A medical student at the University of Edinburgh, Arthur Conan Doyle studied under the vigilant eye of Dr Joseph Bell. He observed as Dr Bell identified a patient's occupation, hometown and ailments from the smallest details of dress, gait and speech. Although Doyle was training to be a surgeon, he was cultivating essential knowledge that would help him to define the art of the detective novel.

From Doyle's early days surrounded by poverty and violence, through to his first days as a surgeon, Michael Sims traces the circuitous yet inevitable development of Arthur Conan Doyle as the father of the modern mystery. The incomparable Sherlock Holmes emerges as a product of Doyle's varied lessons in the classroom and professional life.