Like most readers, I have spent many wonderful moments traveling with Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson. I lived in the world Conan Doyle created. I have gone back to the books every time I needed a dose of genius.

I have tried reading one of Sherlock Holmes “carry-on” fiction many years ago and was deeply disappointed.  I was actually wondering if I was making a grave mistake reading this book. I am glad to report that I wasn’t disappointed.

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz takes one back to the world of Sherlock Holmes drawing parallels and tracking criminal minds. The book is narrated by Frederick Chase and begins with the world coming to terms with the double death of Sherlock Holmes and his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty.

Frederick Chase of Pinkerton Detective Agency from New York and Athelney Jones from Scotland Yard team up and journey along the alleys and underground world of London tracking Professor Moriarty’s successor.

The similarities between Jones and Holmes is evident and is played upon as a characteristic of the man and Chase as the narrator goes out of his way to stress he is the Dr.Watson to Athelney Jones’s Sherlock.

The book has more gore and blood than an average Doyle and I just couldn’t get over some of the rather horrid scenes described. Great writing by Horowitz. The pace of the book is quite fast, there is so much happening in each chapter that I was actually hoping the book will end much before it actually did. The book didn’t drag on but at times I wondered why Horowitz had to pull so much from Doyle’s world.

Horowitz is no Doyle and the calm almost serene feelings with which his characters solve crime doesn’t happen in Moriarty. It is crime thriller and racing to the end. Murders (a little too many of them in my opinion), blood, torture, mystery, sinister sightings and lies – the book has it all.

The twist at the end has been well-excecuted. It creeps on you. It will shock quite a few readers. It didn’t really shock me but it was an ahha-moment.

I read this book as a part of the December #TSBCChallenge.