Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of the Stapletons

By: James Lovegrove

Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

New York Times best-selling author James Lovegrove’s continues the story of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles, as five years later, another monstrous creature stalks across Dartmoor....

The year 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....

©2020 James Lovegrove (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

A little too implausible and untrue to characters

I really enjoy James Lovegrove's pastiches. I enjoyed The Beast of the Stapletons. But it was pretty implausible and did violence to the characters from the Hound of the Baskervilles. It was variance from the characters that detracted most from the story. It's still well worth listening to.

Believe the reviews about the predictable ending.

Is Watson really that dumb? The villain could’ve been jumping up and down screaming it’s me Watson…why aren’t you thinking about me?

Brilliant!

I'm a huge fan of James Lovegroves and this is the 4th book I've finished by him. It was fantastic. From the story itself to the narration. (Dennis Kleinman is also quite fantastic)
I'm patiently waiting for his next book due in April! I recommend this book to everyone. You won't be disappointed.

very similar to Conan Doyle

This is the first book I've listened to of Sherlock Holmes, that is outside the original series written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The book is nice follow-up to THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and it's written in very much the same style as the books by Doyle. The story in itself is quite good, though for me it could have been shorter. The performance (though no Derek Jacobi) is pretty solid. The one complaint I do have though is the way Sherlock Holmes (again comparing to Jacobi) is portrayed... he sounds like an overly gay Stewie Griffin, not at all what I've come to known as Sherlock's voice, or what I would expect him to sound like. I picked this book up through the audible plus catalogue, so it was free. Well worth a try if you like the books of Sherlock Holmes.

Mystery writing and narration at its best

Mr. Lovegrove emulates the essence of Conan Doyle’s narrative style magnificently.
Furthermore the mysteries themselves are well concocted.
Mr. Kleinman honours the prose with a fully Watsonish personality, in addition to gracing Holmes with the thin, well-bred voice of the smug detective. Other characters, male, female, youth and elderly are given believable pitch and tone, with regional accents well mastered. Thank you for the treat.

sherlock homes

I always have loved a sherlock holmes story. this was another one worth hearing!

Lovegrove

This is the second non cannon Sherlock Holmes novel I’ve encountered by James. He does Sherlock and Watson’s shared universe a true tip of the hat. Incredible writing that weaves into the cannon seamlessly is a must listen for any Sherlock fan!

Mediocre

Enjoyable for what it was. Not sure if I would recommend it to someone who is a die hard Sherlock Holmes fan tho but it’s a decent story read by a decent narrator.

Enjoyable but a little predictable

Enjoyed the performance, but the ending a little predictable with Watson portrayed as something of a dunce

True to he style of Arthur Conan Doyle

I liked the plot line and character representation. I would listen to other stories by the author. I am as big fan of Sherlock and was not disappointed.

Good, but a bit frustrating.

I have loved all Lovegrove's, 'Sherlock' books, but this is (in my opinion) the weakest. The second half of the book, whilst still a good story, was very frustrating because I already knew (beyond doubt in my mind) who the guilty party was, and struggled to see how any of the other characters could feasibly be so stupid as to not know too. Maybe Lovegrove intended this, in order for the reader/listener to feel some of the frustration of his fictional characters, but I just found myself getting annoyed, and had to fight the urge to skip to the end. Kleinman was a 5 star narrator as always. Thank you.

Fun story, marred by racism

it was only one scene, but still, the sledge hammerring about racism, added nowt to the plot, onlybserved to appease the identitarians, Lovegrove tried to score some browniepoints. Reducingbmy enjoyment of the otherwise fine syory, so only 3 stars.
The reader was excellent, really dug in and gave his all.

Decent but ..

... not as good a story as the Cthulu Casebooks by the same author.
Narration was excellent however 👌

A beautiful listen

Fabulously written and wonderfully narrated I was totally engrossed. The telling of the story was so good I have a complete picture of every venue mentioned throughout.

The Moth of the Baskervilles

I simply can’t believe some of the positive reviews of this on here and Goodreads. It’s diverting and daft, so enjoyable on that level, but the eponymous “beast” is just utterly ridiculous, and the story from there takes previously plausible characters and turns them into bizzarely-motivated cartoon villains. If you need a book to listen to while you’re washing up or having a dump it’s not bad, but don’t expect anything of any quality.

sherlock Holmes and the beast of stapelton

A thoroughly brilliant adventure. taking you back to dartmoor and into the dark jungle

Good Plot

Great story which I found kept my interest for every chapter, most enjoyable in deed.

Good story but terrible narration

The story is set in Devon yet every local character sounds like they’re from Ireland

I am from Cornwall and live in Devon and hearing this REALLY destroys the sense of immersion.

To be fair otherwise the narrator is really good but i cant listen to this story with such an awful local accent and dialect

Does anybody proof-listen?

Ok, I like the stories. Suspend disbelief and they are fine, especially when driving. However, the mis-pronunciations in the narration detract from the stories.
Where is ‘ Roachdale’ , who is ‘Perdeeta’ and where on earth is ‘ Coasta Rica’ ?
Does nobody proof-listen ?

Fantastic

I cannot fault this book even though I figured out who was behind the murders it was gripped from start to finish