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    The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
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    The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
    Unavailable
    The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession

    Written by David Grann

    Narrated by Mark Deakins

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Acclaimed New Yorker writer and author of the breakout debut bestseller The Lost City of Z, David Grann offers a collection of spellbinding narrative journalism.

    Whether he's reporting on the infiltration of the murderous Aryan Brotherhood into the U.S. prison system, tracking down a chameleon con artist in Europe, or riding in a cyclone- tossed skiff with a scientist hunting the elusive giant squid, David Grann revels in telling stories that explore the nature of obsession and that piece together true and unforgettable mysteries.

    Each of the dozen stories in this collection reveals a hidden and often dangerous world and, like Into Thin Air and The Orchid Thief, pivots around the gravitational pull of obsession and the captivating personalities of those caught in its grip. There is the world's foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes who is found dead in mysterious circumstances; an arson sleuth trying to prove that a man about to be executed is innocent; and sandhogs racing to complete the brutally dangerous job of building New York City's water tunnels before the old system collapses. Throughout, Grann's hypnotic accounts display the power-and often the willful perversity-of the human spirit.

    Compulsively readable, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant mosaic of ambition, madness, passion, and folly.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 9, 2010
    ISBN9780307734587
    Unavailable
    The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
    Author

    David Grann

    David Grann is the author of the Number One international bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, THE LOST CITY OF Z and THE WAGER. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was shortlisted for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of THE WHITE DARKNESS and the collection THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES. Grann’s storytelling has garnered several honours including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in Westchester County, New York.

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    Reviews for The Devil and Sherlock Holmes

    4/5

    239 ratings28 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Great collection of reporting that was both well-paced and fascinating to read. If you've ever liked a news article in your life, read this.
    • 3/5
      Since it is a collection of articles previously unwritten the book feels a little uneven. There are some great selections in here and well worth the time to read. There are others that are well written but simply about subjects that held no real fascination for me.

