In THE HOUSE OF SILK, Anthony Horowitz writes a story that Conan Doyle could never have written, and has added all the details that Doyle left out of his original stories.
Like most writers of his time, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was very comfortable writing about the aristocracy. He relished setting his most famous stories, like the Hound of the Baskervilles, in gorgeous country homes. He enjoyed writing about people who were schooled to be polite and genteel: the ladies and gentlemen of polite society.
And there he left things. He never delved deeper. Never examined what those aristocratic men actually got up to when out and about in a huge city with all of its crawling tentacles of temptation. He also never examined the lives of the people who served the rich, all those men and women from poor families who had ill relatives to care for, and who worked so hard for not much pay.
Enter Anthony Horowitz who has updated Conan Doyle to include detailed descriptions of the crushing poverty of most of those who inhabited London, especially the children. Mr. Horowitz recreates a forgotten world in which there were too many children in threadbare rags milling about the sour corners of a great city. Children who were orphaned. Children who ran away. Children who were thrown onto the mercy of the streets. All of these children were little people whom the rich chose to ignore and forget. And yet the rich men, strolling the streets in their starched collars, well-pressed trousers, leather shoes, silken top hats, cloaks and canes would often use them to play gopher, pressing a (small) coin into a grimy hand any time they needed to get a message to someone.
It was bad enough that these children lived in vermin-ridden unsanitary conditions, that they were vulnerable to wasting away from cholera, tuberculosis or typhoid. But what was so much worse was the way in which they were victimized by adults.
This is not an easy book to read. But if you want something that provides more depth to the Sherlock Holmes stories, this book is for you. It is a terrific read by a brilliant writer. Five Stars.
