David Pirie
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First British Edition Century (2002) |
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Murder Rooms: The Night Calls
The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes
While a young medical student at Edinburgh Arthur Conan Doyle famously studied under the remarkable Dr Joseph Bell, who was a pioneering forensic detective. The Night Calls chronicles their most frightening and disturbing case, the encounter with the man who was later presented to the world in expurgated form as Moriarty.
Beginning with a series of bizarre and outlandish assaults on women in the brothels of Edinburgh the story moves to the medical facility of the city’s university, which is itself being disrupted by the violent struggle for women’s educational rights. Here Doyle meets a fellow student, young Elsbeth Scott, who has many enemies, among them a crazed misogynist student called Crawford and the smiling hypocritical patron of the university, Henry Carlisle. Yet slowly Bell begins to realise that the increasingly freakish crimes they are investigating reflect an entirely new and terrifying kind of criminal who is not susceptible to the 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 his nemesis with terrifying results.
David Pirie was a journalist and film critic before he became a screenwriter. Just a few of his numerous credits are the BAFTA nominated adaptation for the BBC of The Woman in White and his collaboration with Lars Von Trier on the script of the Oscar nominated film Breaking the Waves. David Pirie lives in Somerset.
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First British Edition Century (2001) |
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Murder Rooms: The Patient's Eyes
The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes
`They were always my secrets, sixteen in all, though I had sure knowledge of two others. And I can be sure only of one thing. If you are reading these words, I am dead.
Occasionally of course there were hints of them in my fiction: Some detail which had imprinted itself upon my memory - a weapon, an article of clothing, the furnishings of a room; a particularly strange object - would find its way into a story. The Copper Beeches in particular flirted with events that had actually happened. Fortunately for me the Doctor did not see it until years later. Naturally he did not care for it at all or any of these other hints. He would reproach me with one of the looks I knew so well: that withering straight-arrow glance that felt as if it could pierce a man’s soul. You knew the terms, it seemed to say. Absolute confidentiality...’
Introducing a brilliant new detective series in which the young Arthur Conan Doyle chronicles his adventures with his mentor -and model for Sherlock Holmes - the pioneering forensic detective Dr Joseph Bell.
While a young medical student at Edinburgh, Arthur Conan Doyle famously studied under the remarkable Dr Joseph Bell. Taking this as a starting point, David Pirie has woven a compelling thriller which partners Bell and Doyle as pioneers in criminal investigation, exploring the strange underworld of violence and sexual hypocrisy running below the surface of the Victorian era.
The Patient’s Eyes moves from Edinburgh and the strange circumstances surrounding Doyle’s meeting with the remarkable Joseph Bell to Southsea where he begins his first medical practice. There 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 cyclist who vanishes as soon as he is followed. This enigma, however, is soon forgotten as Doyle finds himself embroiled in more threatening events - including the murder of a rich Spanish businessman - events that call for the intervention of the eminent Dr Bell...
But despite coming to Doyle’s aid, perversely Dr Bell considers the murder of Senor Garcia a rather unimportant diversion from the far more sinister matter which has brought him south: the matter of the patient’s eyes and the solitary cyclist...
`A convincing Victorian world of eerie moors and fearless detectives, impenetrable ciphers and strange hooded assassins. A pacey, enjoyable yarn, with a surprising twist that ranks with the best of the Doyle Canon’ Times Literary Supplement
`Pirie is delving deeper into the ‘real’ origins ... truly frightening’ Time Out
`A satisfying Borgesian mix of library riddle, fact and conjecture’ Guardian
`It is the combination of style and scholarship ... that gives this atmospheric yarn the heightened thrill of intellectual challenge’ New York Times
`David Pirie has crafted a clever blend of historical evidence and fiction in the grand manner of a traditional Holmes mystery’ Variety
About The Author
David Pirie was a journalist and film critic before he became a screen writer. Just a few of his numerous credits are the BAFTA nominated adaptation for the BBC of The Woman in White and his collaboration with Lars Von Trier on the script of the Oscar nominated film Breaking the Waves. David Pirie lives in Somerset.
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
Murder Rooms: The Night Calls
(Century,
2002)
Pbk May 03
Murder Rooms: The Patient's Eyes
(Century,
2001)
Murder Rooms: The Night Calls
by David Pirie