      This makes the book a series of big hits followed by mildly interesting. I still think it is worth a read. Just skip anything that doesn't catch your fancy. I did read every selection because I liked his writing style but the book will lose nothing if you don't want to read every selection.
    • 4/5
      While "The Devil and Sherlock Holmes" is a bunch of newspaper articles in book form, I found much of what Grann wrote about murder, madness and obsession fascinating, and at times, frightening. Of particular interest is the expose of arson investigation in Texas, the adult who pretends to be a missing child so he can be sent to the US to stay with his "family", only to find something even scarier than prison (I think this has since been made into a film) and the ex-Haitian war criminal now living in New York (who we also meet in Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test").The major drawback is the article on a baseball player. Baseball never ceases to bore the ever lovin' hell out of me and this example was not the exception that proves the rule. Otherwise, enjoy the book.
    • 5/5
      Amazing, terrifying, creepy. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      With only one of two exceptions, these stories are quite riveting and informative. Because they each appeared previously in other publications (The New Yorker, Atlantic NT Times Magazine), they are in short bites and you can pick up the book randomly without losing the thread.
    • 4/5
      Collected New Yorker (and similar) type stories of strange, usually obsessive characters and the passions that drive them—one for the definitive biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, another for the giant squid—or occasionally stories about important projects that require years of heartbreaking and dangerous work, like building a new water tunnel for New York City (this story is legitimately terrifying about what happens if we don’t fix the existing decaying infrastructure soon) or fighting corruption in a deindustrialized area of Pennsylvania.
    • 3/5
      An anthology of essays, most originally published in The New Yorker, roughly related to crime or obsession. The only real relation to Sherlock Holmes is the first essay, about the mysterious death of a man who was obsessed with the character. Other essays deal with criminals or those falsely accused: "The Old Man and the Gun", "Giving 'The Devil' his Due", and "The Chameleon"; or with criminal gangs as "The Brand" and "Crimetown, USA." "The Squid Hunter" and "Stealing Time" are more on the subject of obsession: men with a consuming passion that rules their lives, the giant squid or stealing bases in baseball seem unrelated, but dedicating one's life to either goes beyond mere interest or ambition.
    • 4/5
      Awesome !!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This great collection of non-fiction—most of which first appeared in The New Yorker—will appeal to anyone who enjoys tales of the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction variety. Although each of the twelve articles is intriguing for different reasons, some pieces are stronger or just more compelling than others.For example, “Trial by Fire,” the second piece in the collection, recounts the ordeal of a Texas man who was accused of killing his children in a fire (it’s currently being adapted as a film starring Laura Dern). And “True Crime,” about a Polish postmodernist author who is accused of murder largely based on evidence from his own novel, is utterly fascinating. Other selections, such as “Stealing Time,” which focuses on the waning career of Rickey Henderson, and “The Squid Hunter” are quirky fun.Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys well-written non-fiction.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A collection of Grann's investigative pieces, on subjects ranging from the mysterious death of a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast to the decaying career of a former baseball star. There's no connecting thread, so although the articles themselves seem well-researched and pretty well-written, I wasn't wowed by this collection. It's not a book; it's just a bunch of his articles stuffed together so he can earn money on them a second time. Still, the subjects are often fascinating, so it's worth a single read.
    • 5/5
      This fascinating collection of articles poking into strange and sometimes very dark corners of life is some of the best, most compelling non-fiction I've read in quite a while, and I think the only way to give any sense of it all is to describe what the individual pieces are about. So here's what they're about:* The death of one of the world's leading Sherlock Holmes experts, under circumstances so bizarre and mysterious they seem like they belong more in a Holmes story than they do in real life.* A man who was convinced of setting a fire that killed his three small children, and whose case seems absolutely open and shut until you learn some truly horrifying things about arson investigation.* The exploits of an adult man who repeatedly pretended to be a teenage boy, eventually taking on the identity of a child who had been reported missing years earlier and living with his family for months.* A firefighter suffering from amnesia after being buried under rubble during 9/11 and haunted by the question of whether or not be behaved courageously. * A marine biologist in a desperate, obsessive search for a live giant squid.* The "sandhogs" of New York City who are slowly, laboriously digging a new tunnel through which to channel the city's water supply. It's taking decades, and meanwhile... Well, let's just say that learning about the state of the city's current water supply infrastructure has made me glad I don't live in NYC.* An elderly bank robber who apparently could not bring himself to retire from the stickup biz.* A once-great baseball player who refuses to abandon the game, or his hope of returning to the majors, even though his career has fallen as far as it is possible to go.* The Aryan Brotherhood prison gang and the truly horrifying level of organized violence they've managed to perpetrate from behind bars.* The astonishing levels of Mafia influence in Youngstown, Ohio, and the career of a transparently corrupt politician that many people there somehow managed to view as a hero. * A former Haitian warlord with a job selling real estate in Queens, much to the distress of his neighbors, many of whom fled Haiti because of him in the first place.Somehow, Grann, in his clean, detached journalistic style, makes most of that even more interesting than it sounds. Which is kind of impressive.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting collection of essays about true-life mysteries, oddities, and horrors.
    • 3/5
      Collection of essays that are increasingly less to do with Sherlock Holmes as the book goes on -- the title is simply to draw people interested in Sherlock Holmes-ian mysteries, I think. There's some interesting cases here, though they don't all seem to share much of a theme. Mostly reminds me that people are very odd, sometimes.
    • 4/5
      An eclectic collection of essays written by David Grann I wasn't sure what I was in for. I've never heard of the author before but the blurb was interesting and the book was cheap.

      The first essay about the death of Sherlock Holmes expert Richard Lancelyn Green was, I felt, a poor choice of opening work. I realise it was chosen to link with the Holmes aspect but it was a confusing, disjointed article and if the rest of the book was in that vein I would not have completed it.

      From there though the quality increased and I found myself much more interested in the stories, particularly the essays about convicted chameleon Frédéric Bourdin, giant squid hunter Steve O'Shea and geriatric bank robber Forrest Tucker.

      As a non-American the story about baseballer Rickey Henderson was probably the least interesting but was still ok.

