The title piece in this superb new collection I first read, I think, either in The New Yorker, or in an anthology of the best crime writing, the year it was published. Wherever I read it, I will never forget it. It is a fascinating story, and a brilliant piece of true crime writing. Seeing that this new book, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, did in fact contain the piece I remembered, I took it with me to lunch today and read another, about a Polish detective, using a post-modern novel to convict a murderer. Since I brought my copy home, even as I tried to clean the house tonight and do laundry, I've read three more pieces from the collection. Can't help myself. They are are all amazingly good.
So, I take a few minutes out from folding fitted-sheets -- and who really wants to be doing that? -- to pay a small tribute to David Grann, a crime journalist of the first rank, and a writer of great skill.
Read this book!
(And now to fold pillowcases, and read "Crimetown, USA," before bed. Can't imagine I'll be able to sleep until I do.)
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