Kelvin I. Jones has been writing about Sherlock Holmes for over 50 years, and studied the real-life crime, criminals and criminalistics of the late Victorians. Kelvin’s forensic approach has already made a significant impact on the Holmes aficionado, previous titles including ‘The Sherlock Holmes Murder Files,’ etc. However, the first of this three volume magnum opus on Holmes and crime covers absolutely everything that the reader fresh to, or even more familiar with Holmes wants to know about the murder and mayhem of his age.
And there is much more. We learn about the poisoners, the prostitutes, the garrotters, the psychopaths and the abductors; in fact the whole panoply of the dangerous criminal underworld once lorded over by Moriarty.
This exhaustive study, with its grim descriptions of the savage criminals of that age, is portrayed in graphic, uncompromising detail. What also emerges is a profile of the real Conan Doyle. Here is a profile of an author who knew more than is assumed about crime; and the book includes an examination of the Ripper, plus Conan Doyle’s theories on the murderer’s identity. Profusely illustrated, with many rare illustrations from 19th Century documents. Overall, a stunning contribution to the literature about Holmes, by someone who David Marcum, the editor and author of Holmes pastiches, once described as ‘a Master Sherlockian.’