      A decent book it was good for a cheap read.
    • 5/5
      An excellent collection of short non-fiction pieces. The ones about the death penalty and New York's water system were standouts, detailing stories that I can't believe i'd never before even heard of.

      I was initially a bit put off by the way the author inserted himself into the story, but I'll confess to being impressed that he managed to be present in his articles without making the articles be about him.
    • 4/5
      This is a collection of compelling feature articles on fascinating individuals, including a Sherlock Holmes expert who died under mysterious circumstance, and giant squid hunters, and Polish novel that possibly contains the clues to a real life murder. These articles are very compelling.
    • 4/5
      The Devil and Sherlock Holmes is a great book with most of the stories being interesting and enjoyable reads. I say most as at times there are a few stories throughout the book which are a bit uninteresting.Overall it is a great book for anyone with a penchant for quirky and bizarre stories involving crime and murder.
    • 4/5
      David Grann is one of the finest journalists working today, and this collection - gathered from his contributions to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New Republic - highlights his facility well. A stricter adherence to the collection's theme (predominantly, obsession) would have probably made for a slightly stronger book, but nonetheless it's quite a treat. Grann's stories typically follow men preoccupied with a range of things from the eponymous Holmes, to giant squids, and the Aryan Brotherhood. The pieces range in length from a couple of thousand words, to going over ten, though with the exception of the last one - focussed on an Haitian war criminal - you'll be left pining for more. Why is this? Mostly, I think because Grann is deeply committed to keeping himself out of the story; a talent sadly lacking in many latter-day feature writers. This is not to say Grann isn't present, on the contrary: whether braving swells in the Coral Sea or venturing into a maximum security prison, he is prepared to go beyond his references in order to get the story. But in doing so, he keeps his own emotions and reactions to an understated minimum. This lends the prose a kind of limpid simplicity, but don't be fooled. There are rich subtexts behind most of these pieces, and the simplicity belies the delicate construction, sharp analysis, and rich context there. Indeed, Grann's knack for finding incredible stories and then telling them so efficiently will leave you hungry for more. He flashes different people, ideas and situations at you like facets on a twirling diamond. These stories are so rich - any one of them could make a whole book, and there were few that left me feeling truly satiated at the conclusion - even with Grann's short "updates" for publishing. This is not to say I was dissatisfied; rather, it was as if I had an incredible slice of cake, and I wanted to eat the whole thing - whether I could or no. Only the last piece - one of the longest - left me somewhat cold. But with such a rich cornucopia, who am I to complain? This is a great collection that will stand the test of time.
    • 3/5
      Interesting stories, but not particularly well-written.
    • 5/5
      excellent articles, most of which i had read in the new yorker.
    • 3/5
      From the mysterious murder of the world's foremost Sherlock Holmes scholar to a Haitian death squad leader walking free in the streets of New York, this is an interesting collection of magazine articles. Some more so than others and some can only loosely be tied to the thesis implied by the somewhat long book title.
    • 5/5
      This book is one to be read slowly... savored, piece by piece, story by story, until you find yourself so in awe of the discoveries Grann made during the course of his research that you truly wonder where the line between fiction and real life begins.There are twelve tales in this book, all true stories. The narrative is clear and readable, but the subject matter is what will really have your jaw dropping: Hunting the giant squid; investigation into the thousands of miles long network of underground tunnels in New York that really exist and which may literally collapse at any moment; the infiltration of the Aryan Brotherhood into the U.S. prison system; and more.If ever there was proof that truth is stranger than fiction, this collection is it. I'll admit that I enjoyed the stories in the first half of the book more than the second, but I think that might have been personal preference. I've gone on to recommend this to numerous people since reading it, and I plan to re-read it sometime soon simply because the stories were so fascinating that I bet I'll get even more out of it on a second run through.I had no idea what I was getting into when I received this book... but if this is indicative of Grann's journalistic abilities, I hope he has a long and very lucrative career! He definitely knows how to chase down a story... and how to tell it, too.
    • 5/5
