It's a mostly good read. Some of the essays are definitely better than others. But I appreciate being able to read them as they were all interesting.

I was really disappointed by this book, especially after receiving a copy of it. At first I was excited by the table of contents, thinking we were going to get nice long informative chapters about various aspects of Victorian life--until I saw the book only had 87 pages with 24 chapters! Each of the "essays" is only two to four pages each! For instance, I have been very curious about gentlemen's clubs ever since I read the Lord Peter Wimsey novels, and I was hoping I'd hear chapter and verse about how they looked and what services they offered. Not only was this explained in the very briefest of terms, the author didn't even seem to have facts correct. "In addition to the 'comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals'....clubs offered amenities such as dining halls, libraries, game rooms, studies, bathrooms and washrooms. Some even provided rooms for overnight guests." In all my reading about Victorian men's clubs, many of them had more than guest rooms, some of the men kept rooms in the clubs for when they were "in town" rather than maintaining a town home.

The facts presented were interesting, but this was so superficial to be useless. I would prefer a longer, more detailed book about these topics.

This book is a collection of 24 short essays on the historical context of things mentioned in Sherlock Holmes stories. The footnotes show that most of the information was found online or in a small number of books about Victorian England, so you could look up much of this online for yourself. However, it is an interesting and informative read. Each essay was inspired by a comment made in a Sherlock Holmes story. For example, Sherlock Holmes mentioned country squires in his ancestry so there's a essay on what a country squire did and his rank in society.

Topics covered include country squires, inheritance laws, doctors and surgeons, transportation, the origins of Scotland Yard, the Thames River, beekeeping, Westminster Palace, Christmas geese, solicitors and barristers, the Second Anglo-Afghan War, men's clubs, tobacco use, dogs and dog shows, poison, phrenology, types of money and how much it was worth, the Postal Service and telegraphs, the British Museum, fingerprints, chloroform, and more.

This is a great book. There are so many wonderful interesting details. I recommend this book if you like learning more about characters and books anyway. Anyone that enjoys Sherlock Holmes will enjoy this book, but there's more. Anyone that like mysteries and learning background details adds to the joy of the stories including those of the Great Sherlock Holmes.

A very good book for all those who are interested in the background of Sherlock Holmes era or just in the Victorian age.
Well written and documented, and fun to read.
Recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley.com, Liese Sherwood-Farbre and Little Elm Press, LLC for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes is an incredible essay collection. I marvelled at the wealth of information the book offeres, including well-documented historical background information on various Holmes stories and detailed footnotes about the Victorian era, Scotland Yard of Doyle. The essays keep history alive and are a must-read for every Sherlock-Holmes-enthusiasts out there.

What a fun read! Highly recommended for Sherlock Holmes fans. I enjoyed the organization of this essay collection. Each short entry begins with a reference to a Holmes tale and something mentioned in the story and then goes on to explain the significance of the topic to the stories. Some examples: adductive reasoning (versus deductive reasoning); the River Thames; known poisons in the Victorian age; and Christmas customs in the Victorian era. Each short essay shines a light on something the the Holmes cannon and they are all interesting bite-sized bits of Victorian English trivia.