The House of Silk

By: Anthony Horowitz

Narrated by: Sir Derek Jacobi

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

THE GAME'S AFOOT... 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 by the man's tale, 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. As the pair delve deeper into the case, they stumble across a whispered phrase 'the House of Silk': a mysterious entity and foe more deadly than any Holmes has encountered, and a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society itself. With devilish plotting and excellent characterisation, bestselling author Anthony Horowitz delivers a first-rate Sherlock Holmes mystery for a modern readership whilst remaining utterly true to the spirit of the original Conan Doyle books. Sherlock Holmes is back with all the nuance, pace and powers of deduction that make him the world's greatest and most celebrated detective.

©2011 Anthony Horowitz (P)2011 Orion Publishing Group Ltd

Taking up the case-load of Holmes and Watson.

Quite a good, respectful, taking up of the case-load of Holmes and Watson.

Anthony Horowitz has a long association with storytelling being creator of Foyle’s War and worked on Midsomer Murders. His dialogue for TV isn’t the usual stuff written only to fill in the time slot requirements.

The style is a nice homage to Conan Doyle; good, clue-rich descriptions sprinkled with completely unhelpful, but interesting background as illustrated by Watson’s introduction to the story.

As Roxalanne, Jodie and Madeleine, and others, have said before me:

Roxalanne: “This tale is rather darker in places than Holmes tales …”
Jodie: “It was very true to Conan Doyle's style … to keep you listening.”
Madeleine: “"Very Much an Homage" …”

The area I had some trouble with was the narration. Although it is nice to hear an English voice doing the characters.

Derek Jacobi reads well, but maybe overuses the emphatic voice when reading dialogue; particularly between Holmes and Watson, which moves Holmes a little too far from the classic, mater of fact delivery. I would have liked to hear a bit of the sotto voice for dramatic effect and variation.

I didn’t feel an excited rush; more sitting around a fire listing to a friend telling a tale; although sometimes it could be more leisurely with more of a gap after a full stop (period). This means when action is to be underlined by rapid reading, it sounds too much like the rest of the narration.

It may be a little difficult for ear-phone listening.

Typical Sherlock Holmes even if not by the origina

If you could sum up The House of Silk in three words, what would they be?

Totally engrossing plots

What was one of the most memorable moments of The House of Silk?

The denouement in the house.

Which character – as performed by Derek Jacobi – was your favorite?

Mycroft Holmes

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Not for the squeamish !

Any additional comments?

Very well written and superbly read.

Very true to the originals

“The house of silk” is very true to the original stories of Sherlock Holmes but makes the characters, especially Holmes, more human. The story is classical, quite melodramatic and keeps you listening. The reading by Derek Jacobi (as Watson) is perfect.

Dr. Watson Channels His Inner Dickens

The conceit of Anthony Horowitz' The House of Silk (2011) is that twenty-five years after Dr. John Watson helped Sherlock Holmes solve two inter-tangled cases, Watson is writing his account of the adventure because it was too shocking to publish in 1890, involving "A conspiracy that . . . encompassed murder, torture, kidnapping, and the perversion of justice." Now because Holmes has recently died and Watson is missing him (longing to join him), he's decided to write about the adventure, despite it still being so sensational and sensitive that he'll have the manuscript secreted away until 100 years have passed--so it feels like a recently discovered Holmes work by "Watson."

The story begins with Holmes astounding Watson with his powers of ratiocination, observation, and deduction by saying without any preamble: "Influenza is unpleasant. . . but you are right in thinking that, with your wife's help, the child will recover soon." No sooner has Holmes explained the "elementary" way in which he "knew" what's been going on in Watson's life than a long-haired Wimbledon art dealer named Edmund Carstairs pays a call. He tells a dramatic story set in America and involving a Boston Brahmin, four landscapes by John Constable, an anachronistic train robbery, and a shoot out between a gang of Irish immigrant hoodlums and a posse of Pinkerton's agents. Carstairs is convinced that one of the surviving Irish gangsters has tracked him down for revenge. After the gangster apparently robs Carstairs' home and good old persevering but not wholly intelligent Inspector Lestrade gets involved, Holmes summons the Baker Street Irregulars and--"The game's afoot!"

Horowitz clearly enjoys channeling Conan Doyle (and Watson) as he moves the story forward, introducing the mysterious and ominous House of Silk, riffing on familiar Holmes-isms (e.g., "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"), and having Watson allude to former "real" cases (e.g., The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Greek Interpreter, The Red-Haired League, etc.) and indulge in suspenseful foreshadowing (e.g., "He had entered a veritable miasma of evil, and harm, in the worst possible way, was to come to us all too soon").

One of the most enjoyable parts of the novel is the deep and abiding friendship between Holmes and Watson. Watson reveals how much Holmes liked him ("Dear old Watson. How good it is to have you at my side") and how much he liked Holmes ("I have to say that I took immense satisfaction in these moments of quiet sociability and felt myself to be one of the luckiest men in London to have shared in the conversation which I have just described and to be walking in such a leisurely manner at the side of so great a personage as Sherlock Holmes"). He expresses their relationship as affectionate and complementary: "Now that I come to think of it, I was as assiduous in my duties as his biographer as he was in the pursuit of his various investigations. Perhaps that was why the two of us got on so well."

