The Patient's Eyes: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes [Hardcover]

David Pirie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2002

"It is to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes."-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to his mentor, renowned forensic scientist Dr. Joseph Bell

As a young medical student, Arthur Conan Doyle, famously studied under the pioneering forensic detective Dr. Joseph Bell. Taking this as a starting point, author David Pirie has woven a compelling thriller which partners Bell (widely believed to be the model for Sherlock Holmes himself) and Doyle as innovators in criminal investigation, exploring the strange underworld of violence and sexual hypocrisy running below the surface of the Victorian era.

When the impoverished young Arthur Doyle opens his first medical practice, he is puzzled by the symptoms presented by Heather Grace, a sweet young woman whose parents have died tragically several years before. Heather has a strange eye complaint, but is also upset by visions of a phantom bicyclist who vanishes as soon as he is followed. This enigma, however, is soon overshadowed as Doyle finds himself embroiled in more threatening events-including the murder of a rich Spanish businessman-that call for the advice of the eminent Dr Bell. But despite coming to Doyle's aid, Dr Bell dismisses the murder of Senor Garcia as a rather unimportant diversion from the incident which Bell considers to have real criminal implications: the matter of the patient's eyes and the solitary cyclist.

David Pirie gained rave reviews for his screenplay depicting the "real" Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Joseph Bell, in the two part, Edgar-nominated TV series "Murder Rooms." Treading that same critically acclaimed ground, The Patient's Eyes is the first in a stand-alone cycle of novels written from Doyle's point of view that include a whole new perspective on the adventures of Bell and Doyle and the genesis of the best-known detective in all of mystery literature. Tense and dramatic The Patient's Eyes marks the debut of a brilliant new crime novelist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This brilliant debut mystery from British screenwriter Pirie offers a novel twist on the Sherlock Holmes pastiche, with Doyle as the Watsonian narrator relating the exploits of Dr. Joseph Bell, his real-life mentor and model for the fictional detective. Young Dr. Doyle, trying to make a fresh start after a tragic loss, finds himself enmeshed in the affairs of a patient with unusual eyes, Miss Heather Grace. An heiress who survived the attack of a lunatic who slaughtered her parents, Miss Grace is now terrorized by a nightmarish figure who follows her as she cycles to and from her new home. The plot borrows elements from several Holmes stories ( The Speckled Band, The Solitary Cyclist and Wisteria Lodge ), which ostensibly are merely fictionalized versions of the real puzzle Bell and Doyle tackle. Doyle's falling in love with his patient complicates his and Bell's probe into several murders. The suspects include the young woman's intimidating uncle, who maintains a large collection of poisonous creatures, her perpetually smiling fiancE and an unscrupulous doctor. The author masterfully manufactures suspense, and several passages are truly spine-chilling. Doyle, a painfully human and sympathetic figure whose vulnerabilities help drive the action, and Bell, a very plausible Holmes substitute, are well-matched by their subtle and cunning antagonist. An unsettling solution makes a perfectly appropriate ending for this hard-to-put-down and richly atmospheric thriller.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Pirie's impressive debut novel features Arthur Conan Doyle as a penurious doctor caught up in a web of deceit. In medical school, young Doyle is drawn to the charismatic Dr. Bell, even though he considers Bell to be somewhat of a charlatan. Surely making deductions from tiny clues isn't what medicine is all about. But Doyle needs Bell's help to uncover the mystery surrounding one of his patients. The beautiful Heather Grace is being stalked by an ominous, disappearing figure on a bicycle. Or is she hallucinating? Doyle struggles with demons from his past as he races against time to save Heather. Pirie's dark, somewhat graphic style is reminiscent of Poe as well as the real Doyle. The main appeal of this fairly conventional murder mystery is the friendship between the two men and the intriguing, if obvious, parallels to Holmes and Watson. Pirie clearly sets the stage for an ongoing series featuring Doyle and Bell. Of wide interest, this is suitable for all public libraries. Laurel Bliss, Yale Univ. Lib.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (May 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312290950
• ISBN-13: 978-0312290955
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #796,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arthur Conan Doyle meets Joseph Bell., December 27, 2003

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Patient's Eyes: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

David Pirie's "The Patient's Eyes" is the first in a series of books about the collaboration between Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell. Doyle is a young medical student in Edinburgh when he meets Bell, who is both a teacher in the medical school and a forensic scientist. Doyle soon becomes Bell's clerk and the two work together on a number of cases, including the very strange one in this novel.

