i really enjoy the Sherlock Holmes series as a whole and a lot of the modern adaptations. So when I saw that this was a biography on the real Sherlock Holmes, I found that Jerome Caminada was a really unique character and I enjoyed reading this biography.

Lovely historical book about the ‘real’ Sherlock Holmes. Would definitely recommend to those that lovely historical crime stories.

While an interesting topic - the life of a famous policeman of Victorian England, focused on stories of his service, I kept feeling like this was not an original piece but a summarized version of Caminada's two volumes of memoirs. Part of the problem was that the writing seemed so favorable to Jerome Caminada, who may deserve great accolades for his work. I just kept wondering how objective this picture is. Eventually, I went to the end of the book to see Buckley's sources. I acknowledge Buckley did some research beyond the memoirs. This is a very readable book. I see nothing to support the title thesis that Caminada was the prototype for Sherlock Holmes. I didn't get bored exactly, but I found I was way more interested when I read the first few pages of Caminada's first volume of his memoirs: Both volumes of Twenty-five Years of Detective Life are digitized on Google. I've downloaded them for an eventual read. No regrets but not as special as I'd hoped.

This is a well-written and researched narrative about a British detective of Catholic Roman Irish descent who served with distinction in the mid- to late 1800s in Manchester. Packed full of details about crimes and how Detective Jerome solved was entertaining and kept me coming back for the details of each new crime he was involved in solving.
Detective Jerome's knowledge of his childhood neighborhood and abilities to watch and make deductions in solving crimes for the force went unrivaled except in detective fiction as written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about his character Sherlock Holmes. Anyone interested in the British history of nineteenth century detectives won't want to miss this book.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book to read in advance of publication. The impressions expressed here are my own honest opinions written voluntarily.

The Real Sherlock Holmes has an interesting thesis of analyzing the life and work of 19th century Manchester police officer Jerome Caminada. The title and the thesis definitely captured my attention and imagination. Having seen the Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr. playing the titular role I was very interested to learn more about a real person who may have influenced this type of fiction. Throughout the book the author weaves in titbits about Sherlock Holmes and tries to compare Caminada's exploits to Holmes'. I look at this book as a happy accident., if the comparison to Holmes wasn't proposed, I probably wouldn't have read the book. Though I don't think the author proved the thesis, I was thoroughly entertained with the authors depiction of 19th century Manchester, England. and learning about Caminada's policing career. I would recommend this book to the readers that are interested in police history and 19th century England and specifically Manchester history. The author does mention how detective books, such as Sherlock Holmes, gained popularity in the time of Caminada's time on the force as a detective. It would have been interesting, if there really was a connection between Holmes and Caminada, to dive into Arthur Conan Doyle's influences for Holmes if that type of information exists. As a reader, I still don't know if this is an assumption or fact that Caminada directly influenced Doyle in writing Sherlock Holmes.

In reality as well as literature, perception is everything. If you perceive somethings to be comparable in your mind, you will write about it being biased to a certain situation whether you plan to or not.
To me this is how Buckley has written this biography (?).

Buckley follows Caminada's career from 1868 (when he joined the Police) until his death in 1914. Caminada (known to all as Detective Jerome) was Manchester's answer to Sherlock Holmes whose creation was contemporary to Jerome. Though he was referred to in the press as the 'real Sherlock Holmes' it was more of a 'home town' description as opposed to a real comparison.

Jerome was a major reason for the professionalization of the Manchester Police (founded in 1842), his modus operandi had little to compare him to Holmes. If Holmes is a man of culture who did his investigations by the scientific method, Jerome was more like a bulldozer in a china shop. He was proud of his ability to subdue (with his fists) criminals by brute force, and left it to the prosecutors to deal with the niceties.

At the end of his career he became a 'private investigator' and published two well received books about his career.

Suffice to say, really enjoyed reading this one!

Caminada - a man's whose career rivaled and paralleled that of London's Inspector Frederick Abberline. Both men came from humble beginnings, went into a trade before entering the Police Force; both were skilled and rose through the ranks; both become private detectives after leaving the force; and both would be remembered for their most famous of cases.

Buckley provides us with a series of vignettes that introduce us to this remarkable man, his methods, his crimes (ie: the one he solved), and his life. Caminada truly was unique among his peers and possibly, even among investigators regardless of the time period in which they worked. Reading some of these cases, you would be inclined to think that Caminada himself was a fictional character due to his highly successful methods of crime-fighting and policing. It is a testament to this man that we are still amazed today at his level of cunning, doggedness, and dedication to his career.

I found this to be a most interesting read - and whether he truly was the inspiration for Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes", there is no doubting the man's obvious (subconscious) influence.

People familiar with the origins of Sherlock Holmes might have expected this to be about Joseph Bell, the real person Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his famous detective on but instead this is about a real detective based in Manchester at the time Sherlock Holmes first made his appearance and who was compared to Sherlock Holmes in the press at times. But don’t be disappointed because it makes the exploits of Jerome Caminada all the more impressive because they were real. He was involved in everything from capturing thieves, counterfeiters, exposing and bringing to justice charlatan doctors and, even, international espionage.

Angela Buckley brings to life the personal life as well as the professional endeavors of this man who published his own case book during his lifetime but, as was the practice of the time, left out anything personal and used terms familiar to contemporaries. Buckley is able to give historical context and interpret the cant modern readers may not be cognizant of.

Interesting and fun to read about a very competent police officers in contrast to the often bumbling fools as the writer often portrays them. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.