The House of Silk

by Anthony Horowitz

For the first time in its125 year history the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate has authorized a new Sherlock Holmes novel.  This is the book, published in 2011.  It claims to be written by Dr. Watson who had left instructions that the book should not be published until 100 years after his death because of the nature of the story contained within.

The book starts off with Sherlock Holmes being engaged by a young man who claims he is being threatened by a thug he had involvement with while in America.  Sherlock engages the services of the Baker Street Irregulars, young orphans living off London streets, to keep an eye on the thug.  The young boy who is set to watch the hotel where the man is staying is found murdered, after being viciously tortured.  Holmes feels terrible that his actions have resulted in the boy's death.  He learns that the boy was staying at an orphanage for a time but ran away from it.  He contacts the boy's sister but she is uncooperative.  Holmes' brother Mycroft who has influence and connections in government warns him to drop the case as he risks angering very powerful, dangerous people but of course Holmes does not listen.

As they are pursuing the boy's killer Holmes is tricked into visiting an opium den where he is drugged and then setup for the murder of the boy's sister.  He is put on trial and it appears that he will be convicted.  Watson tries to help him escape from prision but Holmes manages to get out on his own to avoid being murdered in prison. 

They learn that the organization/source they are seeking is something called the House of Silk, eventually they make their way back to the boys school where they learn that wealthy influential people are pedofiles preying on the boys at the school including the young man who originally contacted Holmes.  The man's wife is actually the twin of a criminal he played a part in bringing to justice in America.  She was the person who killed the man that was intimidating her husband because he was going to tell her husband the truth about her.  She had already killed her mother-in-law and was in the process of poisoning her sister-in-law and ultimately would have killed her husband.

I have not read any original Sherlock Holmes books, but I think the book certainly honoured the spirit of the Sherlock Holmes stories and did a great job of portraying life in Victorian England and the life of the poor and orphans in London.  It was an interesting read and kept my attention all the way through.

Never Sleep With A Suspect on Gabriola Island

by Sandy Frances Duncan and George Szanto

This is the first book in the series about the Islands Investigations International (III) detective agency.  It is about two acquaintances, one American one Canadian who decide get hired to investigate a murder on Gabriola Island.  The groundskeeper is found dead on the lawn of a Gallery on the island and the two, a woman who does fraud investigations for an insurance company and her gay friend, a former investigative reporter who is still grieving from the recent death of his partner, seek to clear the Gallery of involvement with the murder. 

They do a very prelimnary investigation and supply a report to the Gallery owner. They do not solve the crime.
The gay man is being tormented by an unknown assailant, the person phone's in the night and just breathes into the phone or the answering machine, the man's tires are slashed and then he receives a death threat.  He is very frightened.  Then the two are asked by some other art dealers to try to find out how this gallery manages to find so many good art pieces "in the style of...."

As they investigate they bumble along and get themselves into very serious trouble and are almost killed.
They find out that there is more to the gallery (forgeries) and more to the greenhouse at the gallery (opium) than it first appears.  They also figure out who murdered the groundskeeper and why and who was threatening the gay partner of the team.

I read the second book in the series previously.  I enjoyed it, but  think I liked this one better.

A Duty to the Dead

by Charles Todd

This is the first book in the new series by Charles Todd about Bess Crawford, a young nurse during the first world war.  In this book Bess is asked by a dying soldier to deliver a message, in person, to his brother.  It is a strange message about the young man having lied and about having his brother set things right.

Bess is recovering from injuries she sustained when the medical ship she was on was sunk.  She goes to visit the man's family and is surprised that the family doesn't seem interested in acting on the message.  She nurses a man who is suffering from shell shock and who later kills himself, or is he murdered.  She is shocked to find out that one of the brothers in the family is in an asylum as a result of a brutal murder he committed.  When he too is brought to her for nursing care, when he has pneumonia and the asylum can't cope with nursing him, she starts to suspect that things may not be as she has been informed.

She starts to try to find out what really happened many years ago and to clear the name of the oldest brother.
She does indeed solve the crime but the result is that three of the four brothers are dead by the end of the book.  I think I enjoyed this book better than the second one in the series, which I read first, a few months ago.