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THE NIGHT CALLS is David Pirie's second mystery featuring a young Arthur Conan Doyle; however, each book in the series (both present and future) are standalones. In this book, Doyle is still a young medical student struggling to finish school and cope with the troubles he faces at home. His father is slowly going mad, and their boarder, Bryan Waller, has taken over many of the responsibilities of the household. In an effort to escape this turmoil, Doyle begins working with Dr. Joseph Bell, a forerunner in forensics. By helping Bell, Doyle finds himself involved with many strange crimes. In Edinburgh, there have been a series of strange attacks on women. So far, no one has been murdered, yet the assaults are vicious. Using his new detection theories, Bell sets out to find the true culprit. Early in the investigation, the madman set his sights on punishing Doyle for some perceived misdoing. What begins as a quest for justice quickly turns into a quest for vengeance forcing Doyle to sacrifice safety in order to stop these strange attacks. In addition to the standard mystery elements of this novel, Pirie explores several key features of Victorian times. Pirie has obviously researched Doyle and the Victorian age well. The book reads as easily as a modern book; yet, Pirie has captured the period without resorting to Victorian stereotypes, i.e. this book does not contain a lot of laments or prudish concerns. The primary controversy of this book is not the crimes themselves or Bell's methods, but the concern of women in the medical school. The school has decided that teachers themselves can choose to allow women in their classes or not; the school is not responsible either way. Some of the male students take offense and verbally abuse and/ or physically scare the women from attending classes. These events are similar to the assaults Bell is investigating, which causes some speculation on the true nature of the crimes. That aside, THE NIGHT CALL does concern itself with the idea of an independent woman. Within this book, it is possible to see the beginnings of feminism that was occurring throughout the world at this time. THE NIGHT CALLS was difficult to put down until the very end; the book ends with a cliffhanger. In general, it is always difficult to wait for the next book in a series; however, if Pirie continues to write standalones, this situation might never be resolved. This type of cliffhanger ending was very popular in the books from this period. Most stories were serialized and came out in weekly or monthly installments. Leaving a cliffhanger was necessary to maintain a reading audience. Excluding the uncertainty of the ending, THE NIGHT CALLS is captivating. Although the book did have its minor flaws, the book moves along fast enough to disguise most of them. If this book is an example of the work to expect from Pirie then he should quickly gain a large following of devoted fans.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, July 2003
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