The New Sherlock Holmes - The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

Last week I was delighted to get No. 90 from 300 copies of a beautiful signed limited edition hardback  proof of The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz.

Anthony Horowitz, an Arthur Conan Doyle fan since the age of 16, has written a new Sherlock Holmes novel. 

The book is set in 1890, and written by Watson in a retirement home, a year after the death of Holmes. The story opens with a train robbery in Boston, and moves back to London and to the tranquil settings of Wimbledon but Watson, states in the prologue that "The adventures of The Man in the Flat Cap and The House of Silk were, in some respects, the most sensational of Sherlock Holmes's career but at the time it was impossible for me to tell them, for reasons that will become abundantly clear.... It is no exaggeration to say it could tear apart the very fabric of society."
What starts out as an investigation into a robbery soon takes Holmes and Watson down some very dark and squalid parts of London and to the discovery of a secret organisation that has members from the highest echelons of British society. These members will do anything to protect their identities and their very dark secrets even if it means killing Sherlock Holmes!
For fans of Sherlock Holmes this isn't going to disappoint. Horowitz shows not only his love of Conan Doyle but his gift as a brilliant plotter and storyteller keeping the quality of the original that you would expect, but with a more modern pace. Published on the 1.11.11 The House of Silk deserves to be the publishing success of 2011 it is expected to be. I loved it.