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Dr. Sam Johnson #3
The Return of Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector
“I am lost without my Boswell.”
—Sherlock Holmes
“Here was a real man as versatile and various as any fictitious detective, just and humane, with wide-ranging interests and flavorful personality; a man of undaunted valor, keen intellect, and scientific curiosity. What a detective he would make! And he came equipped with his Boswell, the only original Boswell, a fascinating character in his own right, with his amatory exploits, his flair for sensation, and his gift of observation.”
—Lillian de la Torre
Contents: Murder lock’d in — The Bedlam bam — The disappearing servant wench — The blackamoor unchain’d — The lost heir — The resurrection men — Milady Bigamy
—Sherlock Holmes
“Here was a real man as versatile and various as any fictitious detective, just and humane, with wide-ranging interests and flavorful personality; a man of undaunted valor, keen intellect, and scientific curiosity. What a detective he would make! And he came equipped with his Boswell, the only original Boswell, a fascinating character in his own right, with his amatory exploits, his flair for sensation, and his gift of observation.”
—Lillian de la Torre
Contents: Murder lock’d in — The Bedlam bam — The disappearing servant wench — The blackamoor unchain’d — The lost heir — The resurrection men — Milady Bigamy
- GenresMystery
191 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1985
28 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Lillian de la Torre
42 books7 followersLillian de la Torre was an American novelist and a prolific writer of historical mysteries. Her name is a pseudonym for Lillian de la Torre Bueno McCue.
Her most popular works were in a series of stories she wrote about Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, under the title 'Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector'. She also wrote numerous books, short stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, reviews for The New York Times Book Review, poetry and plays. She was a President of the Mystery Writers of America.
Her most popular works were in a series of stories she wrote about Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, under the title 'Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector'. She also wrote numerous books, short stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, reviews for The New York Times Book Review, poetry and plays. She was a President of the Mystery Writers of America.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 11, 2024
review of
Lillian de la Torre's The Return of Dr. Sam: Johnson Detector
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 26 - June 11, 2024
The inspired idea (or gimmick) framing these stories is writing them as if James Boswell (biographer of Sam Johnson) & Samuel Johnson (writer) solved mysteries together. Hence, historical fiction in wch a (I'd say successful) attempt is made to simulate late 18th century styles. Gotta love it. In the Foreword, written by the author, it's stated that:
"As the 18th century advanced, Bow Street began to know honest magistrates like Henry Fielding, the novelist. Later his brother Sir John Fielding flourished, the famous "Blind Beak of Bow Street," with his sturdy second in command, Saunders Welch. These latter were Dr. Johnson's friends, and from them he learned about crime. "Johnson, who had an eager and unceasing curiosity to know human life in all its variety, told me," records Boswell, "that he attended Mr. Welch in his office for a whole winter, to hear the examinations of the culprits."" - p 9
"Dr. Sam: Johnson interested himself in the forgers and frauds. He even wrote the last dying speech and confession of one of them, Dr. Dodd, the fashionable "macaroni parson," who had augmented his emoluments with some quiet sleight-of-pen work, and was hanged for it. Visiting Bristol, he studied the literary forgeries of Thoman Chatterton, the "marvelous boy," and pronounced him, correctly, both a fraud and a genius. When "Ossian" Macpherson produced "an ancient epic poem translated from the Gaelic," Dr. Johnson immediately perceived it to be a contemporary fake, and denounced it as such." - p 10
The author aims to simulate Boswell's language. Here's an example:
"The '63 was to me a memorable year; for in it I had the happiness to obtain the acquaintance of that extraordinary man. Though then but a raw Scotch lad of two-and-twenty, I had already read the WORKS OF JOHNSON with delight and instruction, and imbibed therefrom the highest reverence for their author. Coming up to London in that year, I came with the firm resolution to win my way into his friendship." - p 17
Having not read either Boswell ot Johnson I'm not in a position to judge the quality of de la Torre's simulation - &, yet, I trust that she did a good job.
One of the stories is partially set in Bedlam, the (in)famous insane asylum that people wd visit for entertainment & edification.
"Around us milled madmen and their visitors in a dense throng, the while vendors shouldered their way through the crush dispensing nuts, fruits, and cheescakes, and tap-boys rushed pots of beer, though contraband, to the thirsty, whether mad or sane." - p 43
HHmm.. is this what football grew out of?
