The Devil and Sherlock Holmes

Not too long ago, I reviewed David Grann’s The Lost City of Z, a thrilling tale of jungle mayhem and unlucky explorers. Grann recently released another excellent book, this time a collection of non-fiction essays originally published in The New Yorker, called The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession. He’s a reporter who has been blessed with that uncommon mix of...more

Not too long ago, I reviewed David Grann’s The Lost City of Z, a thrilling tale of jungle mayhem and unlucky explorers. Grann recently released another excellent book, this time a collection of non-fiction essays originally published in The New Yorker, called The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession. He’s a reporter who has been blessed with that uncommon mix of luck and talent, finding stories where one wouldn’t expect them to be. Though they are all quite good, Devil has some real standouts: His tale of a marine biologist obsessed with squid continues to act as an excellent ice breaker when I’m in awkward situations (To wit: Did you know squid can’t be held in rectangular tanks? The edges agitate them and they commit suicide. Fascinating, right?) and the story about white supremacist gangs in the prison system is downright chilling. Grann’s writing style isn’t flashy, maybe absorbed from his years as a New Yorker writer, and it makes him the perfect storyteller. You forget he’s there and instead sink right into the details about that chameleon con man who pretends he’s a runaway child, or the 9/11 fireman with amnesia, tortured by whether or not he helped save anyone. Grann’s stories are full of incredible characters, made all the more unbelievable by the fact they aren’t imagined.   hide