belacqua's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

3.75

rebeccabadger's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

4.0

matheamae's review against another edition

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5.0

One of the best nonfictions I've ever read!

arytaco's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

bridge_to_narnia's review against another edition

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I just couldn’t get into it and I had to return it to the library anyways.

trin's review against another edition

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3.0

God, this was depressing. ACAB.

abbeybrooke's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

sarahmaemouse's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

3.5

davis_reads's review against another edition

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informative mysterious fast-paced

4.0

gemmamilne's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a little slow to get into but boy what a cracking story.

So this is the tale of how Arthur Conan Doyle helped clear the name of Oscar Slater, wrongly accused of murder in Glasgow in 1909 (and who didn’t get out of jail until 1926, after ACD had spent years campaigning for truth).

The premise was kind of enough for me to keep going, but the pace and density of the writing doesn’t make for a smooth read. It feels far too academic; strange, considering the writer is an ex-NYT Senior Writer...

The book packs in the true crime story, along with plenty of history of Scottish culture, British literary scenes, criminology and racial profiling. It really is full of fascinating stories.

It’s a shame it’s a sluggish read, as I reckon if it were smoother, everyone would have heard of this book. It randomly caught my eye in a Rye bookshop; I’ve not seen anyone talk about it and it’s been out since 2017.

I do highly recommend this book, but with a warning that you have to be ready to dive into detail, and be patient and trust in the story to ‘get good’.

Because it is. Very.