It seems that every fiction writer whose work I read these days is damned clever. As w/ G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories, each new tale is a work of the imagination. How is it possible that so many humans can be so imaginative? I'm reminded of Dolly Little & her wonder at where she can fit a big drink can. So many interesting ideas in such small heads.
""For verily he shall rise again—"
"Miss Cicely stood up suddenly. A long creaking rasp set my teeth on edge as the coffin lid was slowly pushed up, and a sheeted figure rose to a sitting position." - p 61
The author provides historical background to demonstrate the accuracy of her plot.
"The lot of the madman in Bedlam is here described as depicted by many contemporary writers and artists, notably Hogarth. For more about Bedlam, see F. O. O'Donoghue, The Story of Bethlehem Hospital (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1914)." - p 64
"These lines were roughly printed in the form of a handbill. My friend Dr. Sam: Johnson, detector of crime and chicane, produced the dog's-eared scrap of paper from the accumulation in his untidy book-garret in his house in Johnson's Court. I perused it with care." - p 67
"Note though: not only Sam, but Sam followed by a colon or at least two dots, to indicate the abbreviation. I did some research at one point in writing the book to see if this colon was a common way to abbreviate and I never really came up with anything definitive. I may still do a little poking around, but I’ve heard from at least one scholar/editor that using a colon was a fairly common way to abbreviate. (But why? And how did it come about?)" - https://mysamjohnson.com/blog/sams-si...
I found the following interesting:
"The old hag leaned back and laughed in his face.
""I know you are no witch," my friend went on grimly, "but I will tell you what you are."
"He spoke three words in her ear. Her face changed. She looked at him with more respect.
""Ah," she said, "I see you are in the councils of the great."
""I can see a church by daylight," replied Johnson as we withdrew." - p 78
Is that based purely in the author's imagination or in something else more substantial? I'd surely like to know. HHmm.. & what's up w/ this?:
""This," said Dr. Johnson solemnly, "is the famous Black Stone of Dr. Dee the alchemist. I had it of Mr. Walpole against this night's purpose. Into it," he lowered his sonorous voice another pitch, "the alchemist used to call his spirits, and they revealed the truth to him."" - p 84
Handy. Was it a smart phone? Sam: really was ahead of his time. Sam: is revealed to be anti-slavery.
"That my learned friend, Dr. Sam: Johnson, detector of crimes and righter of wrongs, was openly zealous in opposing the institution of human slavery, is well known.
""Here's to the next insurrection of the Negroes of the West Indies!"
"Such was the toast with which, I am told, he once scandalized some very grave scholars at Oxford.
"Insurrections there were in plenty among the black slaves on the plantations of Jamaica, and they were put down in torture and blood. Such episodes rouzed my moral friend's deepest indignation." - p 93
""The matter is sub judice before Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. There's a cause before him between an escaped slave, Somerset by name, and his former master. Till 'tis settled. Quashie must keep close."
""What hinders the settling?"
""There are fourteen thousand such slaves in England. My Lord Mansfield shrinks from freeing them all at once with his single word.["]" - p 98
Later, the "Resurrection Men" become the subject. These are the grave-robbers, a lucrative business for the somewhat unskilled laborer. I know a little of the history of those people in Baltimore. The author has it that they'd be willing to kill the person to be 'resurrected'.
"In time, several ingenious Sack-'em-up Men decided it was easier to murder than to dig—Bishop, Williams and May in London, and the famous firm of Burke and Hare in Edinburgh." - p 161
"The London Burkers were a group of body snatchers operating in London, England, who apparently modeled their activities on the notorious Burke and Hare murders. They came to prominence in 1831 for murdering victims to sell to anatomists, by luring and drugging them at their dwelling in the northern end of Bethnal Green, near St Leonard's, Shoreditch in London. They were also known as the Bethnal Green Gang." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_...
"The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen murders committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures.
"Edinburgh was a leading European centre of anatomical study in the early 19th century, in a time when the demand for cadavers led to a shortfall in legal supply. Scottish law required that corpses used for medical research should only come from those who had died in prison, suicide victims, or from foundlings and orphans. The shortage of corpses led to an increase in body snatching by what were known as "resurrection men". Measures to ensure graves were left undisturbed—such as the use of mortsafes—exacerbated the shortage. When a lodger in Hare's house died, he turned to his friend Burke for advice and they decided to sell the body to Knox. They received what was, for them, the generous sum of £7 10s. A little over two months later, when Hare was concerned that a lodger with a fever would deter others from staying in the house, he and Burke murdered her and sold the body to Knox. The men continued their murder spree, probably with the knowledge of their wives. Burke and Hare's actions were uncovered after other lodgers discovered their last victim, Margaret Docherty, and contacted the police." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_a...
