Book info

• Title The House of Silk
• Author Anthony Horowitz
• Year 2011
• Genre Mystery

It is November 1890 and London is gripped by a merciless winter. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are enjoying tea by the fire when an agitated gentleman arrives unannounced at 221b Baker Street. He begs Holmes for help, telling the unnerving story of a scar-faced man with piercing eyes who has stalked him in recent weeks. Intrigued, Holmes and Watson find themselves swiftly drawn into a series of puzzling and sinister events, stretching from the gas-lit streets of London to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston and the mysterious 'House of Silk'...

Thoughts

I can imagine that fans of Sherlock Holmes were a bit concerned when this book came out, a book approved by the Doyle estate and an official entry into the Sherlock canon. I thought it was done really well. It had all the tone and feel of the originals, certainly the writing style was an homage to but not a direct copy of Doyle’s work.

The story was a sprawling one, two crimes interlinked with only Holmes and his trusty sidekick and biographer Watson able to make the connections and solve the mysteries. Well, mostly Sherlock actually. Watson takes up his more traditional role of relating the story to us, as it was revealed to him, which means not really knowing what’s going on until the very end.

I liked it, as it reminded me of the better Sherlock stories, not those where the hero goes missing for chapters at a time. It was nice to look back on those times and ponder what happened to the characters after, and it was a good, if awful, pair of crimes that held everything together nicely.

Rating: 4 / 5