Moriarty / Horowitz, Anthony

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, December 2014: Like a caretaker who’s been given the keys to the castle, Anthony Horowitz has been entrusted with the legend and legacy of one of fiction’s greatest characters, Sherlock Holmes. The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle endorsed Horowitz’s 2011 thriller The House of Silk, which was the first new Holmes novel in more than a century. In Moriarty, Horowitz explores trickier, uncharted territory: carrying forward the world of Holmes, without Holmes. Moriarty begins where Conan Doyle left off: with Holmes and his evil nemesis, Professor James Moriarty, having tussled right off the edge of Reichenbach Falls. The action begins when Pinkerton detective Frederick Chase and Scotland Yard inspector Athelney Jones meet in a Swiss village days after Holmes and Moriarty have disappeared. The two collaborate in their search for the ruthless Clarence Devereaux, a depraved criminal mastermind seeking to fill the void left by Moriarty’s drowning. But, as with all good Holmes tales, things are not always what they seem. Horowitz proves himself a worthy successor, packing this violent, energized tale with foot chases through Victorian London, clever disguises, encoded messages, feints and fakes, plus buckets of blood and a platter of red herrings. Horowitz’s fresh take on the legend of Sherlock Holmes pays homage to the original while infusing it with his own slick and twisty style. No surprise he’s been tapped to write about James Bond next. --Neal Thompson