You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes himself to know that Arthur Conan Doyle grew to dislike his creation - it’s written there in his stories for all to see. But in case your observational skills are at the level of Lestrade’s, Conan Doyle made it plain and clear by killing off Sherlock in The Final Problem. Frankly, The Final Problem was a somewhat unsatisfying story, which included a death not befitting that of the world’s greatest detective. Moriarty is set immediately after the events of Reichenbach Falls and is scattered with enough clues to make a second read just as fun (‘how did I miss that?’). It also contains a bonus new Sherlock Holmes short story at the very end.

Our narrator is American investigator, Frederick Chase, who is exploring a possible link between New York crime lord, Clarence Devereux, and Professor Moriarty. The story starts with Chase at Reichenbach Falls, trying to convince the Swiss police to allow him to inspect the recently discovered body of Moriarty, when a rather observant Scotland Yard Inspector, Athelney Jones steps in to help. The discovery of a note on the corpse leads to the theory that Devereux intends to take over Moriarty’s web of crime and the two to team up and do their best to fill the gap the great Holmes has left, and save London.

As I said in my review for Horowitz’s first Sherlock novel, The House of Silk, Horowitz captures the voice and tone of the originals perfectly. But he does more than that. He seamlessly plugs careless holes left by Conan Doyle, fleshes out secondary characters beautifully, and goes into the effects some of Watson’s not-so-kind recollections may have had on those characters. This is a Sherlock story written by someone who clearly loves Sherlock and I can’t recommend it enough.

Dani Solomon