‘ve spent most of my life immersed in either Sherlock Holmes, or books about criminology and forensics (all quite relaxing late-night reading material, you understand). I’ve read the occasional account of the emergence of forensic science around the turn of the last century, and –while fascinating– it’s barely been enough to whet my appetite. And so I was thrilled to hear of a new book by E.J. Wagner called The Science of Sherlock Holmes. From the dust jacket:

The Science of Sherlock Holmes is a wild ride in a hansom cab through medicine, law, pathology, toxicology, anatomy, blood chemistry and the emergence of real-life forensic science during the 19th and 20th centuries along the road paved by Sherlock Holmes.

From a “well-marked print of a thumb” on a whitewashed wall in “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder,” to the trajectory and impact of a bullet in the “The Reigate Squires,” author E. J. Wagner uses the Great Detective’s remarkable adventures as springboards into the real-life forensics behind them.

You’ll meet scientists, investigators, and medical experts, such as the larger-than-life Eugène Vidocq of the Paris Sûreté, the determined detective Henry Goddard of London’s Bow Street Runners, the fingerprint expert Sir Francis Galton, and the brilliant but arrogant pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury. You’ll explore the ancient myths and bizarre folklore that were challenged by the evolving field of forensics—including the belief that hair and nails grow after death, and the idea that the skull’s size and shape determine personality—and examine the role that brain fever, Black Dogs, and vampires played in criminal history.

[…] Through numerous cases, including celebrated ones such as those of Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden, the author traces the influence of the coolly analytical Holmes on the gradual emergence of forensic science from the grip of superstition. You’ll find yourself turning pages of The Science of Sherlock Holmes as eagerly as you would of any Holmes mystery.

The advance praise seems to be quite flattering (which, one guesses, is why it’s called “praise” to begin with), even from noted Sherlockians, and the description on Wagner’s website has truly piqued my interest.

Coming this April to a bookstore near you, or order from Amazon.

Update: Her publisher Wiley has posted chapter one, the index and the table of contents on its website page for the book, if you’d like to read more.