he also had a passion for storytelling. He began writing detective stories to supplement his income, and A Study in Scarlet (1887) introduced his finest creation, the hawk-eyed detective Sherlock Holmes. Despite the immense popularity Holmes gained throughout the world, Doyle was not overly fond of the character and preferred to write other stories. Eventually popular demand won out and he continued to satisfy readers with the adventures of the legendary sleuth. He also wrote historical romances and made two essays into pseudoscientific fantasy: The Lost World and The Poison Belt.
Marnye Young is a SOVAS and AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator for New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling authors and has recorded hundreds of audiobooks. A SAG-AFTRA voice, stage, and screen actor and David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University MFA Grad, she has spent her life in the North and the South. Having performed across the globe and known for her affinity for dialects, she has also been praised for her impeccable comic timing as well as her ability to make you cry. When she isn't narrating, she's acting, coaching, directing, fishing, watching NASCAR, raising chickens, doing crossword puzzles, "mom"ing her identical twin daughters, and trying to pay it forward.