Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 352
Released On: 12/09/2024
Can you solve the mystery before the greatest detective of all time?
Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend, Dr John Watson, have been hired by actor George Reynolds. George wants them to find out why the audience who comes to see him perform every night are the same people, only wearing disguises. Is something sinister going on and, if so, what?
Meanwhile, Holmes’ archenemy, Professor James Moriarty is having problems of his own. Implicated in the murder of a gang leader, Moriarty and his second, Moran, must go on the run from the police in order to find out who is behind the set-up.
But their investigation puts them in the way of Holmes and Watson and it’s not long before all four realise that they are being targeted by the same person. With lives on the line, not just their own, they must form an uneasy alliance in order to unmask the true villain. With clues leading them to a hotel in Switzerland and a conspiracy far greater than any of them expected, who can be trusted and will any of them survive?
*****
Thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for my copy of Holmes and Moriarty in return for an honest review and spot on the book tour.
I mean, who didn’t love Gareth’s previous book, The Turnglass? It was so unique and fabulously executed and I’m thrilled that there’s a new offering so soon after. And it’s a version of Sherlock, which is even better!
I can be a bit dubious about rewrites or adaptations, whether they’re needed to whether the true identity of the story can be recreated. But Gareth has authorisation from Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate which can only mean it’s something that Doyle himself would be proud of.
I can’t boast about reading many original Holmes books. To my shame it’s something I have always intended to do but have never got round to it, but I have caught snippets of them and, like the majority of the UK, was enraptured by the BBC version, and it was this Sherlock Holmes I read in this book. It is very wall written that I think, in a bizarre way so stay with me on this, is that no matter what your background in Holmes is, whoever you picture as them, this will slot straight in. It just has this universality about it which I think will please both traditionalists and newbies.
But I must say, I’m actually quite glad I hadn’t read any original Holmes because I think with a classic like that, it’s very difficult and almost impossible to match up to it so no matter how good it is, it will probably always be inferior. But this way I got to read Gareth’s take on it without any interfering factors.
I love that he’s kept the tradition of telling the story through John Watson’s POV. It gives us both an insider and outsider view of the goings-on and he’s really found and kept his voice.
I’m going to slightly contradict that last statement here though. We do get the POV from Watson but alternate chapters are in the voice of Moriarty’s right-hand man, Moran. I would have preferred a bit more clarity, a name at the start of the chapter so I know whose POV I’m in at that moment, but I’m aware this is a proof copy and this may well be in the finished copy, but I had to get halfway through the chapter at times to realise who it is speaking. And here is the contradictory bit…I liked that it was from Watson and Moran’s POV, but because it’s called “Holmes and Moriarty” I did think we would get POVs from those two, instead of their sidekicks, as it were. It would have taken what we love about the traditional books, but added a slight difference.
I did really enjoy it but there were times where I wondered if the plot was a bit of an overreach, as you had to suspend belief quite a bit. Having said that, if you take Sherlock Holmes in context, I think you have to do that in most of his stories, and whilst that could be a negative, I think it works here because it adds to this fantastical mystery element that we get from traditional whodunnits.
What I really enjoyed was this relationship between Holmes and Moriarty. We’re so used to them being poles apart, and whilst they’re not friends in this (I don’t think that’s much of a spoiler), it was fascinating to see how differently they work off each other instead of against each other.
Whilst I liked all of it, I found myself enjoying it more and more the more it went on and I got stuck in. For a book over 350 pages long, it sped by. For all it’s complexities and layers, it’s a very easy read and I finished it within 24 hours. Every time I put it down, I kept thinking about it and had to pick it up again.
I do wonder if he’ll continue to write books in this vein, have a new series of Holmes books, or if this was a one time thing. But personally, I do hope there’s more to come from Gareth’s Sherlock Holmes.
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