New Book Revives Joseph Bell

Joseph Bell, the Edinburgh surgeon who served as the model for Sherlock Holmes, is the subject of a new biography. The book, titled Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes, was written by medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris.

Bell taught Arthur Conan Doyle when the author was a young medical student at the University of Edinburgh. Bell became famous for his ability to deduce a patient’s occupation, habits, and ailments simply by observing them. He also worked with a local police surgeon on several high-profile murder cases.

One specific incident inspired a scene in The Sign of the Four. Bell identified the route a patient took to the infirmary by examining the type of clay on the patient’s boots. Doyle later adapted this detail for his fictional detective.

Fitzharris has a history of writing about medical history and the macabre. She published The Butchering Art in 2017, a biography of Joseph Lister. In 2022, she released The Facemaker, which details the work of Harold Gillies, a surgeon who reconstructed the faces of World War I soldiers.

In 2020, Fitzharris hosted a Smithsonian Channel documentary called The Curious Life and Death Of…. The series covered famous deaths, including those of Pablo Escobar and Harry Houdini. She and her husband, caricaturist Adrian Teal, also released an illustrated children’s book titled Dead Ends! Flukes, Flops, and Failures that Sparked Medical Marvels in 2025.

Fitzharris told Ars Technica that she chose to write this book because no recent commercial biography existed. She noted that a 1982 book by Ely Liebow provided some information to Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts, but she wanted to apply a medical history perspective to Bell’s life. The book explores the same Edinburgh setting as her previous work on body snatchers and the discovery of ether.