Where the Underworld Meets the Upper Crust

The House of Silk [by] Anthony Horowitz

New York; Little, Brown [2011]

978-0-316-19699-4; $27.99

It’s always a little awe-inspiring to take on a “new” Sherlock Holmes mystery.  Will it live up to the ones by the Master, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or will they fall flat, having totally missed on all counts?  Well, this one comes with a mark of approval “Sherlock Holmes – Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.” It darn well better be good!  And it is!

It purports to be the last tale, written when Watson is visiting Holmes, while his wife is away nursing a sick child.  Because of the far-reaching consequences of this story, he has had it locked away for 100 years, and it has only now come to light.

As with all Sherlockian tales, a visitor comes to 221B Baker Street. In this case it is a fine arts dealer who is being menaced by a man in a flat cap – a member of an American gang – the sole survivor, actually, of the Flat Cap Society.  These people have caused the loss of a quartet of Constables being transported from the gallery in London to their American destination.  There is a shootout and of of the Irish twins leading the gang is killed.  The other survives and is the person the dealer has seen , and who, later, breaks into his house, stealing money and jewelry.   Holmes and Watson visit the man’s estate, meeting his new American wife, his invalid sister, and a collection of servants.  One of the pieces of jewelry is quite unique, and Holmes unleashes his group of street kids, the Baker Street Irregulars, to see if they can find it.

What they actually do find is the man they are looking for.  The acknowledged head of the Irregulars comes to find Holmes, leaving one of the other boys, a boy named Ross, to watch in the alley.  When they arrive, with the art dealer in tow, the watcher becomes very frightened, but they do not notice, since they are trying to find the culprit. And they do.  He is dead, and the room is ransacked. When they go back to find Ross, he has disappeared.

In an attempt to find him, they go to the Chorley School for Boys, a rather strict school run by a clergyman and his wife for the Society for the Improvement of London’s Children.  They find the place uncomfortable, without being able to exactly put their fingers upon it, but they do learn that Ross has a sister, Sally, who works at a pub called The Bag of Nails.  They discover that there are two such places in London, and they want the one in Lambeth. They find her there, and she asks them if they are from the House of Silk.  They say no, and that they are Ross’ friends, but she strikes out at Watson, injuring him, and runs away.

Several times the detecting pair cross paths with Insp. Lestrade.  He asks them to come along to one of London's bridges, where the body or Ross has been discovered.  He has been methodically bludgeoned to death -- tortured. Around his wrist is a brand-new piece of white silk ribbon.

Holmes and Watson look for answers to why this beating happened and they come upon a pawnbroker who had done business with Ross.  They buy a watch with a family crest on it, which they find is the crest of the Ravenshaw Family.  They take the watch to the current Lord, who looks down his nose at them, and throws them out when they ask about the House of Silk, presumably the source of the piece of ribbon.  They continue to look for this House, raising people's hackles on the way.  Even Holmes' brother Mycroft, who has lots of irons in many fires, does not know about the House, and does not like it when he is warned off by someone in a very high place.

Someone suggests that they might find the House by way of an opium den.  Holmes goes in and is overcome by a number of thugs.  He is then set up as a murderer.  He has a gun in his hand and Ross' sister Sally has a bullet in her breast.  Holmes is taken to prison.  Watson turns to Lestrade for help, for the man in charge of the case, Insp. Harriman, seems to be incapable of hearing reason. 

Things move very fast, then.  Holmes gets out of prison by the clever means he has used before, and they ultimately find the House of Silk, which is a huge place of scandal and unlawfulness, with wide-reaching ramifications for many gentlemen in government, business, the church, and elsewhere.  As they strip off the layers of secrecy, they discover that many people are not what they seem -- even places they've visited are not what they seem, and that there are many little felonies along the way.  Not everyone gets their comeuppance, but enough do to make things just for those of us who are reading, but one is reminded that corruption has happened at every time in history, and the latter years of Victoria's reign were no exception.

The piece rings true from beginning to end.  The Estate picked a great work to support.  Highly recommended.
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Library book.



Death is Sneaky



Death comes Silently [by] Carolyn Hart

New York; Berkley Prime Crime [2012]

978-0-425-24570-5; $24.95

The book opens with a series of vignettes about various inhabitants of Broward’s Rock, one of South Carolina’s Channel Islands, and the home of one of the best mystery bookstores on the East Coast, Death on Demand, run by our heroine, Annie Laurence Darling.  Annie, it seems, is one of the few denizens of the Rock who doesn’t want Everett Hathaway dead.  All of his family did, and many of the people with whom he did business with also did. So it is not surprising that we learn that Everett was dead.  However, it seems that his death was an accident – his kayak capsized, throwing him into terribly cold waters on the 30^th of December.  He died of hypothermia and drowning.

Annie has asked Gretchen Burkholt to take her volunteer hours at Better Tomorrow, the Island charity shop and food bank, so that she could hostess an author brunch at her store.  Gretchen calls her to tell her that she is afraid of Jeremiah, the young ex-con who is chopping wood outside.  Annie blows her off, knowing that Gretchen tends to dramatize things.  Jeremiah isn’t really dangerous; after all, her friend Henny is giving him a second chance, which is what Better Tomorrow is all about.  When Gretchen calls again, she says she’s found a card in one of the pockets of the jacket that Everett wore on his last outing.  It explains why he was out on the water – it’s scandalous, she says, because it names names.  There’s also a little change and a pocket knife with it, all in a little pile on the storeroom table.  She says she’s called the Hathaway house to tell them of her find.

