‘Meticulously researched.’ - Stewart Lamont, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre

‘Sandford’s accomplished, well-crafted work brings Conan Doyle into sharp relief as a man of scrupulous fairness and great integrity.’ - Library Journal

‘Adds a new dimension to our understanding of the creator of Sherlock Holmes.’ - Hugh Ashton, author and reviewer

When Arthur Conan Doyle was a lonely 7-year-old schoolboy at pre-prep Newington Academy in Edinburgh, a French émigré named Eugene Chantrelle was engaged there to teach Modern Languages. A few years later, Chantrelle would be hanged for the particularly grisly murder of his wife, beginning Doyle’s own association with some of the bloodiest crimes of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

This early link between actual crime and the greatest detective story writer of all time is one of many fascinating and sometimes chilling connections. Using freshly available evidence and eyewitness testimony, Christopher Sandford follows these links and draws out the connections between Doyle’s literary output and true crime in a pattern that will enthral and surprise the legions of Sherlock Holmes fans. In a sense, Doyle wanted to be Sherlock – to be a man who could bring order and justice to a terrible world.