The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

*I enjoyed reading Anthony Horowitz’s book, The House of Silk. It’s pacy, full of atmosphere and mystery, and above all it captures the essence of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Horowitz’s plot is cunning, full of twists and turns, with allusions to Conan Doyle’s stories.

Synopsis from the book cover:

It is November 1890 and London is gripped by a merciless winter. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are enjoying tea by the fire when an agitated gentleman arrives unannounced at 221b Baker Street. He begs Holmes for help, telling the unnerving story of a scar-faced man with piercing eyes who has stalked him in recent weeks. Intrigued, Holmes and Watson find themselves swiftly drawn into a series of puzzling and sinister events, stretching from the gas-lit streets of London to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston and the mysterious ‘House of Silk’ . . .

My view:

The book is narrated by Watson as he looks back on two of the most puzzling and sinister cases he and Homes had to solve November 1890 – that of The Man in the Flat Cap and The House of Silk. The first involves an art dealer, Mr Carstairs who is being threatened by a member of the American Flat Cap Gang, whereas the second concerns the murder of Ross, a new member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the scruffy, ragged gang of street urchins Sherlock Holmes uses to help him track down criminals. For a while I couldn’t see how these cases connected, or indeed if they did, as Horowitz effortlessly spun the wool over my eyes .

I haven’t read anything by Anthony Horowitz before, although when I read that he is a TV screenwriter, including Midsomer Murders, Foyles War and Poirot to his name I realised that I’ve certainly enjoyed his work before. He’s also written bestselling children’s books, including the Alex Rider series.

I’m not often keen on pastiches,  prequels or sequels written by a different author from the original but this one is the exception. The House of Silk is vastly entertaining, a page-turner, full of detail and great characterisation, with Holmes at the peak of his powers, even though it nearly costs him his life. I do hope there will be a second book.

*Edited after first publishing – see comments*.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: Letter Y

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet has reached the letter Y – an easier letter to illustrate than last week’s letter X. My choice this week is …

… Murder by Yew by Suzanne Young. (The first book in the Edna Davies Mysteries series) I read this on Kindle.

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

When her handyman dies of taxine poisoning, Edna Davies, amateur herbalist, becomes the prime suspect. Nearly certain that she hadn’t concocted a poisonous potion and desperate to save herself from arrest, Edna taps into strengths she never before realized she possessed. Shunned by the townsfolk, questioned by the police, and threatened by thieves, she follows the clues of a forty-year-old disappearance to capture a killer.

My View

Suzanne Young is an American author with a degree in English from Rhode Island University. She has worked as a writer, editor and computer programmer. She now writes fiction full time. For more information see her website. 

Murder by Yew is the first book by Suzanne Young that I have read. It’s an entertaining ‘cosy’ murder mystery, set in mainly in Rhode Island, a light and quick read. The story is told in the third person from Edna’s perspective. It’s clearly written, with well described locations. The dialogue is lively, apart from one section with reported dialogue which isn’t so convincing.

Edna and her husband, a retired doctor, have recently moved to Rhode Island and she is getting to know her neighbours. She employs Tom Greene to do jobs around the house and garden. The former owner of the house was a keen gardener and had left notebooks filled with comments on the plants in the garden, along with recipes for home-brews and potions and Edna is enjoying herself making some of them, such as chamomile tea with a touch of lemon balm. When Tom collapses and dies the police take samples of her tea mixes and suspect that he had been poisoned by the addition of yew to one of Edna’s tea blends.

Tom’s little grandson, Danny, who is deaf with a speech problem, holds the key to the mystery, but his mother won’t allow Edna to talk to him. Things go from bad to worse for Edna as people begin to shun her and then a storm hits Rhode Island. The cast of characters is well-drawn, with Edna as a most likeable amateur sleuth. She has to discover the motive for killing Tom – was it to do with his present day work,or did it lie further back in his past? Does the recent spate of robberies have a link to his murder and what is the significance of the presence of Edna’s housekeeper in a photo taken in Boston by Edna’s daughter? Edna proves most resourceful in sorting it all out and discovering the murderer’s identity. I had my suspicions about one character quite early on in the book – and I was right, so maybe it was just a bit predictable, which isn’t a bad thing!

Suzanne Young has written two more Edna Davies mysteries – Murder by Proxy and Murder by Mishap, both also available on Kindle and I’m looking forward to reading them.

