The Night Calls [Hardcover]

David Pirie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2003

As a young medical student, Arthur Conan Doyle-the creator of Sherlock Holmes-studied under one of the pioneers in forensic medicine, Dr. Joseph Bell. While details of Doyle’s actual relationship with the Doctor remain shrouded in mystery, author David Pirie has created an engrossing series that pairs the two as partners in criminal investigations in the dark underworlds of Victorian Edinburgh.

The Night Calls chronicles their most frightening and disturbing case, the encounter with the man who prefigures Holmes’ archnemesis Moriarty. A series of bizarre and outlandish assaults on women in the brothels of Edinburgh has caught the attention of Bell, who calls on Doyle to assist in the investigation. At the same time, however, there’s a violent struggle for women's educational rights taking place at the university’s medical school where Doyle is a student. There he meets young Elsbeth Scott, a fellow student with an unfortunate list of enemies, among them a crazed misogynist student name Crawford, and the smiling hypocritical patron of the university, Henry Carlisle.

Bell slowly begins to realize that the increasingly freakish crimes indicate a heretofore unknown and terrifying kind of criminal, one who is not susceptible to the Doctor’s old methods. The Night Calls takes them from the evil heart of old Edinburgh into what Bell calls their “fight against the future” and to London itself, where Doyle again faces a villain with terrifying results.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Inspired by the discovery that Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle attended medical school in Scotland with one of the 19th century's most notorious serial killers, David Pirie's The Night Calls reels out a grim but engrossing tale that suggests a model for Holmes's foremost adversary, Professor James Moriarty.

A series of bizarre assaults on women in the brothels of 1878 Edinburgh draws the attention of Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon, charismatic teacher, and forensic expert who periodically applies his deductive skills to solving crimes. Together with a young Conan Doyle, his "trusted clerk and pupil," Bell follows the trail of an elusive attacker who leads them on crepuscular chases through gloomy Victorian streets and to a blood-filled room where the puzzle of his motive becomes deeper. However, Conan Doyle is occupied with other matters, as well. He's fast developing a fondness for fellow student Elsbeth Scott, whose interest in promoting educational rights for women has made her many enemies, and whose sister, the wife of a hypocritical philanthropist, grows sicker by the day--either as a result of disease or deviousness. The future author is disturbed, too, by his father's deteriorating mental condition. Assisting Bell offers Conan Doyle some release from worry--at least until their controlling quarry becomes a threat to Miss Scott. Pirie's plot only gains more perplexity and darkness as its action shifts to London, forcing the logical Bell and his impetuous amanuensis to contend with opium fiends, disappearing corpses, a severed head with "horrifying power," and continuing taunts by a murderer who believes that "evil is freedom."

While British author Pirie's previous Bell-Conan Doyle novel, The Patient's Eyes, was more of a whodunit, liberally employing Sherlockian investigative techniques, the rather more smoothly constructed The Night Calls concentrates equally on drama and the morally incongruent psychology of its principal players. This novel blends fact with fiction in a mesmerizing tale that boasts a frightening, cliffhanger ending. A sequel is planned. --J. Kingston Pierce

From Publishers Weekly

In British author Pirie's second novel to feature a young Arthur Conan Doyle and his real-life mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell, as prototypes for Watson and Holmes, the pair pursue a serial killer stalking 1878 Edinburgh, but the results fall short of the high standard set by last year's The Patient's Eyes. Tormented as before by his family's desperate circumstances caused by his father's descent into dementia, Conan Doyle again finds some relief in a romantic interest, this time a fellow medical student threatened by faculty and staff appalled at the prospect of female doctors. The baffling clues left behind to both engage and taunt the detectives, including carefully constructed piles of coins and a room painted in blood, point to two obvious suspects. Alas, the early unmasking of the real murderer owes less to Bell's tremendous Sherlockian deductive gifts than would be expected. The less-than-compelling remainder of the story climaxes in a cliffhanger that will annoy some readers and leave others breathlessly anticipating the sequel. Hopefully, next time Pirie will present Bell, Doyle and the killer as psychologically complex characters, just as he did in his marvelously twisted whodunit of a debut.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1ST edition (August 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312291043
• ISBN-13: 978-0312291044
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,449,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Atmospheric and absorbing, August 28, 2003

