Conan Doyle, Detective
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
This fascinating book is based on a remarkable discovery: Sherlock Holmes's methods of deduction were actually those of his creator and used in order to solve real crimes; for Scotland Yard Holmes really did exist in the form of Conan Doyle. Author Peter Costello draws on new research to follow the tracks Conan Doyle left as he entered the real word of Sherlock Holmes; his fictional outpourings were the direct result of their author's hidden career as an amateur detective and criminologist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Costello (James Joyce), an Irish writer, presents a welcome study of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's active work as an amateur sleuth. Costello makes the intriguing (if not entirely convincing) claim that Doyle's brief status as the subject of a police inquiry into the death of a young man under his care (and under his roof) led to his interest in crime and eventually to the creation of the world's most famous fictional sleuth. The book's strengths lie in its wide scope, encompassing not only celebrated cases where Doyle undertook heroic efforts to clear innocents such as Oscar Slater and George Edalji but more obscure matters where local authorities around the world appealed to Sir Arthur for insight. However, in some instances, the treatment is superficial, as in the section on Jack the Ripper, where Costello lends credence to some widely discredited theories, and where Doyle's role was merely that of an armchair speculator. Still, this is likely to be the standard reference on the subject for now.
