The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes is the fourth collection of essays on the England of Sherlock Holmes by Dr. Liese Sherwood-Fabre. Released 6th Dec 2022, it's 196 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. 

The author is erudite and has a prodigious knowledge of the canonical works of A.C. Doyle. All of these (quite excellent) essays are very much in the manner of the papers delivered and recorded in the newsletters and dinners of the various Holmes-adjacent fandoms. All of the essays are meticulously annotated with copious notes and links for further reading. 

Despite being a rigorous and serious collection of essays, they're perfectly accessible for layman readers and will provide many hours of further learning and research.

This volume is part of a series of essay collections and not a part of the author's fictional Holmes series (which is also quite good and comes highly recommended). 

Four and a half stars. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This was a very interesting book. I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, and I've read a lot of the canon texts, so learning about the various contexts surrounding different ideas/people/problems mentioned in the books was intriguing and incredibly informational. However, it felt pretty dense. This isn't a book you can read in one sitting even though it's mildly short, and the chapters are definitely short. There's just so much information given about each topic that it makes it a little hard to read. Not necessarily in a bad way if you enjoy learning and love Sherlock Holmes, but it made it a little difficult for me to finish the book. Overall, though, I very much enjoyed it and would recommend.

This collection of 24 short essays provides the historical context of things mentioned in Sherlock Holmes stories. Each essay was inspired by a comment or incident in a Sherlock Holmes story, and we're told where the essay topic is mentioned. We're given a brief history or background information on the topic. The footnotes show that most of the information was found online or in a small number of books about Victorian England, so you could look up much of this information for yourself if so motivated. However, it is an interesting and informative read. I knew more about some of these topics than was in the essay, so I learned less than I have from her previous collections.

I actually found this book to be interesting. I had never given thought to all the details found in the book that reflects the life at the time that the Sherlock Holmes stories were written. I like the information in the book. Now I need to reread the original stories to view the stories with all this new info,

Oh, how I adore this series of short essays on everything Sherlock Holmes and happenings he would have encountered in the Victorian era! This slim book delivers a wallop and each word counts, each detail equally fascinating. Descriptions of words, phrases and concepts are beautifully researched and include where they are found in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's masterpieces and in the real world (though to fans like me Sherlock Holmes is real!).

Some of the gleeful hand-rubbing details include the origins of "private eye" and the Pinkerton's National Detective Agency with the first female detective and criminal database, the first handcuffs, rumours versus gossip, creating and cutting into cans, the "joy plant" which spanned every social class, the romantic attributes of handkerchiefs including sending messages and "street arabs" or The Baker Street Irregulars who were young homeless boys. I really enjoy the Scandalous Stories table, too!

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will want to savour this and the other writing by Liese Sherwood-Fabre. Not only is she entertaining but also a fount of information! So many aha moments. Pure joy in a book.

My sincere thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the privilege of reading and pondering this lovely volume. Hopefully there are more to come in the series!

Great for those that want to do a deeper dive into Holmes' world, and get a better understanding of his world and times; so it might be a bit geeky or maybe just interesting for those that are curious. For those that pick it up, it will probably be an enjoyable read. I haven't read the others in the series.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

A concise book of information in the Victorian age and what Sherlock used. Well written and easy to understand and of when he used those items. Enjoyed now to reread or listen to those mentioned again.
Given ARC by Net Galley and Books Go Social for my voluntary review and my honest opinion.

An interesting and unusual companion piece for Holmes fans. Lots of details and different angles of interest included.