Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes, Sims - C +

                                           The young Scottish-born physician modeled his famed detective on a medical school professor, Joseph Bell, who tried to deduce facts and information about patients from their appearances, the condition of their hands, shoes and clothing. Doyle was well-educated and, as a boy, had totally immersed himself in books and literature of all kinds.  Indeed, at one point, the library in Edinburgh advised his mother that he would be limited to two books per day. He was a dreamer who loved the idea of travel and during medical school, shipped out on a whaler one summer. He graduated in 1881 and took a tour as a physician on a boat to Africa before opening a practice in Portsmouth. He practiced during the day and wrote at night. He was able to sell a short story here and there.  Eventually, he was becoming successful and even appeared in American publications.  He decided that he had to write a full-length book.  He did not invent the genre of the detective novel. Poe, with a character he used three times, Auguste Dupin, preceded him by forty years. In the late winter and early spring of 1886, he penned 'A Study In Scarlet' narrated by Dr. John Watson and featuring one of the most famous characters in literature. He based the name of his star creation on a London detective, Inspector Thomas Sherlock and the American physician and poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes. Sherlock Holmes was born. The book met with some critical success and he followed up with 'The Sign of Four'. He also wrote a few historical novels that were published on both sides of the Atlantic. He engaged an agent who obtained a contract for him to write six Holmes short stories. Fame and fortune soon followed and he put his medical practice behind him. He moved to London, publicly acknowledged his debt to Dr. Bell, and became one of the most successful writers in English history. This book has some interesting information, but I spent the time reading it wondering how you could make the story of Arthur and Sherlock so bloody boring.