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adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
While Anthony Horowitz may be my favorite contemporary mystery writer, this was a miss for me.
Horowitz's second book in the Sherlock Holmes universe commissioned by the Doyle estate features neither Sherlock Holmes nor John Watson. Rather, it is about Private Investigator Frederick Chase teaming up with Inspector Anthelney Jones who - in the aftermath of Professor Moriarty's death in "The Final Problem" - seek to prevent a new criminal overlord from rising up to take his place.
I had two main problems with the book. First, it was quite slow. A 280-page mystery novel is usually one that can be devoured in a day, maybe two. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting into this and the pace of the writing never quite matched the urgency of the plot (if that makes sense). Part of that might be the style, but I never got the same feeling from "The House of Silk", which was written in the same style. Maybe it was because I had a hard time connecting to either Chase or Jones? As the two just meet, they lack the deep friendship/understanding of one another that Holmes and Watson had, and you can feel that disconnect in the book. I assume a lot of it is intentional, but it was something that didn't work for me and made it hard to truly sink my teeth into the story.
The second issue I had was the reveal. MAJOR SPOILERS:I'm not saying I disliked the reveal that Chase was secretly Moriarty, but it was somewhat predictable. Throughout the book, it was clear that something was off. This was exacerbated by the unmasking of Devereaux with a little more than a third of the book to go. It was obvious - both for meta reasons and for story reasons - that there was another major twist about to occur, and the most obvious twist at that point would have been either Jones or Chase was in on it the whole time. Further, there were two instances in the book in which Chase is referred to in the third-person (e.g., "Chase said..." or "Chase put on his coat"). Given that Chase is the narrator, these should be in first person. Once is an error, but two is a coincidence, and I like to think Horowitz is a careful enough author with a good enough editing team to not make that kind of mistake unintentionally. From a story perspective, Chase demonstrates a significant lack of agency and is too willing to go along with being the Watson. Let's not forget that Chase claims to be an investigator himself. His willingness to take such a back seat to everything and serve as, effectively, an observer makes sense for Watson, but not for someone who has experience in the field.
Basically, the twist that Chase was Moriarty was a bit too telegraphed and fell flat - I appreciate the attempt at a "Murder of Roger Ackroyd-narrator did it" mystery, but it didn't quite work for me here. Honestly, If I have one complaint about both of Horowitz's Holmes books, it's that the twist is made a little too obvious (in "The House of Silk", the anagram is pretty much spelled out word for word at one point).
Overall, two and a half stars, rounded to three. It's an interesting approach to write a Holmes/Watson story that includes neither Holmes nor Watson, but it didn't quite work for me.
Horowitz's second book in the Sherlock Holmes universe commissioned by the Doyle estate features neither Sherlock Holmes nor John Watson. Rather, it is about Private Investigator Frederick Chase teaming up with Inspector Anthelney Jones who - in the aftermath of Professor Moriarty's death in "The Final Problem" - seek to prevent a new criminal overlord from rising up to take his place.
I had two main problems with the book. First, it was quite slow. A 280-page mystery novel is usually one that can be devoured in a day, maybe two. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting into this and the pace of the writing never quite matched the urgency of the plot (if that makes sense). Part of that might be the style, but I never got the same feeling from "The House of Silk", which was written in the same style. Maybe it was because I had a hard time connecting to either Chase or Jones? As the two just meet, they lack the deep friendship/understanding of one another that Holmes and Watson had, and you can feel that disconnect in the book. I assume a lot of it is intentional, but it was something that didn't work for me and made it hard to truly sink my teeth into the story.
The second issue I had was the reveal. MAJOR SPOILERS:
Basically, the twist that Chase was Moriarty was a bit too telegraphed and fell flat - I appreciate the attempt at a "Murder of Roger Ackroyd-narrator did it" mystery, but it didn't quite work for me here. Honestly, If I have one complaint about both of Horowitz's Holmes books, it's that the twist is made a little too obvious (in "The House of Silk", the anagram is pretty much spelled out word for word at one point).
Overall, two and a half stars, rounded to three. It's an interesting approach to write a Holmes/Watson story that includes neither Holmes nor Watson, but it didn't quite work for me.