 Kindle cover | |
| Author | David Grann |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 2010 |
| Publication place | United States |
Published in English | March 9, 2010 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 350 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0-385-51792-8 |
| LC Class | PN4874.G672A25 2010 |
| Preceded by | The Lost City of Z |
| Followed by | Killers of the Flower Moon |
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession (2010) is a collection of 12 articles (essays) by American journalist David Grann.
The essays were previously published between 2000 and 2009 in The New Yorker , The New York Times Magazine , The New Republic and The Atlantic , and have been "updated and revised". [1] The stories are about real-life mysteries, a "mosaic of ambition, deception, passion, and folly." [2]
Four of the stories have been filmed or optioned, and five of the stories have been collected in other "best" anthology volumes. [3] It is Grann's second book, after The Lost City of Z (2009) published the previous year, and his first collected anthology of essays.
In The New York Times , Sam Roberts called the book "riveting." [4] Writing in Entertainment Weekly , critic Keith Staskiewicz gave the collection a grade of A: "This collection of David Grann's nonfiction, much of it from The New Yorker, is by turns horrifying, hilarious, and outlandish... These straightforward tales grip you as unrelentingly as the suckered appendages of the giant squid Grann attempts to track down in 'The Squid Hunter.' You might feel that some of the pieces skirt credibility, but remember, as Holmes himself once said, "Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent." [5]
| Chapter Number | Part | Chapter Title | Year Published | Source(s) | Related articles | Adaptations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Part 1 [6] | Mysterious Circumstances | 2004 | The New Yorker, December 13, 2004. [7] The Best American Crime Writing 2005 | Richard Lancelyn Green, Category:Sherlock Holmes | |
| 02 | Part 1 | Trial by Fire | 2009 | The New Yorker, September 7, 2009. [8] | Cameron Todd Willingham | Trial by Fire (2018), film directed by Edward Zwick [9] |
| 03 | Part 1 | The Chameleon | 2008 | The New Yorker, August 11, 2008. [10] | Frédéric Bourdin | |
| 04 | Part 1 | True Crime | 2008 | The New Yorker, February 11, 2008. [11] The Best American Crime Reporting 2009 | Krystian Bala | Dark Crimes (2016), film directed by Alexandros Avranas |
| 05 | Part 1 | Which Way Did He Run? | 2002 | The New York Times Magazine, January 13, 2002. [12] | September 11 attacks | |
| 06 | Part 2 [13] | The Squid Hunter | 2004 | The New Yorker, May 24, 2004. [14] | Giant squid, Steve O'Shea | |
| 07 | Part 2 | City of Water | 2003 | The New Yorker, September 1, 2003. [15] | Sandhog, Water infrastructure of New York City | Optioned for film by Paramount in 2010. [16] |
| 08 | Part 2 | The Old Man and the Gun | 2003 | The New Yorker, January 27, 2003. [17] The Best American Crime Writing 2004 | Forrest Tucker | The Old Man & the Gun (2018), film directed by David Lowery |
| 09 | Part 2 | Stealing Time | 2005 | The New Yorker, September 12, 2005. [18] The Best American Sports Writing 2006 | Rickey Henderson | |
| 10 | Part 3 [19] | The Brand | 2004 | The New Yorker, February 16, 2004. [20] | Aryan Brotherhood | |
| 11 | Part 3 | Crimetown, U.S.A. | 2000 | The New Republic, July 10, 2000. [21] Wise Guys: Stories of Mobsters from Jersey to Vegas [22] | James Traficant | |
| 12 | Part 3 | Giving the 'Devil' His Due | 2001 | The Atlantic, June, 2001. [23] | Toto Constant |
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely in Dartmoor, Devon, in England's West Country and follows Holmes and Watson investigating the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival.
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The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a series of radio dramas based on Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes. Written by Bert Coules as a pastiche of Doyle's work, the series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002, 2004, 2008–2009 and 2010. There are sixteen episodes, all of them produced and directed by Patrick Rayner of BBC Scotland. Clive Merrison stars as Holmes, having portrayed the detective in a 1989–1998 BBC radio series of dramatisations of every Sherlock Holmes story by Doyle. Andrew Sachs appears as Dr. Watson, replacing Michael Williams after Williams died following the Radio 4 run of Sherlock Holmes adaptations. Each of the stories is based on a throwaway reference from an actual Doyle short story or novel. The first two series are repeated regularly on BBC Radio 4 Extra.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America is a 2003 historical non-fiction book by Erik Larson presented in a novelistic style. Set in Chicago during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, it tells the story of World’s Fair architect Daniel Burnham and of H. H. Holmes, a criminal figure widely considered the first serial killer in the United States. Leonardo DiCaprio purchased the film rights in 2010. The concept has since been in development hell.
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David Stuart Davies was a British writer. He worked as a teacher of English before becoming a full-time editor, writer, and playwright. Davies wrote extensively about Sherlock Holmes, both fiction and non-fiction. He was the editor of Red Herrings, the monthly in-house publication of the Crime Writers' Association, and a member of The Baker Street Irregulars and the Detection Club. Davies died on 16 August 2024, at the age of 78.
Krystian Bala is a Polish murderer, self-published writer, and photographer.
Leslie S. Klinger is an American attorney and writer. He is a noted literary editor and annotator of classic genre fiction, including the Sherlock Holmes stories and the novels Dracula, Frankenstein, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics, Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons's graphic novel Watchmen, the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
David Elliot Grann is an American journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and author.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon is a non-fiction book by American author David Grann. Published in 2009, the book recounts the activities of the British explorer Percy Fawcett who, in 1925, disappeared with his son in the Amazon rainforest while looking for the ancient "Lost City of Z". In the book, Grann recounts his own journey into the Amazon, by which he discovered new evidence about how Fawcett may have died.
Forrest Silva "Woody" Tucker was an American career criminal first imprisoned at age 15 who spent the rest of his life in and out of jail. He is best known as an escape artist, having escaped from prison "18 times successfully and 12 times unsuccessfully", by his own reckoning. The 2018 film The Old Man & the Gun, starring Robert Redford as Tucker, is based on his life.
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