      Reason for Reading: I loved David Grann's debut book "The Lost City of Z" and really wanted to read this when I heard about it.An extremely interesting book on a variety of different topics. A collection of previously published articles mainly from "The New Yorker" magazine, with three being from other magazines. These are investigative journalism where the author goes out to meet the people involved, shadow them as they go about their business, and interviews criminals in jail, in search of the truth behind a mystery that has never been solved or never quite to satisfaction or just why somebody would do what they do. It makes very fascinating reading. Each article gives a small one liner to let you know the topic of the article and to me personally, some of them I was eager to read, while others didn't seem like they'd be my cup of tea.However, out of the twelve stories there was only one I didn't enjoy and that was one that was about a baseball player and the game. I don't like sports and that story just had nothing else to offer so for me it was a dud. Otherwise, whether I initially thought the subject would interest me or not, I was fascinated with the remaining eleven articles. Even one which is about the old water tunnel system below New York City and the building of the third tunnel. Sounds like something engineering folks might like but I was fascinated with the history of the building of the tunnels which have been worked on since the early 1900s, the dangers, and the personal stories of the men who work down there, often generations of the same family. Other stories include the mysterious murder of a famous Sherlock Holmes scholar, a Frenchman who serially poses as orphaned teenage boys, trying to track down the truth of a man about to be executed for murdering his children who swears he is innocent, a man who was obsessed with capturing the first live giant squid, and the life story of a stick-up man who committed his last robbery at age 79 but who enjoyed escaping from prison more than committing the crimes, and so on.The mysteries and murders I was immediately pulled into, knowing I'd enjoyed those stories. But even the first couple that made me wonder whether they'd be my thing also pulled me in quickly as David Grann is a wonderful writer. From that point on I was eager to read each and every story. He gets up close and personal with his subject; he follows the people he is writing about and he gets in there with them doing the things they do (or standing beside them, watching) and explaining how he feels. He's been in more than one situation where he's admitted that he was scared. He can also pick up on all the different angles of a story so that no matter where a reader's interests lie they will find an angle that interests them. Most of the stories were riveting, the rest were very interesting, and, for me, I struck out with the baseball story. (There just was nowhere else Grann could go with that one and I realise that.)I read the book slowly. Reading one story a night, taking the time to savour and appreciate each story. David Grann is certainly a talented writer who has a way with engaging his reader, and I do hope he is currently working on another book length story for us.
    • 4/5
      This review is from: The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession (Hardcover) Inspired by a review on Galleycat, and being a devoted fan of Sherlock Holmes, I purchased this book with eager anticipation. I have mixed feelings about it because I really did want more of Sherlock Homes. Only the first story deals with the famous detective, but I already knew that from the review I'd read. However, the book is riveting adventure reading. An acclaimed New Yorker staff writer, David Grann does not disappoint when it comes to giving the reader electrifying reading material. This is a magnificent collection of spellbinding true stories about murder, madness, and the kind of obsession that grips the human psyche. Sherlock Holmes once said that "life is infinitely stranger than anything the mind of man could invent." David Grann leads the investigation in a true spirit of discovery as he sets out to solve a dozen real-life mysteries. The stories are unforgettable, as are the true characters that populate them. Entertaining and compelling!
    • 4/5
      A collection of articles from the New Yorker and other magazines. Title is a bit misleading in that I thought it was more a collection of true crime type stories. All very well written, I look forward to picking up Mr Grann's other book, The Lost City of Z.
    • 4/5
      The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness and Obsession comes from the pen of David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z. I had really enjoyed this true life tale of swashbuckling adventure in the Amazon so I was pleased to receive an ARC copy of his newest book. Sherlock Holmes noted that “life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent". Grann has taken that mantra to heart and presents a collection of true tales which feature obsession, perverse behaviour and even murder.The collection starts with the apparent murder of the world's pre-eminent Sherlock Holmes scholar who is found dead following an obsessive quest for the missing archives of Arthur Conan Doyle. Grann progresses to arson detectives, an amnesiac guilt-ridden survivor of 9/11 and white supremist gangs. The scope is wide and far-reaching and Grann has clearly taken each story to heart, travelling to research and meet the characters involved. He even manages to make some pretty unsavoury characters seem sympathetic.Because each story is free-standing, this is an easy book to read in pieces. In fact, each of these essays has been previously published, with the majority appearing in The New Yorker Magazine (although they have been revied and updated for this edition). This explains perhaps why the collection of essays in one edition doesn't seem to gel quite right. They are fantastic stories, but are better suited to piecemeal reading, rather than a continuous read.
