| The Devil and Sherlock Holmes | |
| Author: | David Grann |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Non-fiction |
| Publisher: | Doubleday |
| Release Date: | 2010 |
| English Release Date: | March 9, 2010 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages: | 350 pp |
| Isbn: | 978-0-385-51792-8 |
| Congress: | PN4874.G672A25 2010 |
| Preceded By: | The Lost City of Z |
| Followed By: | Killers of the Flower Moon |
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession (2010) is a collection of 12 articles (essays) by American journalist David Grann.
The essays were previously published between 2000 and 2009 in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic and The Atlantic, and have been "updated and revised".[1] The stories are about real-life mysteries, a "mosaic of ambition, deception, passion, and folly."[2]
Four of the stories have been filmed or optioned, and five of the stories have been collected in other "best" anthology volumes.[3] It is Grann's second book, after The Lost City of Z (2009) published the previous year, and his first collected anthology of essays.
In The New York Times, Sam Roberts called the book "riveting."[4] Writing in Entertainment Weekly, critic Keith Staskiewicz gave the collection a grade of A: "This collection of David Grann's nonfiction, much of it from The New Yorker, is by turns horrifying, hilarious, and outlandish... These straightforward tales grip you as unrelentingly as the suckered appendages of the giant squid Grann attempts to track down in 'The Squid Hunter.' You might feel that some of the pieces skirt credibility, but remember, as Holmes himself once said, Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.'"[5]
| Chapter Number | Part | Chapter Title | Year Published | Source(s) | Related articles | Adaptations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Part 1[6] | Mysterious Circumstances | 2004 | The New Yorker, December 13, 2004.[7] The Best American Crime Writing 2005 | Richard Lancelyn Green, | ||
| 02 | Part 1 | Trial by Fire | 2009 | The New Yorker, September 7, 2009.[8] | Cameron Todd Willingham | Trial by Fire (2018), film directed by Edward Zwick[9] | |
| 03 | Part 1 | The Chameleon | 2008 | The New Yorker, August 11, 2008.[10] | Frédéric Bourdin | ||
| 04 | Part 1 | True Crime | 2008 | The New Yorker, February 11, 2008.[11] The Best American Crime Reporting 2009 | Krystian Bala | Dark Crimes (2016), film directed by Alexandros Avranas | |
| 05 | Part 1 | Which Way Did He Run? | 2002 | The New York Times Magazine, January 13, 2002.[12] | September 11 attacks | ||
| 06 | Part 2[13] | The Squid Hunter | 2004 | The New Yorker, May 24, 2004.[14] | Giant squid, Steve O'Shea | ||
| 07 | Part 2 | City of Water | 2003 | The New Yorker, September 1, 2003.[15] | Sandhog, Water infrastructure of New York City | Optioned for film by Paramount in 2010.[16] | |
| 08 | Part 2 | The Old Man and the Gun | 2003 | The New Yorker, January 27, 2003.[17] The Best American Crime Writing 2004 | Forrest Tucker | The Old Man & the Gun (2018), film directed by David Lowery | |
| 09 | Part 2 | Stealing Time | 2005 | The New Yorker, September 12, 2005.[18] The Best American Sports Writing 2006 | Rickey Henderson | ||
| 10 | Part 3[19] | The Brand | 2004 | The New Yorker, February 16, 2004.[20] | Aryan Brotherhood | ||
| 11 | Part 3 | Crimetown, U.S.A. | 2000 | The New Republic, July 10, 2000.[21] Wise Guys: Stories of Mobsters from Jersey to Vegas[22] | James Traficant | ||
| 12 | Part 3 | Giving the 'Devil' His Due | 2001 | The Atlantic, June, 2001.[23] | Toto Constant |