The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession
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...
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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.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780385517928 (0385517920)
ASIN: 385517920
Publish date: March 9th 2010
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages no: 338
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Writing,
Essays,
History,
Science,
Mystery,
Journalism,
Contemporary,
Crime,
True Crime,
Short Stories
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 wowe...
A wonderful collection of essays by David Grann. In keeping with his book The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, Gramm focuses on obsession. Whil a good portion of the essays focus on crime or crime related stories, there are some notable ones that do not. In this collectio...
This is a great collection for anyone who likes compelling long-form journalism. Grann's subjects are fascinating and his ability with narrative exceptional. For a sample, check out "The Squid Hunter". [full review]
Good book, but be prepared for it to be very dryly written. It is not written in the normal fashion of your true crime books. This is the type of "true crime" book that is written from a historical perspective vs. "fluffy writing".
Grann's the author of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, and he's super fun to read. This is a collection of essays, mostly from the New Yorker, about...well, loosely about people who are obsessed with things. The first essay's about the world's foremost expert on Arthur...