This book is a compilation of 19 medical mystery cases, the details of which were collected over the years by the author, who is also a respected medical doctor. Some are humorous and all are interesting. The underlying focus of this book is relying on listening to what a patient is or is not telling the doctor, instead of fancy modern testing.

This book was both entertaining and educational – one of my favorite combinations. We start off with a case of a fellow male doctor developing breasts. Apparently, this is not all that uncommon for men suffering from testicular or adrenal gland cancer, or those who partake of marijuana. Haha! You would think that last tid bit would be better circulated among college students. Just to satisfy your curiosity, the gentlemen was not suffering from any of these and the source of his extra estrogen was of a more personal nature. *eyes slant towards the wife*

The case studies take off from there wandering from botulism to clay eating to self-inflicted injuries/illness to mass hysteria to several others. It was a fascinating mix of well understood (if little seen) cause and effect to the still not fully understood. I was especially interested in the few cases dealing with the self-inflicted. I would think this would be especially vexing for modern doctors, with their already full schedules and yet more patients needing real treatment and care.

This book is written in such a way that you don’t need to be a medical doctor to grasp the meaning of a scene or the importance of a certain diagnosis. The author does a good job of balancing the medical terms with lay person explanations. I feel the book is accessible to a wide range of folks with minimal medical knowledge.

The pacing of the book is good, moving back and forth between the serious and deadly to the humorous and back again. It was like sitting down for a tea or beer with the author and having a good long chat about all the weird stuff he had seen during his long career. Definitely worth the read!

Narration: James Kiser was a good pick for this audiobook. He had a clear, and conversational, voice throughout the book. He never stumbled over the medical terms. During the few times where emotion was called for, he imbued the performance with it (awe, seriousness, humor, etc.).

Free on Gutenberg or Internet Archive.

Wikipedia: Pinkerton Detective Agency

Reading in progress blogged about here.

2 1/2 Stars mainly for dull use of exciting stories and because it's not going on my Would Read Again list. Almost made 3 but some of the period stereotypes changed my mind (more on that nearer the end where I eyeroll over it).

 

This book is basically the true crime of the late 1800s. Unfortunately it's not as interesting as it should be - even with some really great crime stories the author makes them drag on in parts. I found it interesting here and there, but more as obscure history. (I do have a couple of other (free) Pinkerton books to read, but these were ones written by Allan Pinkerton. They're supposed to be really self promotional, so I'm curious to see how he'll write about himself.)

 

You could file these under history - but I'd really call them history-ish, or true crime. Mainly because the author is getting his material - I assume - from the Pinkerton archives. There's no preface so he may not have been able to interview any of the Pinkertons himself - who knows. True crime is always a slightly suspect genre for good reasons - it has a long history of being purposefully graphic to entice readers to buy it. Being factually accurate wasn't really a priority - telling a story was. But the author here isn't really going for graphic details or good story telling - this is far more police procedural type stuff. But again, not as exciting as that sounds. (It makes you wonder how much the author actually wrote and how much was just quoted directly from the files.)

 

As usual, I think the best idea I can give you about the book is to quote some parts of it. And also as usual, I'll warn you that the bits I've chosen may make the book seem more interesting than the whole thing actually is. (I should also add that I used this as one of my Books To Fall Asleep To, which I pick on purpose not to tempt me to stay up later in order to keep reading.)

Because I'm still fighting the lack of space on my ereader I really have to get in there and toss some of the odds and ends I've collected but still haven't read. This is one of three ebooks on the Pinkerton detectives, which were published in the 1800s. Since I've read some parts of these online I can assure you it's not a thrill a minute, despite lines like:

 

p 18: "The story told by Evens is one of the most remarkable in the history of crime."

But if you want to peek into a few pages, here's the book on Internet Archive (read online or download):

 

True Detective Stories from the Archives of the Pinkertons (1897)

 

Thanks to a great heads up from Degrees of Affection, I listened to Radio 4's interview of Lucy Worsley's reading her diary entries - I loved the bit about her rock collection as a teen. It took until I got into college to find out that other kids did this too. (Not many girls did this in books, or the books I found on geology anyway.) I also loved that "going wild" for her meant "indulging in popular culture." There's also a great moment of how her dad was very wrong about her history degree. Also enough dullness to make me think that my own teenage diaries are probably really typical too. (I've only looked at them once because ugh, soooo tedious!)

 

Wikipedia: Lucy Worsley

Her website: Lucy Worsley

 

In theory you can watch Worsley's Tales from the Royal Bedchamber on PBS online but I'm having an awful time getting it to load. (Preview only on youtube here.)