Book Review | Rating – 4/5 stars | Genre – Mystery
Like many of the books I own, this book was given to me as a present from a dear friend of mine for one of my birthdays. Apparently I had read this before, having seen the rating on goodreads when I went to submit it. However, I’m having issues remembering reading the book before, or even knowing what would happen. Which did bode well while reading it through this time round…
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 . . . (see more here)
What did I think?
As I said in the opening, I had already read this book at one point before, however, I couldn’t ever remember that experience or even any specific part of the book. This lapse in my memory helped in reading the book through this time round, with the twists and turns of the book coming across perfectly natural and as surprising as Anthony Horowitz would’ve expected.
Ignoring my inability to remember the first reading experience, I did thoroughly enjoy reading the book this time round. It took a couple chapters to get fully invested, but I soon found myself really invested in the adventure, seeing interesting parallels between these characters and Holmes and Watson.
I was also happily satisfied by the twists and turns of the book, finding myself able to be surprised by some of the more shocking moments in the book. If anything it made me want to actually look at tackling the Sherlock Holmes book I’ve been putting of reading for a while.
Three reasons to read Moriarty…
- Fast-paced action: As expected from a Sherlock Holmes book, the plot steadily unfolds, revealing more of the main mystery as it goes on. However, this doesn’t stop the book from exploring more action packed, intense moments that happen to the characters. It was a great addition of energy that spurred me on to continue reading.
- Classic story with a modern twist: I’ve never been entirely interested in “period” stories, preferring more modern settings. However, Horowitz created a story, set in the victorian period, that still kept me invested in the story without boring me with the less modern world.
- Interesting take on Holmes/Watson dynamic: One of the more interesting aspects of this book, was that Holmes and Watson weren’t in the book. At first I was panicked that it wouldn’t work, but it was great to see how the two main characters were inspired by them, and even sought to replicate their methods in order to solve the mystery.
At the end of the day…
I did really enjoy reading this book, i’m also kind of gutted that I can’t remember my original experience reading the book. However, this meant I was able to have a second reading without immediately knowing everything that was going to happen.
It was a wonderful adaption of the typical Sherlock Holmes adventure, without simply lifting the characters and placing them in another story. I did avoid giving the book a full 5 stars simply because one of the main surprises became fairly obvious the closer it got to being announced, yet it wasn’t fully ruined by the continuation of the story afterwards. I would thoroughly recommend this book.
The Next Big Opinion 
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