Reviews for The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession

The average rating for The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-04-27 00:00:00 Eric Quinn This is a marvelous collection of David Grann's reporting. The subtitle describes them as "tales of murder, madness and obsession," and that's as good a summary as any for the variety of pieces here. My favorite stories in this book were about the suspicious death of a Sherlock Holmes fan; the life of a Frenchman nicknamed "The Chameleon" who was a serial imposter; the ordeal of a firefighter who was trying to reconstruct what happened to him on 9/11; the hunt for giant squid; the rise of the prison gang Aryan Brotherhood; the interview with a legendary bank robber; and the history behind a corrupt Congressman from Ohio and how the mafia ran his town. These articles were originally published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and other magazines, and they are engaging and insightful. I always appreciate it when a good writer is able to publish a collection of shorter pieces -- they're a great complement to their longer works. Highly recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-21 00:00:00 Michael Stevens The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession is a collection of articles by journalist, David Grann, which have previously been published in newspapers and magazines. For me they varied in interest and in quality but basically the whole selection made up an entertaining book. I had an issue with the title which suggested more Sherlock Holmes than was delivered and I also felt that the stories had been gathered rather randomly and there was no cohesion, no theme. Maybe if Sherlock had been more involved more of the tales would have had conclusive endings. Still a very readable and interesting book and I am happy to have read it.