Name: The Devil and Sherlock Holmes
ISBN: 9780307275905

David Grann

Explores unforgettable mysteries and the nature of obsession, from the Aryan Brotherhood's infiltration of the U.S. prison system to a chameleon con artist in Europe to the author's experience with a cyclone while searching for the elusive giant squid.

Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes

Collection of the journalist's articles previously published in varous periodicals.

Tanya Sutton

This book was odd but interesting. I enjoy David Gran's writing quite a bit and he has a knack for finding odd but relatable - in a REALLY far out sort of way - to write about. The story I found the most interesting was the one that opened the book, about a Sherlock Holmes scholar who ends up becoming obsessed about a few particular missing manuscripts and then dies under strange circumstances. 

My one complaint is that the book is billed as "true crime" even though not all of the writing focuses on crime (or obsession as the subtitle would have you believe). There are a dozen pages or so that go on about giant squids. Interesting, I guess, but not true crime. The book is much better approached as a collection of David Gran essays rather than having much to do with one another.

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession