Tag Archives: Arthur Conan Doyle

Leo, the Napoleon of Rightwing Courts

By Robin Bates | Published: February 21, 2024

Leonard Leo, who has been successful remaking the Supreme Court, resembles Doyle’s Professor Moriarty.

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The Trumpists That Didn’t Bark

By Robin Bates | Published: August 23, 2023

There a dog that’s not barking in Trump World at the moment: Trumpists are not showing up at his indictments.

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Moriarty and SCOTUS’s Dark Web

By Robin Bates | Published: June 25, 2023

The Moriarty of America’s judicial system is Leonard Leo, who keeps a low profile as he links SCOTUS justices with rightwing billionaires.

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Dr. Watson Returns from Afghanistan

By Robin Bates | Published: August 24, 2021

Dr. Watson is also a former Afghanistan War vet, with certain similarities to our own vets. The messy end of America’s involvement also recalls Kaye’s “Far Pavilions.”

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Holmes and Lupin, a Comparison

By Robin Bates | Published: June 24, 2021

Netflix’s Lupin is based on Leblanc’s “gentleman burglar series,” which itself owes much to Sherlock Holmes.

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Mueller Demythologized

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2019

Thursday I’ve written a lot about people’s hopes in Robert Mueller, which helps explain the palpable disappointment in his performance yesterday before two Congressional committees. From one perspective, there’s no reason to feel let down. After all, his report exposed one of the great scandals in American history: our president welcomed and encouraged Russian election […]

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Sherlock: Hard-Boiled or Soft-Boiled?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 17, 2019

Tuesday I share today an Alexis Hall essay I encountered in CrimeReads arguing that Sherlock Holmes is a hard-boiled detective. (Thanks to Literary Hub for the alert.) For those who study detective fiction, the thesis is startling because Holmes is generally grouped with the soft-boiled or puzzle-solving detectives, more like Dupin, Poirot, Miss Marple, Nero […]

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Are We Overanalyzing Trump?

By Robin Bates | Published: May 19, 2019

Monday My son gave me a tough-love talk about my writing at a wedding reception this past Saturday afternoon. We were in Iowa together for my wife’s nephew and Darien took a few moments to express doubts about book he is helping me self-publish. While he is a big supporter of the blog, he worries […]

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Are We Watching Shakespeare or Beckett?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2019

Friday When assuring my English majors that they will find jobs in the world beyond college, I sometimes point out that they are experts in narrative. Increasingly we are learning how much we process reality through stories, and political operatives talk ceaselessly about “controlling the narrative.” How you organize facts (or for that matter, lies) […]

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