“A wonderfully vivid portrait of the man behind Sherlock Holmes . . . Like all the best historical true crime books, it’s about so much more than crime.”—Tana French, author of In the Woods A sensational Edwardian murder. A scandalous wrongful conviction. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the rescue—a true story. After a wealthy woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow home in 1908, the police found … murdered in her Glasgow home in 1908, the police found a convenient suspect in Oscar Slater, an immigrant Jewish cardsharp. Though he was known to be innocent, Slater was tried, convicted, and consigned to life at hard labor. Outraged by this injustice, Arthur Conan Doyle, already world renowned as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, used the methods of his most famous character to reinvestigate the case, ultimately winning Slater’s freedom.
With “an eye for the telling detail, a forensic sense of evidence and a relish for research” (The Wall Street Journal), Margalit Fox immerses readers in the science of Edwardian crime detection and illuminates a watershed moment in its history, when reflexive prejudice began to be replaced by reason and the scientific method.
Praise for Conan Doyle for the Defense
“Artful and compelling . . . [Fox’s] narrative momentum never flags. . . . Conan Doyle for the Defense will captivate almost any reader while being pure catnip for the devotee of true-crime writing.”—The Washington Post
“Developed with brio . . . [Fox] is excellent in linking the 19th-century creation of policing and detection with the development of both detective fiction and the science of forensics—ballistics, fingerprints, toxicology and serology—as well as the quasi science of ‘criminal anthropology.’”—The New York Times Book Review
“[Fox] has an eye for the telling detail, a forensic sense of evidence and a relish for research.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Gripping . . . The book works on two levels, much like a good Holmes case. First, it is a fluid story of a crime. . . . Second, and more pertinently, it is a deeper story of how prejudice against a class of people, the covering up of sloppy police work and a poisonous political atmosphere can doom an innocent. We should all heed Holmes’s salutary lesson: rationally follow the facts to find the truth.”—Time
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I cannot speak too highly of this remarkable book, which entirely captivated me with its rich attention to detail, its intelligence and elegant phrasing, and, most of all, its nail-biting excitement. I read it from dawn to dusk, near-starving myself in the process, so eager was I to find out who did the murder, why the Glasgow police were such monsters, and why Sherlock Holmes’s creator was such a genius.
The first third of this book is hopeless repetition. The author adds a bit of new information to a chapter and surrounds it with information previously covered. Then, quite suddenly, the story picks up speed and clarity and becomes the anticipated tale! Wonderful photographs are also included. 2.5 stars for the first third of the book and 5 stars for the final 2/3= my 4 star rating.
This is a very thorough and interesting tale that encompasses Conan Doyle’s life, Victorian sensibilities and prejudices, Victorian criminal procedure and criminal justice, and the life and trial of the eponymous defendant, Oscar Slater. From the blurb, I expected more of the latter and less of the former. What Fox has delivered is an exhaustive book that covers the first three topics in a lot more detail than the latter though. That’s not necessarily a problem – I found the book very engaging and interesting as written, because those are all topics that interest me. But I can see where some reviewers felt like they were given a history book rather than a crime story… Still, I found it very enlightening, and clearly Fox did her homework…
My review copy was provided by NetGalley.
Let me begin by saying that I am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. I started reading the stories by Conan Doyle in elementary school (no pun intended). Jeremy Brett’s portrayal… iconic! Robert Downey, Jr… broadened my appreciation of the character. Benedict Cumberbatch… be still my beating heart. Jonny Lee Miller… let’s go back to iconic. All of these enactments have done one thing; they have perpetuated the myth that is Sherlock Holmes, the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Writers write what they know. Yes, they extrapolate and exaggerate, but the essence of great stories is the truth of personal experience upon which they are built. Conan Doyle was no different.
The early 20th century was still heavily under the influence of the Victorian Era which was both a time of progress and industry alongside extreme poverty and class consciousness. This was a time of nationalism that singled out anyone who was ‘other.’ In CONAN DOYLE FOR THE DEFENSE, the term “convenient other” is prominent. If someone fit into that category, they were liable for whatever wrong the police might decide they committed. A “convenient other” was no more than a scapegoat, something with which we are all too familiar today.
This is as much a biography of Conan Doyle as it is an exposé of system that put an innocent man within steps of the gallows. As you may, or may not know, Conan Doyle trained and worked as a physician. His professor and mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell, taught him the value of keen, and minute observation, the one quality so admired in Sherlock Holmes. Thus Conan Doyle’s medical training aided him in the creation of the great detective, and, by extrapolation, made him a keen investigator in his own right. Remember, the best stories come from what you know. From there, a little imagination allows knowledge to bloom into story.
This is a book for those who read true crime, or that read history, or who, like me, have been captivated by the myth that is Sherlock Holmes. To say that I enjoyed this book is surely not enough. I felt immersed in a bit of history and found new insight into the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.