I'm not sure I'd call it "thrilling" or "gripping" or any of the other things on the marketing copy, but it definitely was a fascinating book. Fox starts out circling around the case at the heart of the story, working her way ever closer to the resolution in a spiral of relevant historical, cultural, and biographical facts.

I love Conan Doyle and was really excited for this book. I did like the main story however I felt like there was too much filler with the excessive backstories of all the other characters, other crime stories, etc. Maybe because I had just read a much denser true crime story but still. I felt the book would have been just as good if the author had cut those things out.

Margalit Fox is probably my current favorite non-fiction writer. She has an unrivaled ability to both tell a very detailed story and also provide a context that makes it meaningful. In this case, the story is the wrongful imprisonment of the Jewish German immigrant Oscar Slater, and the navigation of his subsequent release by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The context chapters are wide-ranging, for instance: the history of criminology versus true forensic science (the former assumes the type of person a criminal is, then looks for clues to support it, while the latter uses abductive reasoning to come to a conclusion), Victorian sensibility and the life and times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who apparently really hated being called Arthur casually). But the bulk of the context chapters focus on the xenophobia of Victorian Scotland with a particular focus on their anti-semitism and abject hatred of immigrants. Obviously, I found this highly relevant to current events.

I felt like she had a little more zip when writing about linguistics in her two previous books. I also missed the formal alternation of chapters -- in Conan Doyle for the Defense there's a poor balance of thematic chapters and plot chapters in some sections. Nonetheless, I learned a lot and really enjoyed the narrative while doing so.

I think this would really appeal to Conan Doyle fans overall. It was fairly interesting as it covered not only Conan Doyle, his activism, & his writing of Sherlock Holmes, but the general state of investigative police work in the early 1900s. (Sadly, there still seem to be some parallels to today where "the other" -- whether race or religion or some other demarcation -- gets railroaded or charged even when innocent.) If you're more interested in the story related to the particular murder itself, the last part of the book is the most interesting. Realistically, I think the part about the murder itself could have made a good, in-depth article in something like the Smithsonian or The New Yorker magazines; it didn't necessarily need to be a book. But, for fans of Conan Doyle or those who want to know more about the general time period, this book gives some additional insight & background.

A well written historical non-fiction book that manages to pull you into the story.