The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel

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Anthony Horowitz, with the blessing of Doyle’s estate, takes on Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. An older Dr. Watson reflects back on one case that was too gruesome for him to write about in the past, so he has waited until after Holmes has passed to even mention it. It involves one man complaining of being watched and that leads to a murder and something more sinister that no one will talk about called the House of Silk.

Even though I have read one Sherlock Holmes story in my life (The Hound of the Baskervilles) , I really do not remember much of it since I was trying to read it while suffering from a high fever and chicken pox.  I am not sure why I never went back to read Doyle’s writing since I am a big fan of the Sherlock movies and television series. The only comparison I can do here is what I have gathered from what I have watched. The tone for both Holmes and Watson seems accurate. I felt that the character of Watson might be a bit more accurate than Holmes since this Holmes seemed to have a bit more emotional investment in the case than what I have perceived of the character. Is that Horowitz’s doing or is it an older Watson reflecting back on his friend and imagining him have more attachment than he actually did at the time?

As for the plot itself, it had a lot of twists. There was so much going on and since it was a Holmes’ story, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I really did not believe anything was what it seemed until Holmes showed up to explain what was really going on. At times, his deduction methods seemed a bit of a stretch, but I just went with it since that is part of the fun of following Holmes through a case. I really enjoyed how one seemingly small case led to a much bigger conspiracy going on and when that bigger case was finally solved, the smaller one still needed to be wrapped up as well. It was that smaller case that actually intrigued me more and I wish there was more written about it. When Holmes was explaining what was going on, I had so many questions, but then it was explained and over.

Moriarty is briefly mentioned and is actually quite intriguing when Watson interacts with him, even though Holmes has not met him yet in this timeline. Horowitz just came out with a sequel called Moriarty and that glimpse that was given into his character in this novel makes me want to read that one. This was a good, solid detective novel that was quick to get through so I imagine the new novel would be the same.

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