049. The House Of Silk (2011).

The House Of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (2011).

SHERLOCK HOLMES is BACK!!

By the hand of very talented writer Anthony Horowitz, our beloved sleuth comes back to life fullswing!!

With Dr. Watson on his side, the master attacks and uncovers one of the most disturbing crimes in his celebrated career!!

This book is serious fun!

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layers. –Anthony Horowitz did remarkable job of capturing exact essence of original casts of Sherlock Holmes adventures. All the usual suspects are here and they are the clone of originals. Even the bad guys have the same flavor of the original villains. What a fantastic work he did!!

Sherlock Holmes. The master. The king of London and beyond. He is as good as ever. 

Dr. Watson. By the time this book is written, Sherlock Holmes is already passed away a few years ago and Watson’s health is deteriorating rapidly. So this is Holmes and Watson’s final journey.

 He is proud of all his achievements: a successful career as one of the top doctors in England and a father of several children and a few grand kids, too. But as he puts his emphasis on here, the proudest jobs and most satisfactory works he has ever done are achieved beside the master detective Sherlock Homes. Can’t argue with that.

Lestrade. The famous inspector. When this book is written, he is already retired long time ago, and now enjoying his quite time. 

Watson regrets that for his past writings, he never gives Lestrade enough credit for his works as a capable detective. Which, in my opinion, is not entirely Watson’s fault, because any men will be looked stupid next to Sherlock Holmes except maybe Moriarty or Mycroft.

  

As for Mycroft, he has a brief appearance in this book, more like a cameo then extra. According to Watson, Mycroft retires from his work safely and now enjoys very relaxing/cushy job in one of the big universities as a board member. But I am sure he is still running the vast network of spies all around the Europe as usual. It’s just that, good old Watson doesn’t know about it, as usual.

Edmund Carstairs. An art dealer who starts this book by claiming he is in grave danger.

Catherine Carstairs. Edmund’s wife who is a picture perfect bride. But we all know, in Conan Doyle’s world, how perfectly “innocent” characters frequently turned out at the end, don’t we?

All the regular Sherlock Holmes characters are also in this book, too: good and unflappable Mrs. Hudson, Wiggins and his child army of Irregulars, Good cops and bad cops, greedy pawn brokers, arrogant nobles, mysterious priests, bringing you right back to fantastic Sherlock Holmes era.

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lace. –It all starts with 221b Baker Street, the center of mystery universe.

Time is November 1890, freezing cold winter time.

As usual to Sherlock Holmes adventures, the crime takes them to all parts of London from top to bottom, from the grand mansion to filthy slum.

Just imagining Sherlock Holmes running around London streets with Watson holding his service revolver makes me grin like an idiot.

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lot. – This is a very fateful adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. The author just perfectly captures the essence of original and adds little more of everything on it to makes it faster, darker and little more complicated.

As for an actual context, there are two different storylines intertwined with each other. 

One is a small case of an art dealer and gang of American outlaws trying to revenge their boss by killing him. This story is so similar to the original writing down to every detail, you will feel like reading just uncovered, never have been seen Conan Doyle mystery. Great work.

The other is where the author decides to have a bit of fun. This is the case called The House Of Silk. In this, Sherlock faces with all sorts of adversaries from all different levels of societies: pool, rich, criminal, noble, doctor and even police. 

The representatives of The House Of Silk which seems like everywhere in London and owns vast amount of man power and resources try really hard to get rid of Sherlock once they realize that he is on their tail. This naturally creates huge entertainment with all the chase scenes and assassination attempts and the near end of Sherlock Holmes’s life socially/physically. 

After absorbing couple of painful defeats (?), Sherlock raises from ashes (or rather, from invisible death) to put everything in its proper places with Watson on his side, off course.

No one who is stupid enough to challenge the master walks away alive. Just ask Professor M.

After all the actions and adventures, the story ends with very Sherlock-like epilogue where he gathers a small party involving art dealer (yes, the master never shows his hands without audiences) and reveals the small secrets to an art dealer and his beloved wife.

Anthony Horowitz is a beefed-up reincarnation of Conan Doyle. For this work, at least.

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erdict. – Simply put, if you are Sherlock Holmes fan (I mean, who isn’t), you must read this book. It has everything that makes originals so good and much more to makes it even better. A plot is a bit more twisted than original, villains, more sinister and actions a lot faster. 

The only problem with this book is nothing to do with its content. It's the cover. 

This book doesn’t look at all like a Sherlock Holmes mystery. In fact, it doesn’t even look like a mystery book. The black cover and spat of blood and fancy fonts on the cover gives it a totally wrong impression. I first saw the book a month ago in my favorite second hand book store, but didn’t even bother to look at it twice because of its unnecessary fancy design. When I finally picked it up for no apparent reason I can recall, I was shock to see Sherlock Holmes Conan Doyle Estate LTD sticker on its cover.

What kind of idiot puts out Sherlock Holmes book and not includes his famous silhouette with pipe on its side? And why do I not see his name on its side cover? Why they design this book like a cheap vampire novel?

If I wasn’t lucky enough to pick up this book, I would have missed one of the most exciting and authentic Sherlock Homes novel ever written in 21^th century!!

With Careb Carr’s “Italian Secretary” and Neil Gaiman’s short story about mysterious doctor, this book could be one of the most well written Sherlock Holmes adventures not written by Conan Doyle.