Jack Tracy

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 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.… (mais)