Through a Glass, Darkly: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Quest to Solve the Greatest Mystery of All Time

After the American Civil War, while bodies still littered battlefields, the movement known as Spiritualism began to sweep across America as thousands of people, mostly from shock and grief, tried to make contact with the recently departed. The movement captivated Europe as well, especially England in the aftermath of the Great War and Great Influenza Epidemic. Prominent figures such as Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, and Queen Victoria were mesmerised. The movement’s most famous spokesman was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Known to the world as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle underwent what many people atthe time considered an enigmatic transformation, turning his back on the hyper-rational Holmes and plunging into the supernatural. What was it that convinced a brilliant man like Doyle, the creator of the great exemplar of cold, objective thought, that there was a reality beyond the reality? Why did professors, philosophers, statesmen and men of science like the great evolutionist Alfred Russell Wallace, the Novel-Laureate physiologist Charles Richet, and the distinguished chemist Sir William Crookes also become Spiritualists?Using the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as a lens, Bechtel probes this largely unexplored movement, a movement rife with fraud but also full of genuine evidence that is difficult to dismiss. Expertly written and peppered with engaging anecdotes, Through a Glass, Darkly is a terrifically fun read.

Reviews of Through a Glass, Darkly: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Quest to Solve the Greatest Mystery of All Time

"Through a Glass, Darkly is a terrific book, lively, well researched, and a great way to catch up on one of the strangest, most mysterious, and largely forgotten moments in American History. Focusing on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who risked everything to prove that life after death exists, is a brilliant way to present the larger story of spiritualism."–Christine Wicker, New York Times bestselling author of Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town That Talks to the Dead"A fascinating addition to the existing work on Conan Doyle and spiritualism, which shows again how the creator of the world's most famously rational human calculating machine was often quite literally away with the fairies."–Christopher Sandford, author of Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini"Through a Glass, Darkly is a wonderful read, covering the key events of both spiritualism and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life with gusto. It is consistently entertaining and, more importantly, thought-provoking."–Jim B. Tucker, MD, New York Times bestselling author of the Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives"A rollicking story of a little-known aspect of the life of Sherlock Holmes' famous creator. Not only does Through A Glass Darkly tell the story of Arthur Conan Doyle's lifelong obsession with Spiritualism, but it also raises fascinating questions about death, the afterlife, and how we mourn."–Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places