""These involuntary levitations of inhumated decedents—" He paused impressively, for he loved to outdo Dr. Sam: Johnson himself in the matter of sesquipedalian terminology." - p 145
"sesquipedalian" - having many syllables, definitely a better word choice than a mere polysyllabic or multisyllabic - why those 2 words barely give the mouth any exercise.
"As we spoke thus, two burly bearers edged a sedan-chair with difficulty through the press. Many hands lifted the fallen boy, his brocades now blotched with crimson. The lady ascended the chair, received the inert form beside her, the half-door was fastened, and the chairmen heaved up the poles. The attentive surgeon walked beside." - p 150
Now, when I'm assassinated, I don't want to settle for a mere sedan-chair to take me away, I want a full blown HOME-ENTERTAINMENT-CENTER-chair, solar-powered & capable of being a hovercraft on land or water. Then, when the whole shebang is buried in a pyramid, the grave-robbers will have to work far harder than what's described below:
"My gorge rose as I imagined to myself the horrid scene—the loose earth shovelled away in hurried silence in the dark of the moon, the rending sound as the coffin is riven, the pallid form torn from its winding sheet, huddled by brutal hands into a sack; the chink of the Anatomist's coin as he pays off the criminals, his indecent satisfaction as he bares his scalpel and carves his silent victim like butcher's meat. No endeavour, no expense, seemed too much to avoid such a fate." - p 155
For those of us who don't come across words like "sesquipedalian" often enuf, this bk comes thru from time-to-time.
"Rising early on the morning of the fateful day, I donned my voluminous black advocate's gown, and a lawyer's powdered wig that I had rented from Tibbs the perruqier for a guinea." - p 174
Ah! To live in a world where signs in shop windows wd read: "Vape & Perruqier".
"a person who creates, styles, or sells perukes or hair-pieces" - https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/...
What about underarm perukes?
"["]Paper, my Lords, is made by grinding up rag, and wetting it, and laying it to dry upon a grid of wires. Now he who has a mind to sign his work, twists his mark in wire & lays it in, for every wire leaves its impression, which is called a watermark.["]" - p 182
Interesting.
All in all, this was fun, sure it's a gimmick - but it seems that I like gimmicks.
Lillian de la Torre's The Return of Dr. Sam: Johnson Detector
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 26 - June 11, 2024
The inspired idea (or gimmick) framing these stories is writing them as if James Boswell (biographer of Sam Johnson) & Samuel Johnson (writer) solved mysteries together. Hence, historical fiction in wch a (I'd say successful) attempt is made to simulate late 18th century styles. Gotta love it. In the Foreword, written by the author, it's stated that:
"As the 18th century advanced, Bow Street began to know honest magistrates like Henry Fielding, the novelist. Later his brother Sir John Fielding flourished, the famous "Blind Beak of Bow Street," with his sturdy second in command, Saunders Welch. These latter were Dr. Johnson's friends, and from them he learned about crime. "Johnson, who had an eager and unceasing curiosity to know human life in all its variety, told me," records Boswell, "that he attended Mr. Welch in his office for a whole winter, to hear the examinations of the culprits."" - p 9
"Dr. Sam: Johnson interested himself in the forgers and frauds. He even wrote the last dying speech and confession of one of them, Dr. Dodd, the fashionable "macaroni parson," who had augmented his emoluments with some quiet sleight-of-pen work, and was hanged for it. Visiting Bristol, he studied the literary forgeries of Thoman Chatterton, the "marvelous boy," and pronounced him, correctly, both a fraud and a genius. When "Ossian" Macpherson produced "an ancient epic poem translated from the Gaelic," Dr. Johnson immediately perceived it to be a contemporary fake, and denounced it as such." - p 10
The author aims to simulate Boswell's language. Here's an example:
"The '63 was to me a memorable year; for in it I had the happiness to obtain the acquaintance of that extraordinary man. Though then but a raw Scotch lad of two-and-twenty, I had already read the WORKS OF JOHNSON with delight and instruction, and imbibed therefrom the highest reverence for their author. Coming up to London in that year, I came with the firm resolution to win my way into his friendship." - p 17
Having not read either Boswell ot Johnson I'm not in a position to judge the quality of de la Torre's simulation - &, yet, I trust that she did a good job.
