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When Arthur Conan Doyle was a lonely seven-year-old schoolboy at pre-prep Newington Academy in Edinburgh, a French emigre named Eugene Chantrelle was engaged there to teach Modern Languages. Ten years later, Chantrelle would be hanged for the murder of six young girls, and two boys from the Academy - and medical student Doyle would provide forensic evidence at the trial concerning the dismembered bodies. This extraordinary link between actual murder and the greatest detective story writer of all time is one of many. Christopher Sandford follows those links and draws out the connections between Conan Doyle's literary output and factual criminality, a pattern that will enthrall and surprise the legions of Sherlock fans. In a sense, Conan Doyle wanted to be Sherlock – to be a man who could bring order and justice to a terrible world. AUTHOR: Christopher Sandford is the author of 22 books. The Final Over – published by The History Press – is currently in its third printing. Houdini and Conan Doyle: Friends of Genius, Deadly Rivals, the story of the strange relationship between Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, was published in 2011. It was recently bought by the BBC for adaptation into a television miniseries. Christopher's books have been translated into 15 languages. SELLING POINTS: . A new way of interpreting the ever-popular Sherlock phenomenon . Drawn from access to the Rare Books Room of Cambridge University Library; the Manuscripts Room, British Library; the Conan Doyle Bequest; the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas; and the author's own private collection . Conan Doyle's personal crusades for justice, played out in public, are sometimes more lurid than anything in his prose, involving as they do Winston Churchill, the Lusitania – and cattle mutilation! 18 b/w illustrations

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CHRISTOPHER SANDFORD is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. He has written numerous biographies of music, film and sports stars, as well as Union Jack, a bestselling book on John F. Kennedy’s special relationship with Great Britain described by the National Review as ‘political history of a high order – the Kennedy book to beat’. Born and raised in England, Christopher currently lives in Seattle.

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