Mystery
![Anthony Horowitz - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B000AP7TDG.jpg)
The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel
For the first time in its one-hundred-and-twenty-five-year history, the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate has authorized a new Sherlock Holmes novel.
Once again, The Game's Afoot...
London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap - a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place.
Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston, the gaslit streets of London, opium dens and much, much more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase-the House of Silk-a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society.
The Arthur Conan Doyle Estate chose the celebrated, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz to write The House of Silk because of his proven ability to tell a transfixing story and for his passion for all things Holmes. Destined to become an instant classic, The House of Silk brings Sherlock Holmes back with all the nuance, pacing, and almost superhuman powers of analysis and deduction that made him the world's greatest detective, in a case depicting events too shocking, too monstrous to ever appear in print...until now.
Once again, The Game's Afoot...
London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap - a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place.
Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston, the gaslit streets of London, opium dens and much, much more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase-the House of Silk-a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society.
The Arthur Conan Doyle Estate chose the celebrated, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz to write The House of Silk because of his proven ability to tell a transfixing story and for his passion for all things Holmes. Destined to become an instant classic, The House of Silk brings Sherlock Holmes back with all the nuance, pacing, and almost superhuman powers of analysis and deduction that made him the world's greatest detective, in a case depicting events too shocking, too monstrous to ever appear in print...until now.
Editorial Reviews
"Exceptionally entertaining ... one can only applaud Horowitz's skill ... impressive ... an altogether terrific period thriller and one of the best Sherlockian pastiches of our time."―The Washington Post
"The latest edition to [Sherlock's] distinguished legacy...Admirers of Horowitz's ITV series, Foyle's War, and Sherlockians will delight in equal measure. With consummate grasp, Horowitz unfolds an intricate and rewarding mystery in the finest Victorian tradition...For all its deft and loving fidelity, THE HOUSE OF SILK sees the great detective in grisly and unfamiliar straits."―Vanity Fair
"Cliffhanger plotting... Watson's elegiac voice should silence the objections of even the most persnickety Sherlock scholar."―NPR
"A book firmly rooted in the style of Doyle, faithful to the character as created and with just enough wiggle room to allow the author to say all the things he's been longing to say about the world of 221B Baker Street...THE HOUSE OF SILK will satisfy."―The Huffington Post
"The hype surrounding what's being billed as the first pastiche ever officially approved by the Conan Doyle estate is amply justified ... authentic. Horowitz gets everything right-the familiar narrative voice, brilliant deductions, a very active role for Watson, and a perplexing and disturbing series of puzzles to unravel-and the legion of fans of the originals will surely be begging for Horowitz to again dip into Watson's trove of untold tales."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Nicely captures the storytelling tone of Holmes' inventor in a galloping adventure that boasts enough twists, ominous turns and urgent nocturnal escapades to make modern moviemakers salivate ... Author Horowitz delivers some dramatic tableaux in these pages, including a railway robbery, a prison escape and a horse-drawn carriage chase ... the Holmes we see here is just as cryptic and clever as we've come to expect."―Kirkus Reviews
"Horowitz truly pulls off the wonderful illusion that Arthur Conan Doyle left us one last tale... Close your eyes and you can smell the shag tobacco of Holmes' church warded pipe as he sorts through the evidence."―San Diego Union Tribune
"Worthy of [its] canonical inspiration ... an impressive read ... Horowitz plots masterfully, foregrounding Holmes' trademark investigative techniques against Watson's pacey narration."―The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"A tone-perfect, action-packed story of corruption, greed and dissolution, all the while capturing the sights, smells and social problems of 1890's London...This reader, albeit no Holmes expert, totally forgot the novel wasn't from Doyle himself."―The Cleaveland Plain Dealer
"The latest edition to [Sherlock's] distinguished legacy...Admirers of Horowitz's ITV series, Foyle's War, and Sherlockians will delight in equal measure. With consummate grasp, Horowitz unfolds an intricate and rewarding mystery in the finest Victorian tradition...For all its deft and loving fidelity, THE HOUSE OF SILK sees the great detective in grisly and unfamiliar straits."―Vanity Fair
"Cliffhanger plotting... Watson's elegiac voice should silence the objections of even the most persnickety Sherlock scholar."―NPR
"A book firmly rooted in the style of Doyle, faithful to the character as created and with just enough wiggle room to allow the author to say all the things he's been longing to say about the world of 221B Baker Street...THE HOUSE OF SILK will satisfy."―The Huffington Post
"The hype surrounding what's being billed as the first pastiche ever officially approved by the Conan Doyle estate is amply justified ... authentic. Horowitz gets everything right-the familiar narrative voice, brilliant deductions, a very active role for Watson, and a perplexing and disturbing series of puzzles to unravel-and the legion of fans of the originals will surely be begging for Horowitz to again dip into Watson's trove of untold tales."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Nicely captures the storytelling tone of Holmes' inventor in a galloping adventure that boasts enough twists, ominous turns and urgent nocturnal escapades to make modern moviemakers salivate ... Author Horowitz delivers some dramatic tableaux in these pages, including a railway robbery, a prison escape and a horse-drawn carriage chase ... the Holmes we see here is just as cryptic and clever as we've come to expect."―Kirkus Reviews
"Horowitz truly pulls off the wonderful illusion that Arthur Conan Doyle left us one last tale... Close your eyes and you can smell the shag tobacco of Holmes' church warded pipe as he sorts through the evidence."―San Diego Union Tribune
