I love Sherlock Holmes. He’s such an unashamed smartypants and all his intellect is used for good. He’s irresistible. I’ve read or seen most of the Holmes-inspired redos. I even own the awesome board game – 221B Baker Street (that’s Holmes’ address). My previous favorite Holmes-inspired book (A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch) gets around high expectations by getting rid of the names “Holmes” and “Watson” and instead just tells a great story using familiar characters and setup. But The House of Silk is the first new Holmes Novel authorized by the Conan Doyle estate so the author, Anthony Horowitz (the Alex Rider series for middle readers), goes in the other direction. Every possible piece is in place for a Holmes story from the characters (Mrs. Hudson, The Baker Street Irregulars, Mycroft Holmes, even a cameo by Moriarty) to the physical setting and the foggy, gas-lit atmosphere of crooks and waifs and aristocrats. But what about Watson, you ask? He’s here and he’s what really makes this book great. So many other books seem to have forgotten that Watson as the narrator is almost the main character of all the stories. He’s telling this one as an old man, looking back on the cases that were too shocking to have told during his and Holmes’ lifetime. I don’t want to tell you too much about the story because you’ll start trying to guess who did it, but I really hope there are many more cases that Watson hasn’t told us about yet. ~Lillian
P.S. Cindy is halfway through this as I’m writing and she’s loving it even though she’s not a Holmes fan.