The Detective and the Woman by Amy Thomas

Sherlock Holmes without Watson?
Review by The Mole

Holmes is believed dead after Reichenbach Falls but Mycroft knows where he is and alerts him to a plan that jeopardises the safety of Irene Adler. In this story Holmes works with Adler and they try to trust each other.

This story is interesting in a few ways: we meet Irene Adler as a 'friend' instead of adversary; half the story is told by Adler and the other half by an anonymous narrator; Watson is almost totally absent from the story and has not written the story up.

Using these devices we no longer need to be convinced that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have written it this way, and frankly I am sure he wouldn't. But this technique means the author can use Holmes as a character without having to emulate Watson's style of writing - something that is not as simple as it seems.

The plot against Adler though seems very convoluted for what they were trying to achieve yet the story is told well. And although I enjoyed it I was disappointed with the ending which felt a lot more like a romantic novel than a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Publisher - MX Publishing
Genre - Adult Crime Fiction

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Sherlock Holmes And The Dead Boer At Scotney Castle by Tim Symonds

Intriguing
Review by The Mole


In Sherlock Holmes and The Dead Boer at Scotney Castle the great consulting detective comes up against the rich and powerful Kipling League. Dr Watson recounts the extraordinary events which took place on a spacious early summer day in the Sussex and Kent countryside in 1904. None of the earlier stories chronicling the adventures of Sherlock Holmes compares to the strange circumstances which determined Watson to take up his pen to relate this extraordinary adventure against Holmes express wishes. 


This story is one that is difficult to review because spoilers would be so easy to give - but I will try not to.

I have to admit to being a little disappointed by this story because too often Holmes didn't feel like Holmes or Watson like Watson. In addition Holmes tries to win Watson round to seeing his view on the take on events and Watson cannot see it and we seem to hear the same evidence repeated several times. In fact as a reader I became convinced that Holmes was wrong until I realised that his words were ambiguous and what he should have said was not what he did say. (It would be easier to explain if I risked spoilers!). Undoubtedly though the story is an intriguing one but whether the best detective fiction has ever seen is the character who should encounter this tale is another matter - I can imagine other fictional detectives encountering this tale and it being almost in a day's work for them! (STILL avoiding spoilers!). The fact that it is intriguing is one thing but is it the best telling of such a story? Sadly I don't think it is.

Publisher - MX Publishing
Genre - Adult Crime Fiction


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The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

Classic Sherlock
Review by The Mole

A while ago I blogged about this book's publicity campaign and felt it was a real taster that had me, and I'm sure a great deal more people, looking to finding a copy. Well I found a review copy in my stocking and have now had chance to read it.

"The first official new Sherlock Holmes mystery, written by global best seller Anthony Horowitz" is how Orion Books introduce this book on their website and I would agree that this book is worthy of the title.

An art dealer has a suspicious watcher who he now believes has burgled him and he wants Holmes to investigate and recover a necklace which has monetary but great sentimental value. This investigation opens up a complex and multistranded case that nearly brings the great man down.

I have to say that very early on I knew where The House Of Silk was and felt a little disappointed but the further the story went on and bent and twisted the less important this fact turned out to be. At the end there is the traditional summing up to tie up any loose ends. I had lost track of all the ends that could be loose but they were all there being tied up. At times I had started to wonder how we jumped from one line of investigation to another and I thought "How? Coincidence? Plot device?" but it turned out the answer was simple... Anthony Horowitz hadn't missed a trick and knitted everything together in a totally logical way with no contrived 'cheats'.

Excellently written, plotted and delivered and I believe Arthur Conan Doyle would have been happy to endorse this book into the annals of Sherlock Holmes.

Publisher - Orion Books
Genre - Adult, Fiction,Crime

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Sherlock Holmes: The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

Hoping to get this one soon
Preview by The Mole

An unusual post for us really because we haven't read the book yet. And yes, it's a sponsored link from which we will get worldly rich, buy a yacht and end up seasick! Choose to click the link or not but I watched the video, read the first 20 pages here and very much regretted not going for the 'wins' I have seen flying around for it. It is being heavily promoted but does the campaign 'sell' this book to me?Firstly Anthony Horowitz turns out that he's not the author I thought he was. I used to be one of the readers who tends to look for authors I liked and took some persuading to try something new, so I have a lot of catching up to do.So I had no idea that Anthony Horowitz created the series Midsomer Murders (don't go there as all visitors either end up dead or are murderers) and Foyle's War - two series I have, at times, enjoyed immensely. He has also produced other TV mini series and written the 13 million worldwide copy selling Alex Rider books. This book appears to be a long held passion of his as an early Conan Doyle fan, coincidentally he was only a little older than I was when I read my first Holmes book.

The synopsis reads

"It is November 1890 and London is gripped by a merciless winter. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are enjoying tea by the fire when an agitated gentleman arrives unannounced at 221B Baker Street. He begs Holmes for help, telling the unnerving story of a scar-faced man with piercing eyes who has stalked him in recent weeks. Intrigued by the man’s tale, Holmes and Watson find themselves drawn into a series of puzzling and sinister events, stretching from the gas-lit streets of London to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston. As the pair delve deeper into the case, they stumble across a whispered phrase ‘the House of Silk’: a mysterious entity and foe more deadly than any Holmes has encountered, and a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society itself…"

The video sets the scene in a very Conan Doylesque way and the first 20 pages made me very much thinking "a true Conan Doyle mystery".

This is definitely one on my list for Santa!

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