"Worthy of [its] canonical inspiration ... an impressive read ... Horowitz plots masterfully, foregrounding Holmes' trademark investigative techniques against Watson's pacey narration."―The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"A tone-perfect, action-packed story of corruption, greed and dissolution, all the while capturing the sights, smells and social problems of 1890's London...This reader, albeit no Holmes expert, totally forgot the novel wasn't from Doyle himself."―The Cleaveland Plain Dealer
Readers Top Reviews
Dr W. H. Konarzewski
This was a compelling crime thriller, well written with plenty of twists and turns. At the end, there was an interesting commentary on his own work by the author, telling us how he came to write the book and what his ‘rules’ were for writing a fanfiction novel featuring Sherlock Holmes. I wish more authors took the trouble to do that sort of thing. The book was not flawless though. At one point it suggests that opium, i.e. morphine, dilates the pupils – it doesn’t, it constricts them. But cocaine dilates them. The original Dr Watson would not have made that mistake. Another error is when the book refers to the Diogenes Club as being established 70 years earlier. In fact, Mycroft Holmes was allegedly a co-founder and he would have been about 45 or 50 in 1890. There were some other minor errors but none important enough to list here. I guess it’s a problem for anyone brave enough to write this kind of book that half the readers are going to be on the lookout for mistakes. Leaving aside the mistakes, the first chapter bordered on parody when Sherlock Holmes kept making one impossible deduction after another in a most unconvincing way. That was disconcerting and almost made me give up, but my main problem with this book was that there were too many twists and turns - a surprise on almost every page. Never a dull moment! But, for me, it was far too dramatic and deviated from the gravitas of Conan Doyle so I was constantly aware this was fanfiction and not the original. More Indiana Holmes than Sherlock Holmes, to repeat the author’s little joke. Having said that, I shall certainly read more of Horowitz’s works – they may have an ersatz quality, but I anticipate they’ll be great fun.
Mik
I have read other books by Anthony Horowitz and found them quite enjoyable, dont be put off that he writes childrens books too as this is a very different kettle of fish.I am a big fan of the original Sherlock Holmes books and was more than a little unsure if another author could capture the feeling of the era and pace of Arthur Conan Doyles creation. I was not disappointed, it was as if a lost book of Conan Doyles had been discovered and put into print. A thoroughly good read, dont just take my word for it as it has been officially been endorsed by the Conan Doyle family (the only author to have done so). He could have just written it without endorsement but it was they who contacted him to write a new book for Holmes, and there is also the follow up Moriarty to savour.........Now where is my companion.....“Come Watson, come! The game is afoot! Not a word! Into your clothes and come!”
Peter RowlandLouise
It seems churlish to criticise this book. The author is so proudly and disarmingly pleased with his handiwork, and insists on taking us into his confidence (in a note at the end) as to how he accomplished it, that I hesitate to point out that it contains several inexplicable deficiencies. The story as a whole is a real cracker – a genuine mystery, and the reader is always agog to find out what’s going to happen next. The pace is too hectic, however, as we’re whisked from one mysterious highlight to another with scarcely a pause for breath. Dr Watson, on the other hand, is rather too garrulous, and pontificates and reminisces at the drop of a hat – largely to help fill up space, it appears, to gratify the publishers. But the timing is all wrong. We are told that the action is taking place in 1890 and that Holmes and his exploits are, by that time, famous throughout the land. But in actual fact, the short stories did not start appearing until July 1891. They were published, we learn, in the Cornhill Magazine, whereas in reality they were the making of The Strand Magazine. And Watson is apparently writing in 1915, long after the death of Holmes, whereas we know that Holmes was still active in August 1914 and scarcely in his dotage at that time. It might be best to think of Holmes and Watson, as conceived by Horowitz, as occupying some kind of parallel universe to the one conceived by Conan Doyle. One small point that niggles is that the strange behaviour of the Irish scullery boy in the house at Wimbledon is truly never explained. It’s enjoyable, in short, but not quite the genuine article.
Jane C.fra7299
As others have pointed out, Horowitz is styling a 19th century work with a 21st century perspective. When a "respectable" character goes to prison, the character enjoys deference and respect that lower class criminal probably would not. But there are other instances where the perspective is oddly modern. To some degree, this is inevitable. There are incidents in Agatha Christie books that are cringingly racist, ans those works are far more recent than the original Sherlock Holmes stories. But I think the subject matter makes it worse. There were really two parallel stories and they were clumsily linked in an almost Deus ex machina at the end. That's not my idea of a whodunnit. Seems almost "unfair." I was amused by a section at the end that has parallels to recent scandals. Very prescient of the author (although not really, since the scandals were already known, but the parties had avoided the punishments they deserved at the time of publication).
Becky RutterStraffor
House of Silk takes to much time trying to imitate Sir Arthur's writing style, as if the author is trying to put every idiosyncrasy from a multitude of stories in to this one story. This slows the pace of the book. On top of that, Horowitz' Dr. Watson, gives 21st century attitudes and commentary on the 19th century London. Sir Arthur just told the story, without political correctness clogging up the tale. Thus, although the story can be interesting, it takes to long to get going and doesn't keep momentum. I usually finish a book within a few hours, or a few days, depending on how well written or exciting the book is. I've been reading this one for a couple of months, coming back to it between other books. I haven't given up on it because I do love Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson adventures and there is enough in this book to pay homage to the Baker Street duo but I wish it was a more compelling read.
