The House of Silk

The House of Silk
Anthony Horowitz
Mulholland Books
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
November 2011
Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-316-19699-4
304 pages
$ 27.99

The House of Silk was commissioned by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate to create a new Sherlock Holmes novel. Anthony Horowitz was selected to be the author of this new series after writing the preteen series Alex Rider, Power of Five, and The Diamond Brothers. He has also written the PBS’s Foyle’s War series, Collision, and Injustice along with numerous other television and film productions.

When an American woman marries an affluent art dealer, naturally, his family will be somewhat suspicious of her. They think that she might be after his money. When his mother is discovered dead due to a gas leak, there are questions about was it a suicide, an accident, or murder.

This particular art dealer, Edmund Carstairs initially contacts Sherlock Holmes regarding a man who seems to be watching their house wearing a flat cap. With his business recently, there had been a tremendous theft of many pieces of art while they were in transit. The believed thieves also wore these caps, and one of them was killed in the U.S. However, the twin brother of one of the thieves seems to have disappeared.

This story is logical with unpredictable connections weaving the story together. The characters closely follow the traditional Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Although not quite as brilliant as Doyle with the word choices or enticement, the story still is enthralling. The reader is constantly wondering about how this will all fit together or what will be the next twist in the story. The characters are believable and definitely reflect the worst of humanity.

One warning, even though this author is well-known to the preteen audience, this is definitely not a book for a preteen. There is definitely a subject matter that would not be appropriate for this age group.

The House of Silk is a quick and involved mystery. Anthony Horowitz is an outstanding preteen author who is now successfully entering the world of adult fiction.