Book #33: The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
Number of pages: 297
This is the first Sherlock Holmes novel written by Anthony Horowitz, and opens with Holmes being approached by Edmund Carstairs, who believes that he is being stalked by Keelan O'Donoghue, the leader of the notorious "flat cap gang", who he helped to get arrested. The plot soon develops, as it becomes apparent that O'Donoghue has now been murdered.
A number of unexpected murders lead Holmes to make a connection with the "House of Silk", although the precise nature of that this is is not exactly clear.
My previous experience with Anthony Horowitz's work was with his second Sherlock Holmes-related novel, Moriarty, and his short-lived television show, Crime Traveller from the 1990s, which was a relatively light-hearted science fiction show. As I understand it, he is also well known for a series of children's novels.
This book, however, proved to be very dark and increasingly mature in tone, so much that I was taken by surprise. As well as having some very shocking deaths, the story brings Holmes and Watson to an opium den. Later on, the plot becomes even more adult in tone, but I will not give any details here, save to say that the true nature of the House of Silk proves to be the book's most shocking moment; it felt like a book that would maybe have been banned back at the time when Arthur Conan Doyle was writing his Sherlock Holmes stories. It's certainly much darker than any of the original stories.
I loved the way that this book kept up the usual tradition of having Doctor Watson as the story's narrator, as he tells the reader a lot about his admiration for, and feelings about, Sherlock Holmes. I also find Horowitz's novels very easy to read, without any overly-complex language. I also liked the references to classic Holmes stories throughout the book. Overall, this was a compelling story, with a surprisingly vast number of plot twists that I did not see coming. Definitely a recommended book, just not for the faint-hearted.
Next book: The Sercret Agent (Joseph Conrad)