The lead character was to embody the essence of the times, who would have the physical attributes of Houdini, the sleuthing skills of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creepy intellect of H. P. Lovecraft, and the otherworldly skill-set of a Marie Laveau.

Doyle finds himself embroiled in a story of war as old as time itself, for possession of the world's most powerful—now missing—artifact: the Book of Enoch, the chronicle of God's mistakes, within whose pages lie the seeds for the end of everything.

He kept many secrets, one of which, The Book of Enoch, the third part of the Bible that was thought to be erased from existence in the first century, was stolen from its hiding place by a practitioner of the dark arts.

He was as burnt-fingered and secretive as an alchemist, yet spoke dozens of languages, wrote manuscripts in cipher, and traveled the world with different identities, in the tradition of a court spy."

Possessing the observational and deductive powers of his fictional creation, Sherlock Holmes, Doyle has served Queen and Country under the tutelage of Konstantin Duvall.

A number of previous adventures of the Arcanum are mentioned throughout the novel, including; The Hall of Relics is part of Konstantin Duvall's secret annex located in the British Museum.