Jack Tracy (1) (1945–)

A quick, slim, yet indispensable little book for the Sherlockian. Tracy and Berkey explain the late nineteenth century use of cocaine and its effects and then make the intriguing case that understanding the Holmes canon is dependent (a pun!) on understanding his cocaine habit. Here they make a great argument, though I might disagree with several dates and suppositions. For instance, just because Watson doesn't mention any dates, doesn't mean that there were no cases then, so there need not show more necessarily be a "relapse" or "weening" then. And "cocaine psychosis" might explain perfectly the oddities in "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax." A must for any Holmesian. show less

An interesting little book. Recommended for the Sherlockian who already has everything else.

An essential to reading and thoroughly enjoying A. C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

LK: In a fine substitute for an actual contemporary Encyclopedia Britannica, Tracy has provided information on every conceivable canonical topic that would have been available to Holmes’s contemporaries. This volume is a handy tool for checking story references (albeit far less complete than The Canonical Compendium, below). A CD-ROM version is available.