House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (2011)

I have not read too many Sherlock Holmes books, though I have appreciated his observant ways and amazing deductions from seemingly insignificant clues. (I read more Agatha Christie in my day.)  I don't know enough about the mystery genre as a whole, but I assume Holmes or rather Doyle started a trend in clues based mysteries. My understanding is that Anthony Horowitz is the first author given permission by Conan Doyle's estate to write a new Sherlock Holmes book. It is narrated in by Dr. Watson after Holmes' death.

Holmes and Watson are visited by an art dealer Edmund Carstairs, who is being stalked by someone that he believes is from America and associated with destruction of valuable paintings and a murder. As Holmes and Watson start investigating, various people are killed, including two young children. Holmes is accused of the murder of one of them and actually spends some time in jail. The story eventually leads to the dark crimes of the House of Silk, and Holmes of course unravels it all in the end. There are quite a lot of villains in this story, and I was suspicious of one of the key people, but could not imagine how that person was going to get tied into the seemingly disparate crimes.

It took a while to get me really involved in the story, but it was interesting how Horowitz was able to maintain the late 19th century flavor - where are travel occurred in horse drawn carriages, communication by telegrams, no DNA or ballistics testing, no forensic science so prominent in today's TV shows.