Moriarty

by Anthony Horowitz

Sherlock Holmes is dead.

Days after Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarty fall to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase arrives from New York. The death of Moriarty has created a poisonous vacuum which has been swiftly filled by a fiendish new criminal mastermind. Ably assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones, a devoted student of Holmes's methods of investigation and deduction, Chase must hunt down this shadowy figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, a man determined to engulf London in a tide of murder and menace.

The game is afoot . . .

• ISBN10: 1409129519
• ISBN13: 9781409129516
• Publish Date: 5 November 2015 (first published 23 October 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
• Imprint: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[sharliy]

I picked this up on a train to Paris over 5 years ago. I started it but did not get a chance to finish it until now.

The beginning of book really did draw you in and got your mind thinking, however I felt the ending of the book was a bit of a let down and didn't really fill what my mind had imagined.

[jamiereadthis]

By chapter three, I was annoyed with all the telling, not showing, so I skipped to the end to see if the twist I guessed in chapter one was correct. It was. Even more annoyed, I skimmed a few pages, then I just couldn’t do it and I bailed on the book.

Sometimes fact is just better than fiction. This is one of those times.

[Rinn]

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher as part of a blog tour. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

This review is part of the TLC Book Tours tour for Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz.

I’m not really one for blog tours nowadays – or rather, I’m very picky about which books I go for. However, having read Anthony Horowitz’ first Sherlock Holmes reboot, House of Silk, I knew I would be more than happy to join the tour for its sequel, Moriarty.

As with House of Silk, Horowitz immediately captures the spirit and style of Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing, and honestly if I was given a sample of writing from the two of them, I’d be hard pressed to tell them apart. Therefore these books fit seamlessly into the Sherlock Holmes universe, and I really do believe that Anthony Horowitz was the perfect choice to take on this big task. His Victorian London is dark and atmospheric, and it’s easy to imagine Holmes and Watson solving crime there. It was also interesting to meet a character so similar to Sherlock – or rather, a man so obsessed with him that he had begun to mimic Sherlock’s ways and techniques.

Unfortunately, despite the fantastic writing, I wasn’t hugely drawn in by the story. House of Silk kept me reading, turning pages and following the mystery, but I just wasn’t quite as interested in Moriarty. I felt the ending was a little predictable, although I have to admit it wasn’t until about half way through that I worked it out – I had someone else in mind for the first fifty percent or so.

Overall, a good addition to the Sherlock Holmes universe, and I stand by my word when I say they could not have picked anyone better than Anthony Horowitz to carry on writing about Holmes. Not quite as enjoyable as House of Silk for me personally, but a fun mystery novel nonetheless, with a wonderful cover to boot.

[celinenyx]

I'm a huge self-proclaimed fan of anything Sherlock. Recently I've started dabbling in the original works by Arthur Conan Doyle, while simultaneously gorging myself on the BBC adaptation of Sherlock - and this book by Anthony Horowitz, the second of his Sherlock Holmes books.

After Moriarty and Sherlock face off and disappear in Switzerland, Frederick Chase, a private detective from New York, teams up with Athelney Jones, a detective of Scotland Yard and a severe Sherlock fanboy, to discover what happened and to stop the recent invasion of the London crime scene.

For a book in a series about Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty sure does feature very little actual Holmes. As a character he never makes an appearance, and the sad little substitute we get is Jones, who loves everything Sherlock but sucks in actually bringing it into practice. I had a hard time loving the book when the characters I love so dearly - Holmes and Watson - are completely absent. Chase and Jones at no point have the fantastic chemistry that Holmes and Watson have, nor are they as interesting as the enigma Sherlock Holmes.

The mystery itself was pretty thin. At first there barely is a mystery, and even less motivation of our main characters to spend any time of it. Some high-up mobster from the States has decided to make London his home, and he is somehow linked to the incident at the Reichenbach falls. However, it takes ages for the plot to gain any steam or sense of urgency. There was no necessity, and the mystery on a whole felt soulless and flat.

Horowitz is a fantastic writer, and he has a way with words that's both natural and engaging. I didn't feel like Moriarty showed his writing off to its full potential. His writing in The House of Silk, his first Sherlock Holmes book, felt more dynamic.

Since I haven't read all of the original Sherlock Holmes books yet, I can't fully judge how Moriarty ties in with them. Moriarty seems to be set within the boundaries and stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, maybe showing a different side of the story, or filling the voids in between books. The meta-storytelling is admirable, especially when Chase sets out to improve on Watson's writings. Although the ending of Moriarty was well done, on a whole the book left me rather cold.