Review: Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

Sherlock Holmes is dead. 


Days after Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarty fall to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. The death of Moriarty has created a poisonous vacuum which has been swiftly filled by a fiendish new criminal mastermind who has risen to take his place.

Ably assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard, a devoted student of Holmes's methods of investigation and deduction, Frederick Chase must forge a path through the darkest corners of the capital to shine light on this shadowy figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, a man determined to engulf London in a tide of murder and menace.



I absolutely loved Horowitz's first Sherlock Holmes novel The House of Silk, and so was very excited when I finally got my hands on this. I was initially disappointed to discover how little Holmes appeared in the book - and what kind of Holmes novel is narrated by someone other than Watson!? But Frederick Chase soon drew me into his story, as he and Jones became a sort of detective duo themselves. The reader is taken on a journey into the grim underworld of Victorian London, a world that Horowitz brings to life every bit as well as the great Conan Doyle ever did. Then, just as you think you know what's going on, BAM! There comes the mother of all twists! I have to admit that I had sort of suspected it, but the way it was revealed certainly took me by surprise that's all I'm saying. As always Anthony Horowitz is a master of his craft, and he remains one of my favourite authors - you have no idea how excited I am for his upcoming James Bond novel Trigger Mortis. Moriarty is brilliantly written and a very clever concept, it was just hoping for more Holmes.