The Night Calls | Fiction - www.zzdbook.com

The Night Calls

May 2, 2025 9:59 AM

Author:David Pirie

The Night Calls

While a young medical student at Edinburgh Arthur Conan Doyle famously studied under the remarkable Dr Joseph Bell, who was a pioneer in criminal investigation. The Night Calls chronicles their most frightening and disturbing case - the encounter with the man who was later presented 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 Elizabeth 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 -

Reviews

Patrick Lee is a huge talent and Runner is his best book yet - breathless, involving, smart, and completely convincing

—— Lee Child

Pure adrenaline rush . . . an action-packed novel brimming with complex characters as well as genuine heart. Not to be missed

—— Lisa Gardner

An amazing, high speed, hi-octane novel than moves faster than most people can read. Rarely is a story both plot driven and character driven, but Runner does this and more.

—— Nelson DeMille

I'm going to sue Patrick Lee for giving me whiplash: that's how furiously paced this book is. A terrific cast of characters, unrelenting action - strap in and enjoy the ride

—— Jesse Kellerman

A thriller done right. It literally begs to be read in one sitting . . . Patrick Lee is the real deal

—— Steve Berry

WOW! Double Wow! Starkly original . . . mind-blowing

—— Stephen Coonts

Audacious and terrifying - uncannily believable

—— Lee Child

Patrick Lee is in a word: Brilliant. Less a novel, than an adventure, it left me breathless and awed. It's explosive, innovative and ultimately mind-blowing. Pure exhilaration from the first page to the last

—— James Rollins

The real joy of the Serrailler series is Serrailler himself…rich in incident and intrigue

—— Daily Express

Nothing’s quite as it seems, except Hill's brilliantly compelling prose

—— Daily Mirror

A wonderful storyteller… she is also one of those rare crime writers whose books invite a second reading

—— Scotsman

Hill's Serrailler novels have developed into a series whose appeal stretches beyond their genre... The secret of Hill's narrative style is that she forces the readers to invest emotionally in her characters. And then she makes ghastly things happen to them... It sounds easy, but it isn't

—— Spectator

The Simon Serrailler novels are in a league of their own; literate, detailed and full of drama - they stand head and shoulders above the majority of crime novels. This is the eighth novel in the series and is the darkest and most disturbing yet. It is also the best.

—— CrimeSquad

Kept me turning the pages, gripped

—— Woman & Home

Although at times distressing, Hill tackles a difficult issue without losing any tension and the finale keeps the reader gripped until the last page

—— Jaymi McCann, 4 stars , Sunday Express

Never less than wholly absorbing

—— Church Times

Highly unsettling

—— Daily Telegraph

A tantalising mystery

—— Sunday Telegraph

Captures sinister atmosphere brilliantly

—— Spectator

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