I was attracted to this book as I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and have recently been very interested in the life of Arthur Conan Doyle. When I found this on Netgalley I applied to be a reviewer as it sounded like something I would greatly enjoy.
Synopsis
In 1893, young army officer Cecil Hambrough was murdered at the sprawling Ardlamont estate in Scotland, unleashing one of the most gripping court cases Victorian Britain had ever known.
Even more remarkably, the case brought together two pioneering forensic experts – Joseph Bell and Henry Littlejohn – two men upon whom Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes happened to be based.
It is their involvement in the Ardlamont affair that reveals how the world’s most famous detective came to the worlds of crime fiction and crime fact were about to collide spectacularly.
In this extraordinary book, Daniel Smith outlines the key roles of the two men whose powers of deduction had so inspired Doyle and explores the real-world origins of Sherlock Holmes through the prism of a mystery as engrossing as any case the Great Detective ever tackled.
Impressions
I first thought this book would be a perfect read for a Sherlock Holmes fan like me. There was a great use of passages from the novels to support the evidence Smith was giving on why Bell and Littlejohn inspired Doyle.
As the book moved on from the initial chapters, the link between the book and the fictional detective seemed more and more strained. Littlejohn was never recognised as an inspiration for the Holmes character, and it may be that Smith used this connection to validate his book.
However, this is not to say that this book was terrible, as it is a brilliant read that looks at a fascinating case that would have confused even the great detective himself. For anyone interested in crime, it is also a brilliant look at early forensic techniques and where the methods we rely on today started.
The book is easy to read, riveting and well-researched, which is why the title of the book is disappointing. The book would stand well independently without the connection to Sherlock Holmes. The title encourages people to read it, which I can understand as a writer, but it seems to devalue the book.
This is not to say there is no connection to Holmes throughout, but they are only about a quarter of the book. The rest is this fascinating murder case. Smith provides examples from Doyle's books that he references as relating to the case, but they are so generic they could belong to any case.
Overall, I loved this book and couldn't put it down; if it had not been for the clickbait title, I would have given it more stars.
Two-Sentence Summary
A riveting historical true crime book that will entertain you throughout. Don't pick it up though if you are a Conan Doyle fan as you may be disappointed.
Doyle so readily acknowledged the influence of Bell in the invention of Holmes but never went on record to credit Littlejohn while the latter was still alive.