In praise of Sherlock Holmes:
"Rennison has contrived a marvelous fiction: Holmes's biography … Quick-paced, informative prose … [and a] complex, engaging portrait."
—Los Angeles Times
"An in-depth biography of the world's most famous detective that will intrigue Sherlockians and non-Sherlockians alike. Melding genuine Victorian history with episodes from Doyle's original stories, the author adopts the popular conceit that Holmes and Watson actually existed, and uses the few clues from the canon to reconstruct the sleuth's ancestry and upbringing."
—Publishers Weekly
"Charming details … [Rennison has] a hawk eye for recognizing the gaps of time."
—The New York Times
"There'll always be people who think Holmes actually existed. Nick Rennison takes them at their word, picking up small clues in the stories… . Elegantly done, and Mr. Rennison is a good historian with a nice sense of period."
—The Sunday Telegraph (UK)
"Holmes long ago entered that blurred territory between fact and fiction, and this cleverly written, entertaining ruse places him ever more firmly in the Victorian panorama."
—The Sunday Times (UK)
"This faux-scholarly approach never wavers, inviting the reader to suspend their disbelief as the author spins out the story as painstakingly as Holmes himself might have done."
—Sunday Business Post (UK)
"Compelling plausible … If this is a work of fiction, you could have fooled me. The author almost certainly has."
—Brighton Argus
"Blends what we already know of the great sleuth's career with carefully documented social history … This meticulous re-creation of the secret life and curious times of the great detective will prove compulsive reading for Holmes fans everywhere."
—Tangled Web (UK)
"[A] carefully researched and erudite biography … a capital contribution to Holmes Studies."
—The Oldie (UK)
"Impressive … combines social history with decisive scholarship to place Holmes in the heart of the British Empire."
—The Irish Examiner
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
EVE, WITH LOVE AND THANKS,
AND TO THE MEMORY OF
NORAH ALLENBY (1916–2OO5)
