Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle (1999) The greatest mystery of Doyle's life is how the creator of Sherlock Holmes — that "perfect reasoning and observing machine" — would eventually champion fey… Mystery and Thriller Nonfiction Henry Holt & Company
EW's GRADE
B+

Details Release Date: Apr 13, 1999; Writer: Daniel Stashower; Genres: Mystery and Thriller, Nonfiction; Publisher: Henry Holt & Company

The greatest mystery of Doyle's life is how the creator of Sherlock Holmes — that "perfect reasoning and observing machine" — would eventually champion fey phenomena like seances and fairies, so that by his 1930 death at age 71 he was considered "hopelessly crazy." Doyle transcended his artistic Irish-Catholic family to become an archetypally "British" doctor, adventurer in Africa and the Arctic, two-time parliamentary candidate, and knighted novelist. Only after his son's death during World War I did Doyle's unconventional, inquisitive imagination come unhinged. In Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle mystery writer Stashower pieces together clues from his subject's iconoclastic life to create a gripping, sympathetic bio that proves that Doyle was anything but elementary. B+

Originally posted Apr 23, 1999 Published in issue #482 Apr 23, 1999 Order article reprints