The Dark Water: The Strange Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes »

David Pirie is a true man of letters. Journalist and film critic, screenwriter and novelist, he is the author of two other critically acclaimed novels featuring Arthur Conan Doyle, The Patient's Eyes and The Night Calls. He lives in Bath.

"The cliffhanger adventures of Bell and Doyle keep us enthralled, as does the -graceful flow of Pirie's evocative storytelling."-The New York Times Book Review

"Pirie's knowledge of Doyle's biography, as well as of the Holmes canon, makes [him] an intellectual treat and a downright guilty pleasure."-The Washington Post

"A convincing Victorian world of eerie moors and fearless detectives . . . with a surprising twist that ranks with the best of the Doyle canon."-The Times Literary Supplement

"I was utterly hooked. It's not just Thomas Harris; it's also Raymond Chandler and Arthur Conan Doyle himself. All of these great writers are echoed in a way that is not merely wonderful and absolutely gripping, but completely original. The series has huge commercial potential."-Sarah Dunant, #1 New York Times best-selling -author of In the Company of the Courtesan

In a literary tour de force worthy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, author David Pirie brings his rich familiarity with both the Doyle biography and the Sherlock Holmes canon to a mystifying Victorian tale of vengeance and villainy. The howling man on the heath, a gothic asylum, the walking dead, the legendary witch of Dunwich-perils lurk in every turn of the page throughout this ingenious pastiche, as increasingly bizarre encounters challenge the deductive powers of young Doyle and his mentor, the pioneering criminal investigator Dr. Joseph Bell.

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

For all the casual violence, the plot is pure comic chaos, animated by a cast of vital characters and flavored by their juicy homespun dialect.