The House Of Smoke
A Moriarty Thriller
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
SHERLOCK HOLMES' GREATEST NEMESIS IS ABOUT TO UNLEASH LONDON'S DEADLIEST ASSASSIN . . .
'Chilling and clever' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Smart, slick and effective' DAILY MAIL
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A DEADLY ASSASSIN
Big Ben chimes in the first seconds of the first day of 1900, the start of a fresh century. Inside London's oldest gaol, preparations are afoot to hang Victorian England's deadliest assassin, a man wanted for two decades' worth of murders.
A RELENTLESS ENEMY
Cold-blooded killer Simeon Lynch has lived a brutal and glorious life in the employ of the House of Moriarty - the most feared criminal enterprise in the world. Now, as he faces the noose, Simeon learns dark truths about his master, about Sherlock Holmes and about his own past. Truths that make him determined to escape and kill again...
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Follow Simeon's bloody footsteps through the capital's cobbled alleyways, wretched workhouses and flash taverns as he crosses swords with Sherlock Holmes and the villainous characters of Victorian London. Perfect for fans of Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Horowitz, James Becker, CJ Sansom and SJ Parris.
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Praise for THE HOUSE OF SMOKE:
'You can almost feel the cold weight of the old stones pressing down on you. This is one of those very rare books that is capable of both thrilling and chilling the reader' JAMES BECKER
'Well-plotted and well executed, this is a chilling and clever thriller' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Smart, slick and effective' DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Christer (The Stonehenge Legacy) does a solid job recreating the Victorian underworld in this Sherlock Holmes knockoff, but he falls short of the standard set by John Gardner's Moriarty trilogy in terms of character and plot. On January 1, 1900, Simeon Lynch, the self-described "manservant of Death" and the go-to hit man for the Moriarty organized crime family, is in London's Newgate Gaol. In 17 days he will die on the gallows after conviction, ironically, for a murder he did not commit. The narrative alternates between the countdown to his execution and his backstory, in which the violent orphan, whose mother died giving birth to him, is enlisted by Professor Brogan Moriarty to become an enforcer and assassin. As the days go by, Lynch is eager to escape his fate, but he refuses to cooperate with Sherlock Holmes by ratting on his boss, even when offered a full pardon. That Christer never explains the survival of Brogan's brother, James, at the Reichenbach Falls will strike readers familiar with the Holmes stories as odd.