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 348 KB
  • Print Length: 252 pages
  • Publisher: Mainly Murder Press; 1 edition (27 Nov 2009)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B003P8P8G0
  • Source: I bought it
  • My Rating 3.5/5

Persephone Books

Published on by Margaret

I had a lovely surprise on Friday when an unexpected parcel turned up in the post. It was from Persephone Books and inside I found a copy of The Persephone Book of Short Stories complete with two bookmarks, the Persephone Biannually magazine, and the Persephone Catalogue 1999-2012. I was delighted – so thank you very much Persephone.

The Book of Short Stories, the 100th Persephone book, is a collection of thirty short stories by twentieth century women, spanning the years 1909-1986, including such authors as Mollie Panter-Downes, Shirley Jackson, Diana Athill, Dorothy Whipple and Phyllis Bentley, to name but a few. There is also a chapter containing short biographies of the authors.

Other Persephone Books that I’ve written about are:

Persephone Books publish beautiful books – grey paperbacks with patterned endpapers and bookmarks to match. They are a pleasure to hold and to read.There are novels, short story collections, poetry, children’s books, thrillers, cookery books, and non-fiction books to choose from as well as a selection of Unabridged Audiobooks.

Saturday Snapshot

Published on by Margaret14 Comments

My Saturday Snapshots this week are some holiday photos from our holiday in Brittany way back in 1988. We had quite an eventful beginning to our holiday because soon after we landed  our car broke down and my French was immediately tested trying to say ‘the accelerator cable has broken’.

After a wait of two hours it was mended and we eventually got to our camp site at Ploumanach, near Perros Guirec on La Cote de Granit Rose, the Pink Granite Coast. The coast with its amazing rock formations was a few minutes walk from our caravan.

Just a few miles along the coast is Le Gouffre, or ‘abyss’, a place where the waves crash against a gap in the cliffs.

And near by is this amazing house wedged between huge granite boulders

It was built in 1861.

For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s Blog At Home With Books.

R.I.P. VII wrap-up

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

R.I.P. VII, hosted by Carl, has come to its end – the time has just flown by.

I chose Peril the First – ‘˜Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be King or Conan Doyle, Penny or Poe, Chandler or Collins, Lovecraft or Leroux’¦or anyone in between.’

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.
Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

I completed the challenge as many of the books I read in September and October fitted into these categories. I read:

  1. Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xialong
  2. Dark Matter: a Ghost Story by Michelle Paver
  3. The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick
  4. Maigret and the Ghost by Georges Simenon
  5. The War of the Worlds by H G Wells
  6. The Four Last Things by Andrew  Taylor
  7. The Judgement of Strangers by Andrew Taylor
  8. Fear in the Sunlight by Nicola Upson
  9. The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas
  10. The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
  11. Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie
  12. The Expats by Chris Pavone

The ones that stand out as the scariest are The Four Last Things by Andrew Taylor and Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging  so I haven’t had time to write about The War of the Worlds or The House of Silk, but those are good books too and I am aiming to write about The House of Silk – the new Sherlock Holmes Novel!

October’s Books

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

October has been another good month for reading. As in September I read ten books, listed below (the titles are linked to my posts on the books):

  1. The Judgement of Strangers by Andrew Taylor 4/5
  2. Dancing Backwards by Salley Vickers 3.5/5 (library book)
  3. Fear in the Sunlight by Nicola Upson 3/5 (Kindle)
  4. The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas 4.5/5 (library book)
  5. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan 3/5
  6. The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz 4/5
  7. Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie 4.5/5
  8. Mrs Harris MP by Paul Gallico 4/5
  9. The History of Scotland by Richard Killen 4/5 (from TBR books)
  10. The Expats by Chris Pavone 3.5/5 (Kindle)

So, a total of 9 fiction books of which 6 were crime fiction, and 1 non fiction. Two of the books were library books, 2 were e-books and 1 book was from my to-be-read books (books I’ve owned before January 2012).

It’s difficult to pick a Book of the Month this time as I’ve rated all of the books as 3 and over (meaning they were good, enjoyable books), with just two as 4.5/5 (meaning I thought they were very good and I wanted to get back to them each time I had to stop reading).

I was tempted to say my Book of the Month is Agatha Christie’s Hickory Dickory Dock, because it’s good on characterisation, but overall I think it has to be The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas for it’s sheer quirkiness and cleverly constructed plot.

For more books of the month see Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Pick of the Month on her blog Mysteries in Paradise.