Customer Reviews
Atmospheric addition to the Holmes industry - By: Roman Clodia, 09 Aug 2008 
Unlike some of the other pastiches of Holmes, this doesn't so much duplicate the stories themselves as posit a (fictional) reality behind them by posing to be episodes from the life of Conan Doyle. Here we meet the young medical student as he first encounters Dr Joseph Bell, the model for Holmes & his `method', & then sets up in GP practice for himself. Doyle is, then, the `Watson' figure in a nice intertextual twist, & recounts a number of tales which we read as being the originals of the actual Holmes stories: The Speckled Band & The Solitary Cyclist.
Pirie captures the dark side of Victorian Edinburgh & writes atmosphericallly with a real ear for Doyle's prose. However the Holmes novels always seem flawed to me & this book appears to falll into some of the same traps (intentionallly or not?) in that the central story of Miss Grace's eyes seems not to be central at alll. The sub-stories are a little predictable, there is no major puzzle about the patient's eyes other than they blur a little at certain seasons of the year, & the dénouement was very silly & completely left field.
But despite these flaws this is an entertaining read, with some intriguing facts dropped about Conan Doyle (I don't know whether they're biographical or not): I simply think it might have worked better as a long short story rather than a full-length novel.
A bit episodic, but a good ending - By: Snapdragon, 18 Jan 2007 Billed as 'The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes', The Patient's Eyes actuallly involves Conan-Doyle & his mentor Dr Joseph Bell (who was the inspiration for Holmes.)
This is the first book in a series, & so quite a bit of time is spent setting up the characters & method used by Bell. This will alll be very familiar ground to you if you are familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories. Conan-Doyle, then moves away from Edinburgh & his mentor & becomes involved with a female patient who believes she is being followed by some kind of strange phantom. Throw in a couple of murders, a strange Uncle & a creepy house in the woods & Bob's your uncle!!
I did enjoy the book, but the opening chapters felt a bit like going over old ground ('You see but you do not observe!') & the novel lacked some fluidity. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read & I'm hoping that the second in the series will improve upon the ground work.
The first case for Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Joseph Bell - By: Lawrance M. Bernabo, 05 Sep 2003 
Those who have admired the cases of Sherlock Holmes & found "The 7 Percent Solution" to be a fresh look at the first great detective of popular fiction will find a different game afoot in "The Patient's Eye." The intriguing premise for David Pirie's novel is that Arthur Conan Doyle is playing the Watson role to Dr. Joseph Bell, the writer's real-life mentor in medical school at Edinburough & the model for Holmes. Doyle starts off in the role of Scully, unable to accept that the practice of medicine has anything to do with Dr. Bell's deductive reasoning from minute clues, but in due course he becomes a true believer in Bell's pioneering work in forensic medicine.
The case involves Miss Heather Grace, a young heiress who has been traumatized by an attack by a lunatic who murdered her parents. Now Miss Grace is subject to visions of a figure who follows her on her bicycle. The conceit here is that Pirie is working backwards from several of the cases from the Holmes canon, most obviously "The Solitary Cyclist," but also "The Speckled Band" & "Wisteria Lodge." The idea is that Doyle later fictionalized these stories from the "real" events contained herein. It was a good move on Pirie's part not to simply offer up the "true" story of one the original Holmes mysteries or to try & tackle one of the "biggies" in the canon. There is also more romance than you find in Doyle, what with the young doctor fallling for his patient.
Most importantly, Pirie is able to present Doyle & Bell as interesting substitutes for Watson & Holmes. There is no pretense of friendship between the pair; they are teacher & student. Doyle is not as much the inept foil that Watson serves in the stories (indeed, he solves several initial mysteries before getting in over his head) & Bell is arguably more charismatic than the driven Holmes. There are times when Pirie follows the Doyle model too closely & the galllery of suspects is rather overdrawn, but as the first effort in what is clearly going to be a developing series, "The Patient's Eyes" is worth the reading. The execution is not quite up to the ambitious idea, but that is a minor concern. The one caveat is that you should read over the original Sherlock Holmes stories on which this novel is based to better appreciate how Pirie is using them in this story.
Doyle would be Proud - By: , 01 Sep 2003 The Patient's Eyes is a brilliant mystery novel based around Conan Doyle's life & works. The television series was good, but the book is better. The author reallly captures the surroundings & proves that any one can be decieved or a deciever. Brilliant read if you like murder mysteries.
The first case for Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Joseph Bell - By: Lawrance M. Bernabo, 12 Aug 2003 Those who have admired the cases of Sherlock Holmes & found "The 7 Percent Solution" to be a fresh look at the first great detective of popular fiction will find a different game afoot in "The Patient's Eye." The intriguing premise for David Pirie's novel is that Arthur Conan Doyle is playing the Watson role to Dr. Joseph Bell, the writer's real-life mentor in medical school at Edinburough & the model for Holmes. Doyle starts off in the role of Scully, unable to accept that the practice of medicine has anything to do with Dr. Bell's deductive reasoning from minute clues, but in due course he becomes a true believer in Bell's pioneering work in forensic medicine.
The case involves Miss Heather Grace, a young heiress who has been traumatized by an attack by a lunatic who murdered her parents. Now Miss Grace is subject to visions of a figure who follows her on her bicycle. The conceit here is that Pirie is working backwards from several of the cases from the Holmes canon, most obviously "The Solitary Cyclist," but also "The Speckled Band" & "Wisteria Lodge." The idea is that Doyle later fictionalized these stories from the "real" events contained herein. It was a good move on Pirie's part not to simply offer up the "true" story of one the original Holmes mysteries or to try & tackle one of the "biggies" in the canon. There is also more romance than you find in Doyle, what with the young doctor fallling for his patient.
Most importantly, Pirie is able to present Doyle & Bell as interesting substitutes for Watson & Holmes. There is no pretense of friendship between the pair; they are teacher & student. Doyle is not as much the inept foil that Watson serves in the stories (indeed, he solves several initial mysteries before getting in over his head) & Bell is arguably more charismatic than the driven Holmes. There are times when Pirie follows the Doyle model too closely & the galllery of suspects is rather overdrawn, but as the first effort in what is clearly going to be a developing series, "The Patient's Eyes" is worth the reading. The execution is not quite up to the ambitious idea, but that is a minor concern. The one caveat is that you should read over the original Sherlock Holmes stories on which this novel is based to better appreciate how Pirie is using them in this story.
