I figured I’d love this book the moment I heard about it and it looks like I was right. I love nonfiction books that have a great narrative and this one fit the bill. It has the same energy as some of my other nonfiction favourites including Radium Girls and Say Nothing. Highly informative without ever seeming dry. If you like true crime, ACD/Sherlock Holmes, legal thrillers, or Scotland, or all of the above, check this one out!

i really really liked this one.
te deja un resabio agridulce en todo caso, todo fue tan injusto.
and conan doyle went full "bitch better have my money" at the end-

(Perhaps more of a 3.5.)

I enjoyed this, though it was not love. I'd never heard about this real life case, and it's an interesting story that notes the classicism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia present in England at the time (vestiges of which remain today). We get good biographical notes about both Conan Doyle and Oscar Slater, the man falsely accused of murder, as well as historical context for attitudes at the time. Definitely worth a read if you're into Conan Doyle/Sherlock, and enjoyable enough for a person interested in true crime tales and investigative reports.

Looking at Conan Doyle's real life detective work working toward the release of Oscar Slater, a German Jew convicted of the 1908 murder of Marion Gilchrist, a wealthy 82 year old spinster. A fascinating look into that portion of Conan Doyle's life as well as police practices and the judicial system of the time. Almost unbelievable to the modern reader Slater's case was a miscarriage of justice and the look into the prejudices and process that went into it were well researched and presented in a clear and engaging way, mixing in the lessons Conan Doyle applied from his own character Sherlock Holmes. A good reminder of how thankless the role of protecting the innocent can be when those innocent aren't very nice people, as well as the challenges and the desired role of the justice system through the lens of this case from the turn of the last century.

This book was about so much more than Conan Doyle's role in this case, so while I thought I was getting something different and therefore could have been somewhat disappointed, I ended up getting a much more rounded view of the time period and some pretty fascinating bits of history in terms of detective work (or the lack thereof) and so forth. I really enjoyed the book overall because of the way the author put all this into perspective and into its place in history.

I love anything Conan Doyle!

True crime, police profiling, and criminal justice reform in early 20th c. Scotland. A well-researched and fascinating story by a senior New York Times writer. Includes several interesting tangents on changes in policing techniques (criminology vs criminalistics), Conan Doyle's medical instructor Dr. Joseph Bell (who provided much of the diagnostic template for Holmes), and his real-life involvement with several criminal cases. Fox knows her audience and skews the writing slightly towards a Victorian style, including several judiciously-dropped 10¢ words I had to look up.

*I received an advance reader's copy of this book, so I will not directly quote from this, just comment generally.*

Conan Doyle for the Defense by Margalit Fox is a fascinating true crime novel about a rather unknown aspect of history, especially for those of us in America. I can’t say I know much about Glasgow history, much less crimes that happened there. So reading this was quite entertaining and interesting.

The book outlines what is known about the case, the murder of an elderly woman named Miss Gilchrist. We hear about the witnesses’ statements, then about the search for the suspect, Oscar Slater. Then, in quite meticulous detail, Fox describes the trial and Slater’s subsequent conviction and imprisonment. Especially at this point, we realize just how timely this book is — so much of this case is based on prejudice, xenophobia, and profiling. The fact that Slater is not only a Jewish man but also has a lifestyle that the uptight, intolerant Victorians do not approve of makes this story quite similar to current events.

This book does not just chronicle this crime and investigation, though of course that is the main point. It also focuses on Conan Doyle’s life, particularly his own formidable skills at what his great creation Holmes calls “the science of deduction.” Fox takes us through the inspiration for the stories, Dr. Joseph Bell, and how the logical reasoning he employed — more accurately called “abduction” as opposed to “deduction” — inspired Conan Doyle. So getting a glimpse behind the famous detective and his creator added weight to Conan Doyle’s decision to help Slater.

The endgame of the novel is clear from the beginning — Fox tells in the description of the book, in fact, that Conan Doyle’s efforts get Slater, wrongly convicted, released from jail — but the path to that point, and who the real killer is, is what keeps the reader invested. Furthermore, I was surprised to find out about the tense, distant, rather volatile relationship between Slater and Conan Doyle. Particularly in the chapter “The Knight and the Knave” we see the complexities between their interaction; Conan Doyle, while a bit of a progressive Victorian, still possessed many of the attitudes so prevalent then, and Slater’s brash, dandy, unconventional (again, for the time) clashes with that in an engrossing way, and I really enjoyed reading about it.

I loved reading Conan Doyle for the Defense. Fox has a great narrative voice that helps this to read somewhere between a murder mystery novel and a more serious nonfiction. The exploration of the society of the day, the culture of Glasgow, the crime itself, the behavior and procedures of the police force, the origin of Holmes’ brilliance, and the Conan Doyle–Slater relationship make this a detailed, comprehensive look at this story. Every aspect is well-researched, well-written, and well-presented. I think this book would appeal to many people, particularly fans of the mystery genre and specifically, the Sherlock Holmes stories. It’s rare for me to say this, but I think I’d like to read this again, as I’m sure there’s more to get out of it for me than the first time around!