The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz
Audio version performed by Derek Jacobi
4 stars
Comfortably, if tediously, confined to a nursing home, the elderly Dr. Watson is once more musing over his famous friend. Officially ‘sanctioned’ by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Horowitz brings one more adventure to the Sherlock Holmes canon. This story has all of the elements typical of a Holmes/Watson investigation and for the most part stays very true to the originals.
The story begins very much like a typical Holmes adventure. A client comes to Baker’s Street with a story concerning an art theft and an Irish American gang called the Flat Cap Gang. As the first mystery becomes entwined with the darker events involving The House of Silk, Horowitz is able to touch upon subjects that Conan Doyle would never have placed in a story. Naturally, Dr. Watson stipulated that the story should not be published in his lifetime. Twenty-first century sensibilities creep into the narrative subtly, but do not prevent it from maintaining the essence of the originals. Horowitz allows Dr. Watson to provide more realistic and damning descriptions of the extreme poverty and degradation of London’s underside. Sherlock Holmes is forced acknowledge his responsibility for the safety of his Baker Street Irregulars. Much of the mystery seemed fairly obvious all along, but there were still a few twists at the end which, as usual, only Holmes had anticipated.
Derek Jacobi gave Dr. Watson a very believable voice. I enjoyed his performance of this book.
posted 1 year ago. ( permalink )