By 

Chelle "Chelle" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night Calls (Hardcover)

Sherlock Holmes. Very few names are as evocative as that one. And yet there are many questions and speculations surrounding the creation of that marvelous fictional detective. It has been said that the only way to gain any true knowledge of Holmes is through his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. David Pirie must subscribe to that train of thought as well and has therefore devised a background for Doyle. In so doing, Pirie gives us an imaginative glimpse into the relationship between the writer and Dr. Joseph Bell, the man credited with being the inspiration for Holmes himself.

`The Night Calls' is first and foremost a thoroughly atmospheric, not to mention a completely absorbing, story. Each setting and scene is described in careful detail, which lends the prose a rich density that manages to escape any sense of being cumbersome. The reader is allowed to take to the streets of Edinburgh and London right alongside Doyle and Bell. Yes, those streets are dark and unsavory, but you would never think of turning back. And even though Pirie takes the mystery on a couple of tangent jaunts that may seem unnecessary, the heart of it remains compellingly close and "concludes" in a highly chilling manner.

After reading the Historical Note included at the end of the novel, I was surprised to find just how much of Doyle's real life had been snuck into the narrative. Pieces of the man's history that you think must have been part of the fiction turned out to be true and you appreciate the way the story was crafted even more for it. This is the type of novel that makes you want to learn more. More about Doyle himself, about the real-life serial killer that plagues Bell and Doyle throughout, and more about the women's movement that rose up during the time.

I thoroughly enjoyed `The Night Calls' and have since purchased `The Patient's Eye' which actually precedes this novel. I am also anticipating the dvd release of `The Murder Rooms', a miniseries upon which the novels were based.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner!, August 18, 2003

By 

Cindy Craig (Gaithersburg, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night Calls (Hardcover)

Once again David Pirie has given us a winner: complex plotting, rich detail, characters who are real, beautiful writing. As you follow Doyle and Bell through the misty streets of old Edinburgh, it is quite possible to forget that you are not actually there. In "The Night Calls", Doyle has begun to open the darkest, most frightening of his "Murder Rooms", and the reader is drawn into all the fear, frustration, pain, and failure, as well as the successes, of that awful year in Doyle's life. A warning: "The Night Calls" and "The Patient's Eyes" are intertwined in some ways - a tidbit here, a phrase there - and you may find yourself picking up and enjoying "The Patient's Eyes" once again, as I did the moment I finished "The Night Calls". I hope Pirie intends to open every one of Doyle's "Murder Rooms"!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Killer and sleuths match wits in this exciting thriller., September 20, 2003

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Night Calls (Hardcover)

David Pirie's excellent novel, "The Night Calls," features a young Arthur Doyle, who is a medical student, and his mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell's sharp powers of observation and clever methods of detection were an inspiration for Doyle's fictional character, Sherlock Holmes.

It is the late 1800's in Edinburgh, Scotland. Arthur Doyle and Dr. Joseph Bell combine their resources to investigate a series of grisly assaults on women. Ultimately, Bell fears that the assaults are the work of an unhinged individual whose crimes may soon escalate to murder. It turns out that Bell's fears are well founded. Their antagonist is a sadist who has tremendous intelligence, imagination, cruelty, and daring.

With his skilled description and vivid characterizations, Pirie has done a marvelous job of capturing the mood of the times. He tackles several feminist themes, including the discrimination that faced young ladies who wished to attend medical school, and the wretched exploitation of impoverished women who sold their virtue in order to survive.

The characters of Bell and Doyle and sharp and well-drawn. Bell's incisive mind, no-nonsense approach, and tenacity when faced with a difficult problem are indeed reminiscent of the great Sherlock Holmes. The central villain of the piece is a vile individual who will make your blood run cold.

Pirie includes several intriguing subplots, including one about a chauvinistic and cruel husband and another about an arrogant scientist who believes that the ends of scientific discovery justify unethical means. "The Night Calls" is a chilling, fascinating, and expertly written novel, and I recommend it highly.