I often enjoy books that take real historical figures and insert them into a fictional story. This is done quite well in Conan Doyle for the Defense. I felt the author really did her research and the story moved quickly, with a clever plot and engaging characters. Recommended!

This book was chock full of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle information. The Sherlock Holme's author was a true "gentleman". He had his principles and he stuck to them. I loved this book --if you are a Sherlock Holmes and true crime fan this book was written for you. It details the horrifying injustice done to Oscar Slater when he is wrongly found guilty of murdering a wealthy older woman he never even had heard of. ACD (along with a few others)helps to get Oscar out of his torturous prison cell in Petershead... but this book is much more then just that. The anecdotes about ACD were very interesting. I recommend this book to history buffs most especially.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

This book was not one of my favorites. I waited patiently to discover what Arthur Conan Doyle actually did to help the defense of Oscar Slater. What I learned was very fine research into the how, when and where of the crime, the prison life of the accused and the life of his family in Germany. Finely detailed notes and letters and trial briefs were discussed. Even Sherlock Homes stories were quoted but ultimately what I learned is that Conan Doyle wrote a book, did not achieve a release of the prisoner and shelved his efforts for years before he again wrote letters attempting to get the verdict reversed. What the contents of his appeal consisted of was not discussed in detail in favor of the anti Jewish problem and the condition of the upper class sensibilities on the dislike of foreigners in general. If the title suggests Conan Doyle did actually achieve the release of Oscar Slater I would expect the book to explain how. This is just another true crime adventure with a lot of documented facts put together to sell a book.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Margalit Fox is mainly noted as a linguist, serving on many usage panels and boards for language usage handbooks. She also had a long career as writer of obituaries for the New York Times. But wait a minute. She didn’t just hack out death notices. Her tributes to the lives of celebrities and notables were classics. Her work was submitted twice for Pulitzer Prizes.

“Conan Doyle for the Defense” is her third book and has prompted her retirement from the newspaper to concentrate on her book writing. I say, “Good decision.” This work is enlightening and engrossing than death notices. There are great historical references and informational tidbits about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the world’s most famous detective. But, in this case, it’s the author, Margalit Fox, who does the sleuthing. Fox’s in-depth research, her grammatically correct and precise writing, and her meticulous gumshoe efforts place Conan Doyle as the investigator instead of his famous detective.

In the early 1900s, Oscar Slater, a German Jew expatriate, was convicted of the murder of Marion Gilchrist, who was found bludgeoned to death in her home. The evidence was shoddy, the Irish police investigation was comical, there were outright lies from prosecutors and police, and eventually class bias and anti-Semitism was proved to have influenced the guilty verdict. Conan Doyle tore down the case, step by step, and the decision was reversed, some 20 years after Slater’s conviction.

This was the second of two such cases that Conan Doyle personally pursued, using his medical background and the rational inquiry approach he assigned to his fictional detective to get the convictions overturned. The author’s exhaustive research and carefully considered analysis shines a new light Conan Doyle’s techniques, so productive in the Sherlock Holmes series.

It seemed to me, as I read Fox’s book, that her writing contains traces of Victorian and Edwardian literary styles. Literature during that period was noted for its intensity, imagery, and vision ... think Shaw, Hardy, Forster, H.G. Wells, and, of course, Conan Doyle. I felt a part of that time period as I read her book, making the account more rewarding and realistic. I enjoyed this great read.

There is more in this book about the philosophies and techniques of the Victorian era’s criminal justice system than there is about Doyle’s efforts to clear Slater. With the clarity of hindsight, she criticizes or applauds each move made by all the players. It was interesting, but not quite what I was expecting. We do get some about Doyle. Throughout were interspersed snippets about his public and private life. There were also interesting parallels drawn between the techniques Doyle used to clear Slater and the skills he showcased in the Homes stories. But it was more about the times than about his efforts.
Fox traces the effects of the racial prejudices of the times and the effects of the faulty theories of criminology. She also takes issue with the morals of the times. Maybe it’s because she was focused on this terrible travesty, or it’s her writing style, but she seemed to broad-brush the entire era as being grossly unjust, despite the lengths numerous people went to in order to correct the situation.
If you are interested in the evolution of the justice system in Scotland, this will be an interesting look at an incredibly influential case.
Unfortunately, there were a couple of things that distracted me from the story. The first was the had-they-but-known style. It just didn’t work for me when we already knew what’s going to happen. We already knew things people did or believed had disastrous consequences for Slater and those helping him. I found it slightly annoying to have it pointed out over and over. More importantly, I had trouble following the storyline. Perhaps it was just the number of people and sources she was quoting from or the style, but there were large sections in which I had a very hard time following the chronology. She would follow one aspect for a while and then jump and tell us how it affects the ending and then jumps abruptly back to an earlier time.
I received this as a free ARC through NetGalley from Dover Publications. No favorable review was required. These are my honest opinions.