Horowitz writes vivid, witty descriptions, like "Lestrade had the sunken eyes and the general demenour of a rat who has been obliged to dress up for lunch at the Savoy," and "What a place of broken promises and lost hopes the pawn broker proved to be. Every class, every profession, every walk of life was represented in its grubby windows, the detritus of so many lives pinned like butterflies behind the glass."

He also somewhat updates Conan Doyle. A minor example concerns Mrs. Hudson, in a passage that serves as a mild rebuke of Conan Doyle for never having done much with her, so that Watson confesses that he doesn't know how she came to run her house, what happened to her husband, and so on: "I wish I had conversed with her a little more often and taken her for granted a little less." The most important example is the exploitation of street kids, from which not even Holmes is innocent, and gives the novel thematic depth. Watson has a Dickensian social conscience. He is concerned by and ashamed of the plight of London street children ("Childhood is the first precious coin that poverty steals from a child"), feels uncomfortable amid the "wealth and privilege" of a British Lord's baronial hall, and notes that most of the cases solved by Holmes concerned the well-to-do.

There are some less impressive parts of the novel that may be flaws for some readers.

**My kvetches contain enigmatic, mild spoilers, so if you haven't read the book, you should maybe skip the next paragraph.**

First, I doubt Moriarty is necessary to this book, and suspect Horowitz of introducing him only to prepare the way a sequel. Second, there is an excrescent and absurd carriage chase scene in the climax that is unworthy of Conan Doyle. Third, I was able to guess the identity of Keelan O'Donaghue too early.

Derek Jacobi is a great actor and a stellar reader of audiobooks. Here he is just right. Without changing his voice drastically for male or female or young or old people (though he dons cockney, Irish, or American accents for a few characters), he reads everything with spot on emotion, understanding, pace, and emphasis, and engagingly brings the book to life.

Feeling that the original Holmes stories are mostly fine and sufficient, I have only read a few of the many pastiche Holmes novels, but I did find The House of Silk to most consistently channel Watson's voice and Conan Doyle's vision. Lyndsay Faye's Dust and Shadow (2009), for instance, which intriguingly pits Holmes and Watson against Jack the Ripper, loses hold of Watson's voice ("me and Holmes") and Holmes' persona (he breaks a man's nose in a fit of pique) and lets me figure out the occupation of the killer before Watson and Holmes do. Horowitz' novel really seems to add to the Conan Doyle canon. Fans of Sherlock Holmes and of Sherlock Holmes pastiches would probably like The House of Silk a lot.

not suitable for under 16yrs

Would you listen to The House of Silk again? Why?

no

If you’ve listened to books by Anthony Horowitz before, how does this one compare?

well

What does Derek Jacobi bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

yes very well

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

yes a death of a character

Any additional comments?

the content is not suitable for the young

The reviews are right: This is Holmes Heaven!

Hats off to an excellent narrator, the story itself is wonderfully constructed, I would completely have believed that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself had penned this one. Fantastic!

Modern voice for a well-loved charactwr

What did you love best about The House of Silk?

Compelling story on an important global issue. Horowitz uses a modern voice with all the twist and turns of a suspenseful "on the edge of your seat" thriller.

What did you like best about this story?

Derek Jacobi is an excellent narrator who brings to life Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Which scene was your favorite?

The start of the story as it includes Watson reminiscing on Holmes and it reveals various interesting tidbits which fills in the gap on what happened to both of those main characters as they got on with the years. The chase scene towards the climax was action-filled & hilarious.

Any additional comments?

Well worth the time and credit spent listening to this wonderful story & talented narration by Derek Jacobi. Anthony Horowitz does justice to Arthur Conan Doyle's characters whilst tackling an important global issue.

Amazing

I'm so pleased with this audiobook. The narrator did a wonderful job even though I had a hard time understanding what he was saying at the beginning. The story is perfect.

Recommended as a welcome return

What a pleasure to have a new Sherlock Holmes adventure to enjoy, written in the true Conan Doyle style and as complicated and enthralling as usual.

This tale is rather darker in places than Holmes tales with which we are familiar. Nowadays some subjects can be addressed which Conan Doyle, in his time, could not mention although he would not have been unaware. This is perfectly acceptable and it is only fitting that the genre can be updated in this way, but it may seem strange to modern readers who do not realise the innocent ignorance of so many in the Victorian era.

It is good to have such a distinguished narrator as Derek Jacobi, a pleasure to hear and who even managed to make Holmes a fraction more likeable. At least Holmes seemed to be a little kinder to Watson, a change long overdue.








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Captures the essence of Sherlock Holmes adventures

Loved the story and the story is set in the same pinnacle of age and mystery , like we remember of his earlier adventures.