"Barefoot in Baker Street" by Charlotte Anne Walters

 

Publisher: MX Publishing

Copyright: 2011

ISBN: 9781780920139

Barefoot on Baker Street tells the story of a young girl by the name of Red who escapes from a London workhouse at 13. She is forced into a life of crime as a means of survival. The story follows her life journey, and is written as a memoir that is found a number of years after she dies.

The story takes place at the same time as the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories, and includes events from a number of the publish canon. Including "The Blue Carbuncle", "The Empty House", "The Sign of Four", "The Final Solution",  "The Man with the Twisted Lip", and glimpses of a number of others.

I found it be an enjoyable read, and one that I think fills in a lot of the backstory to Sherlock Holmes that has never been mentioned (to the best of my knowledge) but is very much in tune with what I believe Conan Doyle would've written.

I found Ms. Walters' Moriarity to be quite interesting, and unlike what a number of other writers have done by portraying him as essentially a sociopath or worse. Her portrayal of him as an autistic savant I found to be very interesting and believable. We also learned a great deal about Dr. John Watson, and his private life that I believe once again Conan Doyle would approve of.

Highly recommended, but it can be rather hard to find.

"The House of Silk" by Anthony Horowitz

Publisher:New York : Mulholland Books, 2011.
Edition:First edition.
ISBN:9780316196994
Characteristics: 294 pages ;,25 cm

"The House of Silk" is a wonderful novel, that brings the world's most loved detective back to life. The author Anthony Horowitz is most famous for his Alex Rider series (which I have not read), but he easily manages to capture the style of writing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle very well.

The story is set a few years before Holmes dies, and it is explained in the Preface that the story is so sensational that Dr. Watson was obliged to require his heirs not to publish the story until 100 years after his death. This in itself should intrigue any Holmes fan, and does indeed set the stage for a truly monstrous tale.

If found the novel to be very well written, and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

When I was done I was curious as to whether it was a one-off novel, or whether Mr. Horowitz had written any others about Holmes. I found that he did write another back in 2014 entitle "Moriarty" which I had read a few years ago before I started this blog in its current form. Unfortunately I was not impressed with this book due to the way the character of Moriarty was portrayed which I believed then (and still do today) makes him into a sadistic murdering psychopath rather than the criminal mastermind that he is portrayed as in all the other books.

I do however highly recommend House of Silk, and hope that Mr. Horowitz continues to write further Sherlock Holmes novels.