Conan Doyle for the Defense
Subtitle: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, A Quest for Justice, and the World's Most Famous Detective Writer
By: Margalit Fox
Edition: First U.S. edition.
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780399589454
Subjects: Detectives; Murder; Forensic sciences; Discrimination in criminal justice administration; Vindication; Criminal investigation
Description: "In this thrilling true-crime procedural, the creator of Sherlock Holmes uses his unparalleled detective skills to exonerate a German Jew wrongly convicted of murder. For all the scores of biographies of Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the most famous detective in the world, there is no American book that tells this remarkable story--in which Conan Doyle becomes a real-life detective on an actual murder case. In Conan Doyle for the Defense, Margalit Fox takes us step-by-step inside Conan Doyle's investigative process and illuminates a murder mystery that is also a morality play for our time--a story of ethnic, religious, and anti-immigrant bias. In 1908, a wealthy woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow home. The police found a convenient suspect in Oscar Slater--an immigrant Jewish cardsharp--who, despite his innocence, was tried, convicted, and consigned to life at hard labor in a brutal Scottish prison. Conan Doyle, already world famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was outraged by this injustice and became obsessed with the case. Using the methods of his most famous character, he scoured trial transcripts, newspaper accounts, and eyewitness statements, meticulously noting myriad holes, inconsistencies, and outright fabrications by police and prosecutors. Finally, in 1927, his work won Slater's freedom. Margalit Fox, a celebrated longtime writer for The New York Times, has "a nose for interesting facts, the ability to construct a taut narrative arc, and a Dickens-level gift for concisely conveying personality" (Kathryn Schulz, New York). In Conan Doyle for the Defense, she immerses readers in the science of Edwardian crime detection and illuminates a watershed moment in the history of forensics, when reflexive prejudice began to be replaced by reason and the scientific method"--

"In 1908 an elderly woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow apartment. The police found a convenient but innocent suspect in Oscar Slater--a Jewish cardsharp--who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, already the world-famous creator of Sherlock Holmes, was outraged by this injustice and became obsessed with the case. Over the years he scoured trial transcripts, newspaper accounts, and police diaries, meticulously noting myriad holes and inconsistencies. Finally, in 1927, his work won Slater's freedom. Conan Doyle for the Defense immerses readers in the science of Edwardian crime detection, telling the story of how Conan Doyle managed to get this murder conviction overturned by employing the methods of his most famous creation. Along the way, Fox illuminates a watershed moment in the history of criminal justice when reflexive prejudice began gradually to be replaced by reason and the scientific method"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-308) and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue: Prisoner 2988; title: Book one: Diamonds; title: A footfall on the stair; title: The mysterious Mr. Anderson; title: The knight-errant; title: The man in the Donegal cap; title: Book two: Blood; title: Traces; title: The original Sherlock Holmes; title: The art of reasoning backward; title: A case of identity; title: Book three: Granite; title: The trap door; title: "Until he be dead"; title: The cold cruel sea; title: Arthur Conan Doyle, consulting detective; title: The strange case of George Edalji; title: Prisoner 1992; title: Book four: Paper; title: "You know my method"; title: The ruin of John Thomson Trench; title: Cannibals included; title: The purloined brooch; title: The gates of Peterhead; title: More light, more justice; title: The knight and the knave; title: What became of them.