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Cover of The Real World of Sherlock Holmes by Peter Costello

The Real World of Sherlock Holmes

  • 278 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 1991
  • 9 editions

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1 About this book

This book details how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the doctor, became a detective writer. It draws on his education by Dr. Joseph Bell in Edinburgh University on how to observe and reason on even the smallest details when considering physical evidence of a possible crime.

Through real life events, crimes and celebrated murders, we learn that Doyle was more like Sherlock Holmes in his methods and observations, and that he was at times, very much a real private detective. This is a fascinating case book on crimes and causes, for Doyle was always looking to help those who needed help.

The last fifteen years of his life were spent on investigation and vigorous support of the spiritualist movement, but this did not entirely take away his interest in the various fields of criminology. Some of the major crimes of the early 20th Century are also discussed, and Doyle's observations are interesting to read.

Good for readers who want: history and a true life story.

  • History
  • Biography
  • Detectives
  • Crime
  • Great britain, biography
  • Authors, biography
  • Knowledge and learning
  • Sherlock Holmes

2 About Peter Costello

Born 1946

Peter Costello (born 3 April 1946) is an author and editor, described by the American critic Robert Hogan in the Greenwood Dictionary of Irish Literature as “a contemporary embodiment” of the “tradition in Irish literature of the independent scholar, who has an erudition embarrassing to the professional academic”.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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