    • 5/5
      and now for something completely different. I've had my eye on this book ever since I learned that it was going to be published, and probably pre-ordered it months ago. The author, David Grann, is the author of Lost City of Z, one of my all-time favorite books. Grann isn't a novelist, but rather he writes wonderful essays, and has been featured in the New Yorker. So you should assume immediately that this book isn't going to be another Sherlock Holmes pastiche, because it's not. Instead, it's a book of essays, but don't let that put you off. It is absolutely delightful.Grann has this thing about people who are absolutely obsessed about what they do, a fact you already know if you've read his splendid Lost City of Z. In this book, he takes his readers on a journey through a dozen different profiles, all completely true, all dealing with different types of obsessions. You have to admire his ingenuity in picking such different cases, yet having them all tie together so wonderfully. Structured in three parts, all headed by quotations from various Sherlock Holmes stories, the first section is subtitled "Any Truth is Better Than Infinite Doubt." Here's the guy whose lifelong ambition was to write the ultimate and the definitive biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. After there was a dispute over some of Sir Arthur's papers, the subject of this essay was found dead under some murky circumstances. Was it murder or suicide? Then there's the incredibly sad and horrifying case of the Texas man who may or may not have set his own home on fire, killing his children, and who may have paid the ultimate price due to the zealousness of certain arson investigators. The third entry in this section is the odd story of a French man that reads along the lines of Tey's Brat Farrar or even the movie "The Changeling," leading into the strange account of a man who may or may not have been guilty of murder, based on a book he wrote. Finally, there's the story of a firefighter who lost all memory of what happened to him on 9/11 as his unit went into the towers before they collapsed.Part Two, entitled "A Strange Enigma is Man," contains four stories: one about one man's obsession with giant squids, one about the Sandhogs deep under the streets of New York City, one about a man whose life was spent as a criminal, and the fourth relating to why a championship baseball player won't give up. Part Three, "All that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe," contains three essays. The first of these is about the Aryan Brotherhood and how it got its start, as well as its impact on prisons and law enforcement. The second focuses on Youngstown, Ohio, a city long under mob control. The final essay in this section (and in the book) stopped me cold. It focuses on a known Haitian political and death-squad leader who somehow ended up in New York as a real-estate agent. Even though the US government knew that this guy was an assassin, for "political" reasons, he's still free here in our country. If this one doesn't creep you out about the political system in our country, nothing will. Grann is an absolutely fabulous writer and his essays will keep you interested up to the minute you turn the last page. His approach is different and definitely holds your attention, and the added bonus is that you get a chance to learn a lot about things you probably had no clue about otherwise. I can most highly recommend this book and this author.And as a sidebar, if you have not yet read his other book, run, do not walk, and go get it.
    • 5/5
      Terrific collection of nonfiction pieces from Grann's magazine work -- 9 of the 12 appeared in The New Yorker. They're all great tales, most of them about obsessives. You can see how Grann got interested in explorer Percy Fawcett and the people who tried to figure out what happened to him, subject of Grann's excellent 2009 book "The Lost City of Z." There are a number of chilling incidents and characters in this book but the one that stands out, for me, is the account of a Texas arson case where it appears quite likely that an innocent man was executed on charges that he murdered his daughters. That's chilling enough but what really creeped me out was learning 1) That Antonin Scalia believes we've never executed an innocent person and 2) Arson investigation is far from the scientific and fact-grounded field I, for one, had assumed it was. Great reads, though, and not all quite so scary. It's wonderful to see long form journalism done so well; I hope Grann writes a lot more magazine articles and books in his career.