Skip to main content

Review: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel, The House Of Silk By Anthony Horowitz

Novel: Mystery. Contains violence, adult implications, and drugs. 

Sherlock Homes is one of the most well-known characters on earth, he has appeared in more movies than any other character, beating James bond by nearly forty movies, and Godzilla by 10 or so. The moment people invented film, they leaped to create the silent film, "Sherlock Holmes baffled" (it ran less than a minute). 12 or 14 Television series has had an innumerable amount of stage adaptations, each Holmes sporting that same iconic pipe, 25 TV movies, and 19 video games (I got all my information from Wikipedia, blame them if it's incorrect, XD). 

So it comes somewhat of a shock to me, that the first book about the great detective was released so recently, and by a writer, who, while having some renown, still wouldn't be most people’s first choice for such a consequential book. Perhaps it’s assumed that it is easier to reproduce Sherlock’s personality on screen than on the page, I suppose a book is easier to compare than a movie, although that never seems to stop fans from saying “The movie messed up the story!”

But in my opinion, the book does justice to its license; it has a grim feel to it. A running theme being the mortality of Sherlock and his trusty friend Watson, who; now on his deathbed, has decided to reveal this story. The mystery works extremely well and has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, although there seemed to me, to be way more details and more of a complex mystery in the side plot while the search for the House of Silk and its purpose is more straightforward.

Although I predicted one or two things, the book continues to shock you with new twists, right up until the end. It has a maddening mystery, some very morose overtones, and its reveal is unexpected but fairly obvious in hindsight. But it’s not all doom and gloom, it has a few humorous moments between Sherlock and his ever-present companion, Watson. Their dialogue, like most of the dialogue in this book, is spot on. And the book is inventive in its scenes and situations.

If you like Sherlock Holmes or just mystery books, then I feel confident in recommending this book. Anthony hit all the right notes and does justice to the legend of Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street.

I’d rate it Great near Brilliant (If you are unaware of how I rate books then this will show you how; Awful - Bad - Good - Great - Brilliant), with the kind of look at the past that always gets me, and the kind of mystery which will keep you turning pages.
Thanks for reading, have good day/night! 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt – In which Economics prove to be cooler than Algebra

Novel: Nonfiction THE CHARACTERIZATION. WAS. INCREDIBLE. I jest of course, as this book contains no characters and really isn’t like any books I have previously reviewed. This will make it difficult to review it, as in the end, the purchase really just depends on whether you would buy and read a book SIMPLY to know some interesting facts and get a slightly skewed perspective. Levitt says at the end, that he knows the book won’t make a big difference. It might make you treat a few people in certain jobs differently, it might make you distrust common knowledge more often. But other than that, I can scarcely say that the book will leave an emotional impact on you. It’s not necessarily boring so much as…not engaging. Let me start from the beginning. The book was written by Steven Levitt, an economist, and Stephen Dubner, a writer. Levitt is apparently something of a wild card in the economist biz, as he comes to conclusions which disturb many, and enjoys looking in...
2 comments
Read more

Review: Zen in the art of writing by Ray Bradbury – The literary equivalent of getting high

Ray Bradbury is my favorite writer. I love his short stories, his novels, his poems, and Fahrenheit 451 is my favorite book of all time. I wanted a book that would make me a better writer but would not be boring and tedious. So when I found out that there was a book by him, about writing, I decided that I had to have it. I had looked up some good books about writing and the moment I saw the name Bradbury I clicked on it. I scrolled through a list of quotes from the book and was fascinated, there are many great quotes from the book, and each one seemed to have life energy and being to them. So after reading only several quotes from the list I became very hyped for the book. And I was not disappointed because Bradbury writes with enthusiasm and honesty. While starting the first two chapters I became so enwrapped with the book that I went outside and began yelling the words out like a preacher quoting the bible (I was not drunk at the time, I was just very happy and really I’m j...
2 comments
Read more

Short story: The Long Trail

When I was younger, I was walking on a trail. My family would often visit trails on vacation, we were not the hotel, lounge about kind of vacation family. My mother and father both loved the wilderness, as did I and the majority of my four siblings. But this particular trail was longer and more tedious than any other trail in memory. It seemed to stretch on forever, and the gravel it was made from certainly didn’t improve the condition of our feet. I can’t recall how many times I had to stop because my legs or the legs of one of my siblings hurt. But we trudged on nonetheless, our stomachs growling all the way. Our whole family wasn’t together, my father was up ahead of all of us, my mother was behind me, Jacob (my second younger brother) and Noah (my brother) with our little sister Lilly. My older brother, Gabriel, was bringing up the rear. I remember Lilly catching up, and us stopping to stare at some deathly white worms, which lay on the surface of a stream, spotted a...
2 comments
Read more