One of the stories is partially set in Bedlam, the (in)famous insane asylum that people wd visit for entertainment & edification.
"Around us milled madmen and their visitors in a dense throng, the while vendors shouldered their way through the crush dispensing nuts, fruits, and cheescakes, and tap-boys rushed pots of beer, though contraband, to the thirsty, whether mad or sane." - p 43
HHmm.. is this what football grew out of?
It seems that every fiction writer whose work I read these days is damned clever. As w/ G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories, each new tale is a work of the imagination. How is it possible that so many humans can be so imaginative? I'm reminded of Dolly Little & her wonder at where she can fit a big drink can. So many interesting ideas in such small heads.
""For verily he shall rise again—"
"Miss Cicely stood up suddenly. A long creaking rasp set my teeth on edge as the coffin lid was slowly pushed up, and a sheeted figure rose to a sitting position." - p 61
The author provides historical background to demonstrate the accuracy of her plot.
"The lot of the madman in Bedlam is here described as depicted by many contemporary writers and artists, notably Hogarth. For more about Bedlam, see F. O. O'Donoghue, The Story of Bethlehem Hospital (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1914)." - p 64
"These lines were roughly printed in the form of a handbill. My friend Dr. Sam: Johnson, detector of crime and chicane, produced the dog's-eared scrap of paper from the accumulation in his untidy book-garret in his house in Johnson's Court. I perused it with care." - p 67
"Note though: not only Sam, but Sam followed by a colon or at least two dots, to indicate the abbreviation. I did some research at one point in writing the book to see if this colon was a common way to abbreviate and I never really came up with anything definitive. I may still do a little poking around, but I’ve heard from at least one scholar/editor that using a colon was a fairly common way to abbreviate. (But why? And how did it come about?)" - https://mysamjohnson.com/blog/sams-si...
I found the following interesting:
"The old hag leaned back and laughed in his face.
""I know you are no witch," my friend went on grimly, "but I will tell you what you are."
"He spoke three words in her ear. Her face changed. She looked at him with more respect.
""Ah," she said, "I see you are in the councils of the great."
""I can see a church by daylight," replied Johnson as we withdrew." - p 78
Is that based purely in the author's imagination or in something else more substantial? I'd surely like to know. HHmm.. & what's up w/ this?:
""This," said Dr. Johnson solemnly, "is the famous Black Stone of Dr. Dee the alchemist. I had it of Mr. Walpole against this night's purpose. Into it," he lowered his sonorous voice another pitch, "the alchemist used to call his spirits, and they revealed the truth to him."" - p 84
Handy. Was it a smart phone? Sam: really was ahead of his time. Sam: is revealed to be anti-slavery.
"That my learned friend, Dr. Sam: Johnson, detector of crimes and righter of wrongs, was openly zealous in opposing the institution of human slavery, is well known.
""Here's to the next insurrection of the Negroes of the West Indies!"
"Such was the toast with which, I am told, he once scandalized some very grave scholars at Oxford.
"Insurrections there were in plenty among the black slaves on the plantations of Jamaica, and they were put down in torture and blood. Such episodes rouzed my moral friend's deepest indignation." - p 93
""The matter is sub judice before Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. There's a cause before him between an escaped slave, Somerset by name, and his former master. Till 'tis settled. Quashie must keep close."
""What hinders the settling?"
""There are fourteen thousand such slaves in England. My Lord Mansfield shrinks from freeing them all at once with his single word.["]" - p 98
Later, the "Resurrection Men" become the subject. These are the grave-robbers, a lucrative business for the somewhat unskilled laborer. I know a little of the history of those people in Baltimore. The author has it that they'd be willing to kill the person to be 'resurrected'.
"In time, several ingenious Sack-'em-up Men decided it was easier to murder than to dig—Bishop, Williams and May in London, and the famous firm of Burke and Hare in Edinburgh." - p 161
"The London Burkers were a group of body snatchers operating in London, England, who apparently modeled their activities on the notorious Burke and Hare murders. They came to prominence in 1831 for murdering victims to sell to anatomists, by luring and drugging them at their dwelling in the northern end of Bethnal Green, near St Leonard's, Shoreditch in London. They were also known as the Bethnal Green Gang." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_...
"The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen murders committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures.
