A tone-perfect, action-packed story of corruption, greed and dissolution, all the while capturing the sights, smells and social problems of 1890's London.

Watson remembers a story of his friend, Sherlock Holmes, and shares it in his old age with the world. Holmes notes the absence of identifying documents apart from a cigarette case bearing the initials WM, though Watson points to a year-old bullet scar on the man's cheek as suggesting the man is in fact Keelan O'Donaghue.The reader is informed of the particulars regarding the first meeting of Watson and Holmes, including the circumstances of the Afghan War and a mention of the case that was "too shocking to be revealed until now. The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter. Holmes enters at the behest of an art dealer whose shipment of paintings was destroyed by Irish gang members and whose client is later found murdered. During his tour through the prison, Watson realises that one key would not be sufficient for a successful escape attempt.

The House of Silk consists of two mysteries which seem, at first, to be separate, one nested neatly inside the other and the two related, seemingly, by the flimsiest of links. It’s also well-written, and moves along well, but falls into the trap of so many authorized continuations, where the author is trying so hard to be true to or respectful of the characters/settings that the story itself ends up suffering. Various leads draw them to a travelling funfair, where they are ambushed, before being saved by Lestrade. I hope, if you read it, you'll enjoy all the clues, the red herrings, the bizarre range of suspects and the occasionally violent twists. I]t has been good to find myself back at Holmes’s side, […], always one step behind him (in every sense) and yet enjoying the rare privilege of observing, at close quarters, that unique mind.

Horowitz also acknowledged that the original stories were about the ‘well-to-do’ and that this story was a break with that tradition.

Holmes finds himself framed for murder, and Watson has to find a way to spring him before they can solve the case. We must take them on their own terms, then: Mr Carstairs, the troubled dealer in fine art, who is being watched by a mysterious stranger in a flat cap with a "livid scar on his right cheek". But if you are looking for something more in keeping with the original I would look at Donald Thomas. To them I bequeath one last portrait of Mr Sherlock Holmes, and a perspective that has not been seen before. It could easily have been written by ACD, and almost feels like Horowitz is finishing one of Conan Doyle’s unfinished stories, if you know what I mean.This investigation takes up about the first third of the novel, introducing Carstairs’ wife whom he met on the voyage home from America, and Carstairs’ sister who is convinced that Mrs Carstairs is evil. Naturally, some of these non-Doylean adventures are better than others: Julian Symons's ingenious A Three Pipe Problem (1975) is unjustly forgotten, the BBC's recent Sherlock rightly praised. It included all kinds of London and British visuals and language from over a century ago, BUT miraculously, it integrated everything in a way that made it easy and appealing to a modern, young audience. But, that being said, none of these (relatively small) criticisms detracted from the enjoyment I felt reading this book. Although he indicates this kills her, apparently she manages to have a holiday with a friend and at least two successful pregnancies after catching the fever before her eventual death.