Book info

• Title Moriarty
• Author Anthony Horowitz
• Year 2014
• Genre Mystery

Sherlock Holmes is dead. Days after Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarty fall to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase arrives from New York. The death of Moriarty has created a poisonous vacuum which has been swiftly filled by a fiendish new criminal mastermind. Ably assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones, a devoted student of Holmes's methods of investigation and deduction, Chase must hunt down this shadowy figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, a man determined to engulf London in a tide of murder and menace. The game is afoot...

Thoughts

I’ve not enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes stories that barely feature the man himself, so I was trepidatious about reading this one. However, thankfully, it is still a fascinating book, particularly as Mr Jones was essentially training himself up to be as astute as Holmes, so we still got some of those baffling deductions to enjoy.

The story takes place immediately after The Final Problem, where the world is missing both Holmes and Moriarty, and thus a new threat has moved into London and is taking over. Jones and our narrator join forces to try and figure out who is behind all the new trouble, and as you might imagine, there are plenty of twists along the way.

I enjoyed reading it, particularly towards the end when the story really started to pick up pace. It has the feel of a traditional Holmes story, though, with plenty of misdirection and explanations given only after the fact. Good work.

Rating: 3 / 5