MoriartyOrion Publishing in 2014
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Adventure, Action
Picture the Reichenbach falls. NO, not the fall, not Benedict Cumberbatch plunging into the street! The falls, the real place. There you go. Now think Sherlock. NO! Not Benedict Cumberbatch! The one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. Sherlock and Moriarty are at the falls and have just taken their relative plunges. Ok, are you with me? Are we on the same page? Good, this is where this novel starts. Here we are introduced to Pinkerton’s detective Frederick Chase who has just arrived from New York and wishes to see the body of Professor James Moriarty. He thinks there is a clue on Moriarty’s body that will lead him to a New York gang. Detective Chase knows that this gang of criminals have come from New York to London in hopes to join forces with the criminal mastermind Moriarty. Facilitating in this investigation is Scotland Yard’s Inspector Atheleny Jones. We follow these men through London in a chase filled with murder to catch this gang terrorizing London. The game is afoot…
At the beginning of this novel I was wary, I had lots of ideas on what was going on, but was quickly sucked into this well written, and well-paced book. Now I’m a pretty seasoned reader. I am NOT blindsided very often, I can see most endings coming and do not feel I can be shocked easily. Let me tell you what happened when I got to the end. Being an avid reader, I read everywhere, I was on the bus, on my way home (on a very crowded bus mind you) and when the boom hit I said “HOLY S***” I will not lie, the person sitting next to me turned a bit and stared at me. I didn’t even care. I was just too surprised. This should be all I have to tell you about this one.
It was excellent. If you have read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s originals you will really enjoy this novel. If you haven’t, you will still enjoy it. This novel did not feel like it was piggy backing off of the originals, it felt like an extension. It was just another side of the story that we never knew. While reading this novel I was thinking the whole time, what is going on here? I can feel a presence following Chase and Jones but who? Where? And how does he know? I love how Horowitz has placed a few red herrings out there for us to pick up. I gobbled them up readily. I raced to the end of the novel and it was worth it.
The only thing I didn’t like was that the end felt a little bit rushed. But, if I am being totally honest here it could just be that it ended and I wasn’t ready to let go yet
My Verdict: Read it!
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What did
you think of this book? Did you feel it fit in with the other Sherlock stories?
Did you read the originals? Are there any books that shocked you with their
plot twists?
If you liked Moriarty you should try:
The Yard
