Moriarty

Moriarty
by Anthony Horowitz
HarperCollins, 2014.  285 pgs.  Mystery

Second in a series of neo-Holmesian works approved and supported by the Conan Doyle estate, Moriarty tells a story that lies in between Holmes' supposed death at the Reichenbach Falls and his later reappearance. In this narrative, Frederick Chase, a Pinkerton agent, has arrived at the Falls in hopes of finding some clue to the whereabouts of Clarence Devereux, a criminal mastermind from the States who is thought to have been courting Professor Moriarty before his death to join forces in a terrible consortium of crime in England. A waterlogged cipher on Moriarty's body suggests such an alliance was in the offing and soon Chase and Scotland Yard Inspector Athelney Jones are on the hunt for Devereux and his brutal minions. Though Inspector Jones is a devotee of Sherlock Holmes and tries to use his methods, it is hard to be totally satisfied with a Holmesian story without Holmes or Watson in it.   Still, Horowitz spins a good yarn, and thought one suspects and unexpected ending, things may turn out even more differently that you might imagine.

LW