Doyle's patient, Heather Grace, is a lovely young woman who suffers from eye troubles and nightmares. She also believes that a man has been surreptitiously following her, and may wish to do her harm. Since Miss Grace is about to come into a great deal of money, Doyle suspects that her relatives may want to get their hands on her fortune. When Dr. Bell intercedes in the case, he uses his forensic skills, his intuition, and his uncanny powers of detection to get to the bottom of the affair.

Pirie is a superior writer and he brings all of the characters in "The Patient's Eyes" to brilliant life. Doyle is a callow and troubled young man who comes from a dysfunctional family. Bell is Doyle's mentor, and he may be the real life model for the great fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. Pirie's language, settings, and even the titles he chooses for his chapters are all reminiscent of those used in the Sherlock Holmes stories. There are also puzzles galore in this book to intrigue those who love interesting ciphers.

The story is complicated yet thoroughly engrossing, and I was genuinely surprised by the developments at the end of the book. Pirie has a knack for writing satisfying mysteries and I look forward to more novels about the collaboration between Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first case for Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Joseph Bell, September 4, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Patient's Eyes: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

Those who have admired the cases of Sherlock Holmes and found "The 7 Percent Solution" to be a fresh look at the first great detective of popular fiction will find a different game afoot in "The Patient's Eye." The intriguing premise for David Pirie's novel is that Arthur Conan Doyle is playing the Watson role to Dr. Joseph Bell, the writer's real-life mentor in medical school at Edinburough and the model for Holmes. Doyle starts off in the role of Scully, unable to accept that the practice of medicine has anything to do with Dr. Bell's deductive reasoning from minute clues, but in due course he becomes a true believer in Bell's pioneering work in forensic medicine.

The case involves Miss Heather Grace, a young heiress who has been traumatized by an attack by a lunatic who murdered her parents. Now Miss Grace is subject to visions of a figure who follows her on her bicycle. The conceit here is that Pirie is working backwards from several of the cases from the Holmes canon, most obviously "The Solitary Cyclist," but also "The Speckled Band" and "Wisteria Lodge." The idea is that Doyle later fictionalized these stories from the "real" events contained herein. It was a good move on Pirie's part not to simply offer up the "true" story of one the original Holmes mysteries or to try and tackle one of the "biggies" in the canon. There is also more romance than you find in Doyle, what with the young doctor falling for his patient.

Most importantly, Pirie is able to present Doyle and Bell as interesting substitutes for Watson and Holmes. There is no pretense of friendship between the pair; they are teacher and student. Doyle is not as much the inept foil that Watson serves in the stories (indeed, he solves several initial mysteries before getting in over his head) and Bell is arguably more charismatic than the driven Holmes. There are times when Pirie follows the Doyle model too closely and the gallery of suspects is rather overdrawn, but as the first effort in what is clearly going to be a developing series, "The Patient's Eyes" is worth the reading. The execution is not quite up to the ambitious idea, but that is a minor concern. The one caveat is that you should read over the original Sherlock Holmes stories on which this novel is based to better appreciate how Pirie is using them in this story.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't sleep well for a week!, July 8, 2002

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Mr. Black - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Patient's Eyes: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

I was skeptical of another attempt at a Holmes resurrection but I was more than satisfied by this brilliant novel. I couldn't put it down and was often shocked and surprised by the turn of events. Two nights in a row I was up until well past 2 a.m. because I couldn't find the right place to let off for the night. The style is very in keeping with Arthur Conan Doyle's original work - at times I felt like I was reading his own words. I finished it this afternoon and want to turn right around and read it over to see all the threads connect and interweave. Very well done Mr. Pirie - more please!