A review by devinsf
Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World's Most Famous Detective Writer by Margalit Fox

4.0

True crime, police profiling, and criminal justice reform in early 20th c. Scotland. A well-researched and fascinating story by a senior New York Times writer. Includes several interesting tangents on changes in policing techniques (criminology vs criminalistics), Conan Doyle's medical instructor Dr. Joseph Bell (who provided much of the diagnostic template for Holmes), and his real-life involvement with several criminal cases. Fox knows her audience and skews the writing slightly towards a Victorian style, including several judiciously-dropped 10¢ words I had to look up.