For the first time, the Conan Doyle estate has officially authorized and approved a new addition to the canon. This is The House of Silk, written by Anthony Horowitz (creator and writer of the Foyle's War tv series) and published in November of 2011.
And a gazillion YA novels, most of which range from decent to very good. Never heard of Foyle's War...
One possible drawback is that every now and then the author appears to lose the authentic Watson voice in order to insert more contemporary judgements of Victorian society, or to ruminate about why the original Conan Doyle-penned Watson never gave much attention to side-characters such as Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade. This is presented as older Watson thinking back about his old stories and what he left out of them, but it feels like the author injecting his own pet peeves into the narrative.
Yes, I can see how that would feel artificial...
But on the whole, The House of Silk is a capable, interesting mystery novel and an authentic, worthy addition to the Sherlock Holmes canon. If I were to copy Werthead's scoring system, I would give it **** and a half out of five, and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed Holmes stories in the past.
I'll check it out, then.
The House of Silk (the new official Sherlock Holmes novel)
- 29/01/2012 08:27:09 PM
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Sounds good. But then, I do love Horowitz.
- 29/01/2012 08:42:25 PM
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