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 Watson who had left instructions that the book should not be published until 100 years after his death because of the nature of the story contained within.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.