Annie goes over to the Better Tomorrow site.  Jeremiah isn’t around.  She calls for Gretchen, but she isn’t around either.  She goes into the storeroom to find Gretchen, dead on the floor in a pool of blood, with blood everywhere, as well as the axe Jeremiah has been using to chop the wood.  Annie calls the police, who come and check everything out, then put out an APB for Jeremiah, armed and dangerous.

The next day, Annie drops by Henny’s secluded home, where, unbeknownst to either of the others, she sees Henny and Jeremiah loading Henny’s boat, and then Henny taking Jeremiah to a secluded off-island tree-covered hammock, where he will camp while the APB is on.  Annie doesn’t tell Henny, when she sees her again, but Henny, Annie, Max, and the author, Emma Clyde, set out to find out what really happened when Gretchen was at the Better Tomorrow office.  They know that Jeremiah was not involved, he came into the storeroom from the back shed, where he’d been repairing some things, saw the blood, the axe, which he had used earlier, and Gretchen’s dead body, and he skedaddled on his bike, knowing he’d be blamed.  He heard no car and knows nothing else.

The “Faithful Five” continue to ask questions of all of the players, as well as most of the on-lookers (some of whom didn’t know they were onlookers), thus rattling a few cages.  When Henny returns to her home, she gets out of her car, and someone begins to shoot at her, breaking her car window.  A voice rings out, saying “I’m coming.  I’m on my way.”  Instead of heading towards her lighted home, she runs towards the darkened woods.  The shooter gets off 5 shots, and then all is quiet.  Soon the police arrive.  Jeremiah, still on the hammock, hears the gunshots, and knows that Henny is the target, so he yells and thumps some logs, as if he were running to the rescue.  Henny is found, and the cops go to get Jeremiah.  They know that he was trying to help Henny, and it is unlikely that he was involved.  He is sent home to his aunt, who is delighted he’s unharmed, and not guilty.  Henny is taken to the hospital, with Annie riding with her.

Max gives the Police Chief, Billy Cameron, the notes they’ve written up on their case about who killed Everett, and the Chief thinks it makes sense, and gives him a lot to go on.  One of their biggest tips is that the housekeeper at the Hathaway house is in danger.  When Sgt. Harrison gets there, she discovers the housekeeper is also dead – 5 shots.

The next day the pompous Mayor is having a press conference, having suspended the Chief.  Jeremiah has been taken into custody, and the local plumber has been appointed Police Chief pro tem.  Anything about Everett’s murder has been shoved aside as not being relevant.

But the “Faithful Five” prevails, turning the tables on the Mayor, getting the Police Chief reinstated, the miscreant behind bars, and Jeremiah once again freed.  Annie, once again, has put herself in danger, but for a greater cause.

This is the 22^d in the  series, and, if you’ve kept up with the series, as I have, it feels so comfortable coming home to Broward’s Rock and the people who live there. There are nice cozy moments, and there are some logic steps taken by the sleuthing crew, as well as the cops. It’s a splendid blend into a cozy police procedural.  Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Library book.

Fin de Siècle Derring-Do

Dorchester Terrace [by] Anne Perry

New York; Ballantine Books [2012]                                                                                                        978-0-345-5102-4; $26.00

Many people believe that Thomas Pitt has been promoted beyond his capabilities when he was appointed to the head of England’s Special Branch. He can often tell when this  sentiment is being considered, and it leads him to painful moments of self-doubt.  Rumours have reached him of the plot to blow up a train bringing Austrian Duke Alois Habsburg to visit his British kin.  Is there some deeper significance to this obscure royal, or is this an attempt to draw Special Branch away from something even more devastating?

Meanwhile, in a bedroom on Dorchester Terrace in London, an elderly Italian woman, a former spy and adventuress, is sinking into dementia, terrified that she will reveal secrets that will get someone killed.  She calls to another former spy, Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould, related to Pitt’s wife Charlotte, for help.  Both Lady Vespasia and Charlotte come to her aid, and are appalled at her condition, but, when she dies, they are not convinced that it was because of natural causes.

Meanwhile, Pitt has turned to his friend, the former head of Special branch, Victor Narraway, as well as Evan Blanktyre, a British diplomat with interests in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  His wife Adrianna is Croatian. Pitt becomes more and more infuriated by the man who should be the most helpful to him, a minister in the Foreign Office named Thomas, Lord Tregarron.  Tregarron is Jack Radley’s new boss, and Jack Radley is married to Emily, Charlotte’s sister.  Pitt and Radley are at loggerheads many times, driving a bit of a wedge between the sisters, which means they must make up.  Strife in the Pitt household during this difficult time puts even more pressure on Pitt.

Soon after the death of Adrianna Blantyre, Pitt starts to put it all together.  Adrianna’s father was a martyr to the Croatian cause, betrayed by a friend.  If only he can put his finger on the friend – or the son of the friend…

When the disaster comes to a head, with a shooting on the train, one of the Duke’s friends is killed and Pitt goes after the shooter. He tries to negotiate with him, takes his horse, and heads for London, where there is a showdown with another enemy in a men’s room!  Nobody had expected Pitt to shoot down someone in cold blood, but, as Duke Alois has pointed out earlier to Pitt, when he says he’s not a gentleman, it is pointed out that, because his father was a gamekeeper, he has a servant’s sense of honor.  And most of the murder and mayhem have happened on his patch!

Anne Perry is very adept at creating the mood of the times, including the importance of fin de siècle Austria and the fire of mid-century revolution, as well as the beautiful balls, with exquisite clothing, food, and ambience. Very highly recommended. ~ lss-r