A Night Calling by
David Pirie
pbk out May 03
(Arrow)
at £5.99
David Pirie is a well-known writer for film and television; this is his second novel,
dealing with 'The Dark Beginning of Sherlock Holmes', a recent television series.
This book is a sequel to The Patient's Eyes and follows the early association of Conan
Doyle with Dr Joseph Bell, the role model for Sherlock Holmes. It is a skilful weave of
fact and fiction, written in the Sherlockian style and revealing David Pirie's depth of
knowledge of the subject, as well as his fascination with the complex character of Conan
Doyle, who must have been a very strange man indeed.
Doyle is still a medical student at the start of the book, living in Edinburgh is most
unhappy domestic circumstances, as his father is a degenerating alcoholic. It is the time
when women were first admitted to medical school, though many of the staff ban them
from their lectures. Doyle falls in love with one of the girls and this strand is mixed with
a series of murders and attempted murders which brings him again into association with
the austere Joseph Bell. The plot is made to involve a real-life notorious murderer, whose
name it would be unfair to reveal here – in his historical postscript, Pirie explains why he
introduced him into the story.
The action of the first part of the book is in Edinburgh and other places in Scotland, but
then shifts to London, where the murky East End is replete with dark alleys, Chinamen
and opium dens – some of the action is almost identical to one or two of the actual
Holmes stories, again explained by the author at the end.
A good read, one can almost believe that these are posthumous tales from Sir Arthur
himself, with the shadow of Moriarty lurking over us.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
