Moriarty
Author(s): Anthony Horowitz
What really happened when Holmes and his arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty, met at the Reichenbach Falls?
Internationally bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s nail-biting new novel plunges us back into the dark and complex world of Detective Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty—dubbed “the Napoleon of crime”—in the aftermath of their fateful struggle at the Reichenbach Falls.
Days after Holmes and Moriarty disappear into the waterfall’s churning depths, Frederick Chase, a senior investigator at New York’s infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency, arrives in Switzerland. Chase brings with him a dire warning: Moriarty’s death has left a convenient vacancy in London’s criminal underworld. There is no shortage of candidates to take his place—including one particularly fiendish criminal mastermind.
Chase is assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones, a Scotland Yard detective and devoted student of Holmes’s methods of deduction, whom Conan Doyle introduced in The Sign of Four. The two men join forces and fight their way through the sinuous streets of Victorian London—from the elegant squares of Mayfair to the shadowy wharfs and alleyways of the 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.
Riveting and deeply atmospheric, Moriarty is the first Sherlock Holmes novel sanctioned by the author’s estate since Horowitz’s The House of Silk. This tale of murder and menace breathes life into Holmes’s fascinating world, again proving that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Review(s):
“An altogether terrific period thriller and one of the best Sherlockian pastiches of our time.”
“Anything but elementary, this clever thriller is sure to please.”
“Infernally clever.”
“There are secret codes to crack, plenty of puzzles to solve. . . . [Horowitz’s] evocative writing easily transports you to Victorian London, from fancy villas and foreign embassies to slummier mean streets.”
“A tour de force. . . . Enthralling.”
“The House of Silk was very popular and a solid piece of work—well constructed, skilfully executed and persuasively tinged with that alluring sooty flavour of 1890s London. His second, Moriarty, is much the same, but bolder in its ambitions.”
“Thrilling and compelling, with a stunning twist, this is written as if Conan Doyle were at Horowitz’s shoulder, and is-in my view-the finest crime novel of the year.”
“Is there nothing Anthony Horowitz touches that doesn’t turn to gold? . . . . He captures Conan Doyle’s narrative technique to perfection. Gory murders, honest thieves, brilliant disguises, breathless chases and red herrings abound.”
“A relentlessly fast-paced and entertaining read.”
“Though Horowitz dishes up the gore and violence with relish, he also offers all the tropes one might expect from a Holmes yarn, including baffling coded messages, impossible murders and clever red herrings.”
ISBN: 9781443439978