Just finished reading The House of Silk by Anthony Horrowitz and what a real pleasure it was to be once more in the company of Holmes and Watson.  Anthony Horrowitz has found a way to conjure up a new story (one that Watson had relegated to sit dormant, buried in a dusty cellar, as the years ticked by but has now finally been revealed).   The story is of course told by Watson (and I think AH does a great job of capturing the right tone) and involves two different criminal elements that have a loose connection.  The main theme is the House of Silk and due to a couple of events that take place during the story Holme’s makes it his personal mission to bring the perpetrators of the crimes to account, no matter what danger may be involved.

I think AH has managed to do an excellent job of telling this story in a fashion that manages to conjure up the style of Arthur Conan Doyle.  It’s not identical by any means, there are slight differences in the dialogue, I never completely got a sense of the old Holmes in terms of the passion and theatrical displays that he was so fond of, I think a few of the phrases used were probably more modern and also I think the ‘type’ of narrative tackled would not have been one that you would have ever read about when ACD wrote his originals.   There is also a certain element of charm missing but I can’t quite put my finger on why – maybe it’s just in that this novel feels a little bit more modern and so misses some of the olde world character of past novels or maybe it’s because it feels a little tentative – almost as though the novel is saying ‘hey, I’m trying to be a new Sherlock Holmes story – will I do?’ But, that being said, none of these (relatively small) criticisms detracted from the enjoyment I felt reading this book.  It was great and I got a real buzz from it!

I can’t really elaborate on the plot in this review because that would completely ruin the story and I don’t want to give away any spoilers so if you like Holmes and Watson and fancy spending a bit of time in their company again then what you waiting for?

So, we have a number of old and familiar characters showing up on the stage.  We see Sherlock once again wield is uncanny intellect whilst Watson bumbles along being totally flummoxed by it all in his wake and we get a good old fashioned dramatic ending full of tension and danger and revolver wielding arch criminals.  I mean, really, what more can you ask?

I really did enjoy this and I would love for AH to continue and give us some more stories.  After all I feel that you can’t have too much Holmes and Watson.

Rating A

The House of Silk