I have always been a fan of Sherlock and I knew of the antipathy of the author towards his star creation, so, of course, I have been curious about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and this book answered all the questions. Unfortunately, it answered much more than I really wanted to know. It is exhaustive and exhausting. Still it is a biography I am glad I read. Doyle is a fascinating tragic figure.
He tries to live the adventurous life and has grandiose dreams. Here is a man who creates Challenger in the Lost World, Sherlock in a grand series of mystery stories and yet he loves his creation Sir Nigel and assesses almost forgotten novels as his prize creation.
He travels to South Africa where he is Watson in the Boer War and throughout his life he travels the world.
In the end, this man who can create the intellectual detective - Holmes - who possesses no patience with the frills of mysticism, finds himself the world's foremost advocate of spiritualism.
He is deceived in a way that will mark the final decades of his life, ruin friendship, and lose him both money and respect. He dies happy and rich so it does not destroy him, but he cannot see through the trickery. This pits him against Houdini, the great magician, who wants to expose the fraud and from friendship they grow to competitive opposites like Holmes and Moriarity.
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