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The Night Calls (Murder Rooms 2)
 
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The Night Calls (Murder Rooms 2) (Paperback)

by David Pirie (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 452 pages
  • Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd (6 May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 009941659X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099416593
  • Product Dimensions: 31 x 19.4 x 10.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 514,276 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Inspired by the discovery that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle attended medical school 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' 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. --J Kingston Pierce, Amazon.com



Review

Arthur Conan Doyle is the narrator of this excellent crime novel which blends fact with fiction and opens in the late 1870s with the young Doyle studying medicine at Edinburgh University. His mentor is the famous Dr Joseph Bell, who Pirie makes a Sherlock Holmes character, and his adversary against whom he is pitted in two rousing adventures is a prototype Moriarty. It would be unfair to give the game away but Doyle and Bell find themselves alone on the track of a crazed serial killer who strikes first in Edinburgh and then in London. This evocative, superbly crafted mystery thriller paints a striking picture of Victorian mores and the tight and imaginative plot is excitingly developed in a strong narrative that demands (and deserves) to be devoured at a single sitting. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Killer and sleuths match wits in this exciting thriller., 2 Oct 2003
By E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(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.

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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars An Unsatisfactory Read, 13 Jul 2007
I got through this book by gritting my teeth. Why I put myself through the thankless task is the true mystery of this novel of suspense. A mystery compounded by the fact that there is no resolution at the end - just a referal to the next volume in The Murder Room Series and I won't be reading that any day soon - make that never. I have never felt so conned.

It's an odd book. The narrator is an irritating, petulant twerp who constantly lets his emotions rule his behaviour and I quickly lost any sympathy for him. The novel is within shouting distance of a resolution half way through but the author then spins the novel out and on to its detriment.

The second half of the novel turns on an increasingly preposterous series of coincidences that would put Amistad Maupin to shame. The predictability of the ensuing events is equally annoying. As for the "surprise" at the end? What surprise - I could see it a mile away!

The author's notes makes it clear that he was inspired to write this particular novel due to a coincidence he discovered in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's background history - that he had studied medicine alongside a notorious serial killer - but he took that idea and just got carried away. The "idea" didn't warrent a second (or third?) novel. In deed, it didn't deserve one novel of this length. The first half could have been developed into one interesting, self-contained novel but it wasn't and more's the pity.

All in all, an unsatisfactory read.
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4.0 out of 5 stars The Night Calls, 16 Jun 2009
By V. Walker (Lincolnshire UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
For Sherlock Holmes fans, this is the best of the trilogy in my opinion. A different angle on our famous detective and his sidekick, and a thought provoking one.
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