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  • The Devil and Sherlock Holmes

  • Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession
  • Written by: David Grann
  • Narrated by: Mark Deakins
  • Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

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The Devil and Sherlock Holmes

Written by: David Grann
Narrated by: Mark Deakins
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Publisher's Summary

Acclaimed New Yorker writer and author of the breakout debut bestseller The Lost City of Z, David Grann offers a collection of spellbinding narrative journalism.

Whether he’s reporting on the infiltration of the murderous Aryan Brotherhood into the U.S. prison system, tracking down a chameleon con artist in Europe, or riding in a cyclone- tossed skiff with a scientist hunting the elusive giant squid, David Grann revels in telling stories that explore the nature of obsession and that piece together true and unforgettable mysteries.

Each of the dozen stories in this collection reveals a hidden and often dangerous world and, like Into Thin Air and The Orchid Thief, pivots around the gravitational pull of obsession and the captivating personalities of those caught in its grip. There is the world’s foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes who is found dead in mysterious circumstances; an arson sleuth trying to prove that a man about to be executed is innocent; and sandhogs racing to complete the brutally dangerous job of building New York City’s water tunnels before the old system collapses. Throughout, Grann’s hypnotic accounts display the power—and often the willful perversity—of the human spirit.

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant mosaic of ambition, madness, passion, and folly.

©2010 David Grann (P)2010 Random House

What the critics say

"A gifted storyteller, Grann has a Sherlock Holmesian gift for unearthing facts that are hidden in plain sight, presenting a crystal-clear narrative and letting his compelling cast of characters speak for themselves.....Easily worth the price of admission, a visit to Grann's rogue's gallery is likely to leave you with a sense, at once awful and awesome, of the profound desire we all have for recognition." --Portland Oregonian

"Grann's obsession with how narratives are told is complex and compelling...But it's the basic stories themselves -- bizarre and fascinating, bolstered by exhaustive research -- that make the book so gripping." --TimeOut New York

What listeners say about The Devil and Sherlock Holmes

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Enthralling

A superlative entertaining set of story real life events making lived human lives way more puzzling and fascinating than fiction

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Deceiver and charlatans abound.

The capacity of some humans to deceive, obsess and be malicious is astounding. Conversely, for each one of these, there is one or more humans who believe and trust the perpetrator. As a journalist, David Grann has written a small compendium of some notorious and not so notorious charlatans. The narration by Mark Deakins is very good.

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