I Just Read About That…

[LISTENED TO: January 2024] The House of Silk

I’ve been really enjoying some various Anthony Horowitz adult books.  I particularly enjoyed his Hawthorne and Horowitz books.

I had noticed that House of Silk seemed to be a really Big, Important book for hi, but I didn’t really know why.  When it went on sale at my audiobook supplier, I grabbed it.  That’s when I discovered it was a Sherlock Holmes story.

I went through a brief phase where I was reading as many Holmes stories as a I could.  But it has been a while since I read one.

In no way can I compare this story to an Arthur Conan Doyle story, nor do I think you are supposed to (even though this is an authorized part of the series).  I can’t quite imagine the pressure that one must feel in Horowitz’ situation.  There is no way he was going to please people by doing this.  I also don’t know anything about his fondness for Holmes.  I assume it must be great, but who knows.

The fun setup for this story is that Watson has written this book but has asked that it not be opened for 100 years because the information contained within is quite damaging to some important people in English society.

And so, although this story is set at some time during Holmes’ tenure as a detective, it’s not his “final” case or anything like that.

The story is fairly convoluted (it is a Holmes story, after all), but it actually has two mysteries intertwined.

It opens with Edmund Carstairs coming to Sherlock for help.  He is an art dealer and when a group of valuable paintings were shipped to America, they were robbed/destroyed  in a train robbery.  The culprits were actually after money on the train, but they still cost the art dealer a fortune.  He hired a man in America to round up the thieves who were known as the flat cap gang.  The Gang is headed by two Irishmen, the O’Donoghue twins.  During the investigation, one of the twins is killed.  Carstairs is convinced that the surviving twin, Keelon O’Donoghue has come to kill him.

Carstairs has another problem at home.  His sister (a cranky woman when we first meet her) hates his new (American) wife, believing she is after his fortune.  But his sister has been slowly getting more and more sickly.  And she believes the wife is poisoning her food.  Carstairs has sampled the food and it is clearly not the food that is poisoning her, but she gets sicker every day.  Indeed, Carstairs’ wife has come seeking help from Dr Watson to investigate things because she is tired of being accused.

Holmes has employed his Baker Street Irregulars (the young urchins who are all over the streets) to find out whatever he can about the theft and the O’Donoghue person who might be in England to kill Carstairs.

The boys track him down but when Holmes approaches the location, one of the boys, Ross, looks terrified.  Could he have seen something really so terrible?

I had to look up what others thought of this book and the usual Holmes die-hards had lots of complaints.  One that is quite valid is that the story does bemoan the plight of the Victorian children.  It is true that any modern person would look back on things then with horror (as the book does), but it is also true that in Holmes’ time, this is just how it was and it is unlikely that anyone, Holmes in particular would ever feel bad about the children–especially since he pays them quite well.  But that’s neither here nor there.

It turns out that Ross has quite a past for someone so young.  He was at a Christian school for homeless (or whatever they called them back then) boys but he fled.  He worked at a bar (his sister also worked there).  And he is the reason that Holmes and Watson learn of the House of Silk.

The House of Silk plot seems to completely eclipse the art theft plot.  But Horowitz does a great job tying the plots together.

The story was quite long (especially for a Holmes story), but Horowitz packs a lot into it.  The House of Silk plotline goes very deep and involves some important people in British aristocracy.  And yet, no one has heard of it.  By no one, I mean, his brother Mycroft (a lovely cameo from the man who is apparently smarter than Sherlock) and Inspector LeStrand.  But as soon as Holmes starts poking his nose into things, he is immediately in danger.

In short order there is an opium den, a murder and Holmes in a prison cell with an arresting officer who seems more than a little keen to make sure that Holmes stays there for life.

I admit I was pretty shocked at what The House of Silk turned out to be.  And I was really surprised (in a very good way) at the way Horowitz brought the two plots together).

I can’t say if Horowitz is a perfect Holmes writer, but I enjoyed a lot of the little moments where Holmes observes things that Watson did not.  It is clear that Horowitz had a lot of fun with moments like that.  I also really enjoyed the whole Holmes-in-prison section.

All in all, I enjoyed the story and was rather caught up in it.  Although, I have to say I enjoyed the Hawthorne stories more.  Perhaps it is because the Hawthorne stories are modern, but I don’t think that was it.  Hawthorne is very much like Holmes in his observational skills, but I think I preferred Horowitz’ own self as the narrator (put upon and often in trouble) to Watson–there’s not a ton of humor in Watson.

The narrator was Derek Jacobi.  Initially I didn’t like his voice, probably because it sounded so perfectly in period and I wanted something a little more modern.  But once I got into the swing of things, I found his voice to be outstanding.  His accents were great and his pacing made a lot of sense for the story.

There’s a second Holmes book that Horowitz has written.  I’m kind of interested in it, but I’m actually more interested in some of his other stories first.  I’ll get to Moriarity ones of these days, I’m sure.