"Edinburgh was a leading European centre of anatomical study in the early 19th century, in a time when the demand for cadavers led to a shortfall in legal supply. Scottish law required that corpses used for medical research should only come from those who had died in prison, suicide victims, or from foundlings and orphans. The shortage of corpses led to an increase in body snatching by what were known as "resurrection men". Measures to ensure graves were left undisturbed—such as the use of mortsafes—exacerbated the shortage. When a lodger in Hare's house died, he turned to his friend Burke for advice and they decided to sell the body to Knox. They received what was, for them, the generous sum of £7 10s. A little over two months later, when Hare was concerned that a lodger with a fever would deter others from staying in the house, he and Burke murdered her and sold the body to Knox. The men continued their murder spree, probably with the knowledge of their wives. Burke and Hare's actions were uncovered after other lodgers discovered their last victim, Margaret Docherty, and contacted the police." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_a...
""These involuntary levitations of inhumated decedents—" He paused impressively, for he loved to outdo Dr. Sam: Johnson himself in the matter of sesquipedalian terminology." - p 145
"sesquipedalian" - having many syllables, definitely a better word choice than a mere polysyllabic or multisyllabic - why those 2 words barely give the mouth any exercise.
"As we spoke thus, two burly bearers edged a sedan-chair with difficulty through the press. Many hands lifted the fallen boy, his brocades now blotched with crimson. The lady ascended the chair, received the inert form beside her, the half-door was fastened, and the chairmen heaved up the poles. The attentive surgeon walked beside." - p 150
Now, when I'm assassinated, I don't want to settle for a mere sedan-chair to take me away, I want a full blown HOME-ENTERTAINMENT-CENTER-chair, solar-powered & capable of being a hovercraft on land or water. Then, when the whole shebang is buried in a pyramid, the grave-robbers will have to work far harder than what's described below:
"My gorge rose as I imagined to myself the horrid scene—the loose earth shovelled away in hurried silence in the dark of the moon, the rending sound as the coffin is riven, the pallid form torn from its winding sheet, huddled by brutal hands into a sack; the chink of the Anatomist's coin as he pays off the criminals, his indecent satisfaction as he bares his scalpel and carves his silent victim like butcher's meat. No endeavour, no expense, seemed too much to avoid such a fate." - p 155
For those of us who don't come across words like "sesquipedalian" often enuf, this bk comes thru from time-to-time.
"Rising early on the morning of the fateful day, I donned my voluminous black advocate's gown, and a lawyer's powdered wig that I had rented from Tibbs the perruqier for a guinea." - p 174
Ah! To live in a world where signs in shop windows wd read: "Vape & Perruqier".
"a person who creates, styles, or sells perukes or hair-pieces" - https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/...
What about underarm perukes?
"["]Paper, my Lords, is made by grinding up rag, and wetting it, and laying it to dry upon a grid of wires. Now he who has a mind to sign his work, twists his mark in wire & lays it in, for every wire leaves its impression, which is called a watermark.["]" - p 182
Interesting.
All in all, this was fun, sure it's a gimmick - but it seems that I like gimmicks.
December 13, 2012
Holmes said of Watson, “I am lost without my Boswell.” With Boswell as the Boswell how can you go wrong? Although I’ve never read Boswell on Johnson de la Torre has written with such an authentic voice that it seems it must be his. Most of the adventures here are based on real-life cases, and the author provides notes at the end of each story giving a quick background and usually a book that tells all about the case or the principal players or both—much to my distress, because who has time to read all those! Anyway, a fascinating book.
July 7, 2009
A Strange book that I have read for a second time. Mystery Short Stories featuring the great 18th century literary master, Samuel Johnson and his biographer Boswell as a pre-Holmesian pair of detectives set loose upon London. The stories are replete with historical niceties but lack any true mystery or detection.
December 18, 2017
Good fun
July 8, 2024
I’ve read and reviewed
All four of this series. I enjoyed them though I don’t enjoy the tacking on of the first few chapters of the next story to bamboozle you into buying the next book. Which I did not do. I waited for them to be $2 before I bought.
All four of this series. I enjoyed them though I don’t enjoy the tacking on of the first few chapters of the next story to bamboozle you into buying the next book. Which I did not do. I waited for them to be $2 before I bought.
November 22, 2022
Murder Lock'd In--3
The Bedlam Bam--3
The Disappearing Servant Wench--3
The Blackamoor Unchain'd--3
The Lost Heir--3
The Resurrection Men--2
Milady Bigamy--3
The Bedlam Bam--3
The Disappearing Servant Wench--3
The Blackamoor Unchain'd--3
The Lost Heir--3
The Resurrection Men--2
Milady Bigamy--3
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews