The Science of Sherlock Holmes

by Stewart Ross

Lively and immensely readable, The Science of Sherlock Holmes looks at the advancements in crime-solving and general science from late Victorian times to the modern day.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, the reading public acquired a taste for the new genre of detective fiction. At the same time, science was transforming every aspect of human life. Arthur Conan Doyle, a young doctor and up-and-coming writer, brilliantly wove these two strands together to create detective fiction’s most memorable and enduring character: Sherlock Holmes.

Detailed yet eminently readable, The Science of Sherlock Holmes looks at contemporary scientific achievement at the time of writing and how these were employed in the Sherlock stories. The book looks at Holmes’ deductive logic and his skills in specific areas: codes, prints, writing, disguise, guns etc. and how these are still used today in the world of criminology. Learn about Holmes's brilliant forensic reasoning and his skills in areas such as prints and marks, handwriting, disguise and weaponry. Discover his encyclopaedic scientific knowledge over an immense field, from botany and poisons to physics and ballistics. See, too, how many of the techniques pioneered by Holmes are still relevant in modern criminal investigation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

Hardcover

Published May 14, 2020

About the author

Stewart Ross has written more than 300 titles, fiction and non-fiction, for children and adults. Many are about (or inspired by) history. He lives near Canterbury, England.

Reviews

[Ashley (Tiny Navajo Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information was interesting and I like knowing more about the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I do think it's something I'll think about a bit more when I read Sherlock Holmes stories.

[Corben · Rating 1 out of 5]

I might have given it two stars if the author didn't ignore the existence of ADHD when diagnosing Holmes with autism and bipolar disorder in one and a half pages of insufficient evidence. The symptoms given as evidence of both disorders are easily explained by ADHD alone. The author also forgets that introverts exist which would explain Holmes's disinclination to socialise better than autism. This book does a decent job at explaining the science of Sherlock Holmes's time and does well to touch on inaccuracies and Holmes's guesswork but made a critical error in feigning to know anything about mental disorders. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they based their book substantially on what they've read of other people's opinions rather than do their own critical thinking, which is made evident by their very limited bibliography of 15 sources- 11 of which pertain to a discussion on Sherlock Holmes and the other 4 are simple overviews of a topic.

[athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who loves Sherlock, both on paper and on screen, this book was highly entertaining (at first). And it really was quite nice to learn the science behind it all, and it really helped me to see just how much knowledge Sherlock had packed into his brain. Also I hadn’t really realized that a lot of what Sherlock did wasn’t precise, it was inferences, guess work. But to me, the reader, I couldn’t picture it being anything else once Sherlock explained everything. Not even realizing that if he interpreted one thing slightly different the outcome may have been drastically different. So yeah, I’d say this book was helpful, enlightening and informative. But I don’t really feel like it spoke to me much, after reading a few chapters I came to my conclusions and got bored.

[Stephen Bacon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting overview of how the impact of science - forensic science and modern science (of the time) - impacts on the stories and novels of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It covers Holmes's methods and strategies in his role as a 'consulting detective', as well as the various criminology techniques such as footprints and fingerprints, optics, toxicology, weaponry and ballistics, animals and transport. It's probably more interesting to casual fans rather than experts on the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre, but this is a great book, well-researched, crammed with loads of interesting detail.

[eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting

[Crongus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The information was interesting, but the delivery a little dry. Not a huge issue though, and the cover is pretty.

[Luca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of has some interesting facts, however completely boring to read.
This book reads like a scholar essay that doesn't seem researched properly

[Saibh Scorr · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was basically just a bunch of references to the stories of Sherlock but the random facts about everything was fun

[Harvey Dias · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an overview of the science found in the Sherlock Holmes stories. It is not very technical, but it does a good job of showing what Conan Doyle got right and wrong.
The book reveals how much of modern detection has been influenced by Sherlock Holmes.
This is not challenging reading, but is sure to be entertaining for serious fans of Sherlock.

[lucy♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i now have a lot of fun facts