Lindsey Fitzharris publishes biography of Joseph Bell, the surgeon behind Sherlock Holmes

Lindsey Fitzharris has released a new biography titled Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes. The book focuses on Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the University of Edinburgh. Bell served as the primary inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. Doyle was a young medical student when he studied under Bell.

Fitzharris is a medical historian and science communicator. She previously wrote The Butchering Art in 2017, a biography of Joseph Lister. In 2022, she published The Facemaker, which examines the work of Harold Gillies. Gillies was a World War I surgeon who rebuilt the faces of injured soldiers.

In 2020, Fitzharris hosted a documentary for the Smithsonian Channel called The Curious Life and Death Of…. The series investigated famous deaths, including those of Pablo Escobar and Harry Houdini. Fitzharris performed virtual autopsies and analyzed blood samples for the project. Last year, she and her husband Adrian Teal published an illustrated children’s book titled Dead Ends! Flukes, Flops, and Failures that Sparked Medical Marvels.

Bell was known for his unusual diagnostic techniques. He could determine a patient’s occupation and personal habits by observation alone. He could also identify ailments without extensive testing. In one instance, Bell identified the clay on a patient’s boots. This allowed him to determine the route the patient took to the infirmary. Doyle used this specific incident in his novel The Sign of the Four.

Bell also worked as a medical detective. He collaborated with a local police surgeon on several high-profile murder cases from his era. Fitzharris aims to bring a medical history perspective to Bell’s story. She noted that few commercial books have explored Bell’s life in depth. The only previous major work was a 1982 book by Ely Liebow.

Fitzharris stated that she has known about Bell for years. She recognized his role in creating the Holmes character. She felt that the Sherlockian community knew Bell only through the 1982 text. She wanted to apply a medical lens to the investigation of his life.