Moriarty
A Novel
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4.0 • 194 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Anthony Horowitz throws down the gauntlet in his infernally clever Sherlock Holmes pastiche.” — Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
The game is once again afoot in this thrilling mystery from internationally bestselling author Anthony Horowitz, sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate, that explores what really happened when Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty tumbled to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls.
Horowitz’s nail-biting novel plunges us back into the dark and complex world of detective Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty—dubbed the Napoleon of crime” by Holmes—in the aftermath of their fateful struggle at the Reichenbach Falls.
Days after the encounter at the Swiss waterfall, Pinkerton detective agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. Moriarty’s death has left an immediate, poisonous vacuum in the criminal underworld, and there is no shortage of candidates to take his place—including one particularly fiendish criminal mastermind.
Chase and Scotland Yard Inspector Athelney Jones, a devoted student of Holmes’s methods of investigation and deduction originally introduced by Conan Doyle in “The Sign of Four”, must forge a path through the darkest corners of England’s capital—from the elegant squares of Mayfair to the shadowy wharfs and alleyways of the London Docks—in pursuit of this sinister figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, who is determined to stake his claim as Moriarty’s successor.
A riveting, deeply atmospheric tale of murder and menace from one of the only writers to earn the seal of approval from Conan Doyle’s estate, Moriarty breathes life into Holmes’s dark and fascinating world.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Following on the heels of 2011’s The House of Silk, Anthony Horowitz revisits Sherlock Holmes’ universe with another witty and crafty tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle’s cerebral detective. American private eye Frederick Chase teams up with Scotland Yard’s Athelney Jones to investigate the mystery of Reichenbach Falls, the Alpine setting where Holmes and his nemesis James Moriarty allegedly tussled to their deaths. Horowitz confidently unfolds his mesmerizing thriller, tracking his capable protagonists as they follow an undulating trail of clues that leads them to a devilish new villain. Equally engaging for devout Sherlock Holmes fans and those encountering the legendary sleuth for the first time, Moriarty resurrects many of Conan Doyle’s most memorable characters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this disappointing follow-up to Horowitz's brilliant first Holmes pastiche, The House of Silk (2011), Sherlock Holmes appears only in passing, in a prologue in which narrator Frederick Chase, a Pinkerton operative, details the plot holes in Watson's account of the fatal encounter between the great detective and the Napoleon of crime at the Reichenbach Falls in 1891. Chase is on the trail of Clarence Devereux, an American Moriarty, when news reaches him of the tragedy in Switzerland. Chase believes that Moriarty and Devereux had been in contact, and he travels immediately to Meiringen, where he winds up teaming with Scotland Yard's Insp. Athelney Jones, who displays an unexpected gift for Sherlockian deduction. After decoding a message setting a meeting between Moriarty and Devereux at London's Caf Royal, Chase plans to impersonate the master criminal. As a pair, Jones and Chase are but a pale shadow of Holmes and Watson.
Customer Reviews
Moriarty-ending disappointing
Couldn’t put it down until the end, it could have been better.
Excellent Read
I loved Conan Doyle’s pre-Spiritualism writing, and this is a really good follow-up to that body of work. It’s grittier than most of the Sherlock stories were, but it still fits. This, and House of Silk are worth multiple reads. (And it’s a nice thing to pass driving time, reading it to one’s spouse.)
Memories
Well done.