Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye takes us back to London and the world of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Holmes and Watson We meet our friends Holmes and Watson during the time that Jack the Ripper terrorized London. We can therefore expect to meet these five victims in the book: Mary Ann Nichols, […]
Book Reviews
The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby
Carolyn Kirby has a knack for describing in painful detail how hard life was in Victorian London. The atmosphere, violence, and darkness grip you from page one. She details meticulously how poor people were, the humiliations they suffered, and how few privileged men could really call themselves gentlemen. The story takes place in 1885. It […]
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Mary Emsley and Marion Gilchrist
After I finished reading Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, I picked up Caleb Carr’s The Italian Secretary. It is a Holmes & Watson story but told by Carr and he did it very well. All the familiar characters are in there and the story is worth a read. It set off my Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reading […]
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Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca is a book about Mary Grace Winterton Quackenbos Humiston (September 17, 1869 – July 16, 1948) and the Ruth Cruger case. Humiston Humiston was the first female Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York meaning she was the chief federal law enforcement officer for […]
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The education of a coroner
The title The education of a coroner, lessons in investigating death by John Bateson was enough to make me buy the book. Which crime writer cannot use some lessons in death investigations? The first half of the book is filled with those lessons. The author explains that he is interviewing and reviewing the career of […]
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The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson is another book I found while reading the BBC History magazine. I read it was part about the history of the cholera outbreak in London, 1854. But it was also described as a detective story. We obviously have victims but where was the culprit coming from? What were the […]
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The Last days of Night by Graham Moore
I just watched an episode of the Big Bang Theory where Leonard, Howard, and Sheldon take a closer look at themselves to see who amongst them is Edison and who resembles Tesla. With that discussion in mind, I wondered through my local book store and saw Moore’s book. Westinghouse, Edison, Tesla. I flipped to the […]
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The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes
I read about the book ‘The Coroner’s Daughter’ by Andrew Hughes in the BBC History Magazine. As my readers know I like to read historical fiction especially if it takes place at the onset of forensic sciences. Well, Hughes opens the story with a severed hand and floating baby lungs in a glass bowl with […]
