The Doctor And The Detective

This entertaining, smart biography of Arthur Conan Doyle presents a modern day interpretation of the man who, contrary to his best efforts, will always be known as the creator of the great detective, Sherlock Holmes. Doyle was, however, much more, as Booth shows us in this intriguing study of a man who thrived on the times in which he lived. While Holmes fans will be captivated by the various tidbits that offer insight into their hero's creation; others will be fascinated by this living embodiment of the Victorian masculine ideal.

This is the first book to offer a critical analysis of one variant of the mystery story or novel—the use of a physician as the major detective. There is little difference between a medical “case study” and a mystery story. The book reviews the works of major authors, from R. Austin Freeman, Helen McCloy, Josephine Bell, and H.C. Bailey, to Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, Aaron Elkins, and Colin Cotterill, with briefer reviews of minor authors. It also addresses historical (fictional) physician detectives, psychological detectives, and physician detective nonfiction. Physicians and health workers are avid readers of detective fiction and will welcome this volume, which addresses their specific interests. Its critical analysis of books that have long been viewed as central to detective fiction will also appeal to fans of the mystery story.

ENVY, REVENGE AND RETRIBUTION IN THE THRILLING NEW INSTALMENT OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE GREEK DETECTIVE SERIES My first question must be, why do you want no investigation? If some malicious person has robbed you - as you believe - of your precious sight, why do you not want that person caught, tried and punished for their crime? A jilted bride weeps on an empty beach, a local doctor is attacked in an isolated churchyard - trouble has come at a bad time to Morfi, just as the backwater village is making headlines with a visit from a government minister. Fortunately, where there's trouble there's Hermes Diaktoros, the mysterious fat man whose tennis shoes are always pristine and whose methods are always unorthodox. Hermes must solve a brutal crime, thwart the petty machinations of the town's ex-mayor and pour oil on the troubled waters of a sisters' relationship - but how can he solve a mystery that not even the victim wants to be solved'...

In 1831, an unknown, horrifying and deadly disease from Asia swept across Continental Europe, killing millions in its path and throwing the medical profession into confusion. Cholera is a killer with little respect for class or wealth. When it arrived in Britain, its repercussions rocked Victorian England - from the filthy lanes of the Sunderland quayside and the squalid streets of Soho, to the great centres of power: the Privy Council, Whitehall and the Royal Medical Colleges. One man - alone and unrecognized - uncovered the truth behind the pandemic and laid the foundations for the modern scientific investigation of today's fatal plagues. John Snow was a reclusive doctor, without money or social position, who had the genius to look beyond the conventional wisdom of his day and work out that cholera was spread through drinking water. The book draws extensively on nineteenth-century medical, political and personal records in order to describe what is both an important breakthrough for medical science and also a dramatic story with a cast of colourful characters, from the heroic to the frighteningly incompetent. The book is also full of fascinating diversions into aspects of medical and social history, from Snow's tending of Queen Victoria in childbirth, to the Dutch microbiologist Leeuwenhoek's breeding of lice in his socks, and from Dickensian children's farms to riotous nineteenth-century anaesthesia parties.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his creation of Sherlock Holmes, but he was much more than a populist writer. In this book, Martin Booth offers a portrait of the famous author.

First published in 1895, “The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock” is a detective novel written by American novelist Anna Katharine Green. Ebenezer Gryce is once again leading a murder investigation, this time concerning a man who has been shot dead in his own house. Without any leads, evidence, or witnesses, he turns to the victim's immediate neighbours: a blind doctor and his stunningly beautiful wife. The seventh book in Green's detective series featuring Mr. Gryce, “The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock” is a riveting tale of mystery and intrigue not to be missed by fans of classic detective fiction. Anna Katharine Green (1846–1935) was an American novelist and poet. Among the first writers of detective fiction in America, she is considered to be the “mother” of the genre for her legally-accurate and well-thought-out plots. Other notable works by this author include: “The Leavenworth Case” (1878), “A Strange Disappearance” (1880), and “The Circular Study” (1900). Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this vintage detective novel now in a brand new edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

From Douglas Adams, the legendary author of one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, comes a wildly inventive novel—in trade paperback for the first time—of ghosts, time travel, and one detective's mission to save humanity from extinction. Quirky and bumbling private investigator Dirk Gently stumbles upon a ghost, millions of years old, wandering the earth and disturbing its people. Dirk soon discovers this phantom yearns for more than a good haunting: it is desperately trying to go back in time to prevent its own death. But this ghost was no ordinary person, and helping it save itself just might change the modern world as we know it. And not in a good way… Endlessly entertaining, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency proves that, indeed, “few writers have had such an infectious prose style as Adams” (The Observer). As Dirk Gently tries to solve the mysteries of the universe and the human soul, readers will have their own mystery to solve: Where did the time go?