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    The Italian Secretary
    The Italian Secretary
    The Italian Secretary
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Italian Secretary

    Written by Caleb Carr

    Narrated by Simon Prebble

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The bestselling author of the Alienist series returns with a chilling elaboration on the Sherlock Holmes canon, as the famed detective investigates a pair of gruesome murders, which cast an otherworldly shadow as far as Queen Victoria herself.

    It all begins familiarly enough: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are summoned to the aid of Queen Victoria in Scotland by an encrypted telegram from Holmes' brother, Mycroft, a royal advisor. Rushed northward on a royal train they soon learn of the brutal killings of two of the Queen's servants who had been working on the renovation of the famous and forbidding Royal Palace of Holyrood.
    Mycroft has enlisted his brother to help solve the murders that may be key elements of a much more elaborate and pernicious plot on the Queen's life. But the circumstances of the two victims' deaths also call to Holmes' mind the terrible murder of "The Italian Secretary," David Rizzio. Only Rizzio was murdered three centuries ago.
    Told with his unique feel for historical detail and the architecture of human evil, Caleb Carr's brilliant new offering takes the Conan Doyle tradition to remarkable new heights.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 1, 2005
    ISBN9780743551588
    The Italian Secretary
    Author

    Caleb Carr

    Caleb Carr is the critically acclaimed author of The Alienist, The Angel of Darkness, The Lessons of Terror, Killing Time, The Devil Soldier, The Italian Secretary, The Legend of Broken, and Surrender, New York. He has taught military history at Bard College, and worked extensively in film, television, and the theater. His military and political writings have appeared in numerous magazines and periodicals, among them The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in upstate New York.

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    Reviews for The Italian Secretary

    3.5/5

    31 ratings16 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Although I liked two other Carr books, I found this one extremely disappointing. I am a fan of Holmes and read modern books starring his character when I can. The cover of this one was great and I was hopeful since I knew the author from The Alienist but it didn't work for me at all. The plot was silly, the murder easily solved, and the characters did not ring true. -KK

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A really enjoyable Sherlock Holmes romp! Apparently Caleb Carr was invited by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write such a tale, and I felt like he did the task more than justice. In the afterword, Carr is also challenged to write a tale in which his own alienist, Kreizler, meets up with Holmes. It would be a wonderful combination of the scientific medical mind and the psychological.
    • 3/5
      A so-so Sherlock Holmes mystery. I enjoyed The Alienist, but this was disappointing
    • 2/5
      Very uneven. There are parts that read much like Doyle's creation, and others which are terribly jarring. The ending is somewhat anti-climatic and unsatisfying. The characters don't seem that true to the original stories. There have been good Holmes pastiches; but this isn't one of them.
    • 3/5
      Not a lot of mystery in this story.Carr, however writes about Holmes and Watson almost as well as Conan Doyle.Still a pleasant read.
    • 5/5
      I first read Caleb Carr's The Alienist in college, and then The Angel of Darkness. I loved how rich and detailed his evocation of late Victorian New York was, his characters, the strange mysteries he built and the way that the team, led by the enigmatic Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, solved the puzzles. It had never occurred to me at the time how similar those stories were in feel to the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (although Carr's doctor was Holmes blended with Freud, perhaps). In The Italian Secretary, Carr actually writes a Sherlock Holmes mystery, complete with sidekick Watson and brother Mycroft. According to the acknowledgements, this book was written at the behest of the Estate of Arthur Conan Doyle (so no complaining about pastiche!). The story: Mycroft Holmes asks Sherlock and Dr. Watson to come to one of the royal residences in Scotland, Holyrood House, to investigate a peculiar set of murders. Holmes, to the surprise of his fellow, Watson, believes them to be related to the 300 year old murder of David Rizzio, secretary and companion to Mary, Queen of Scots, while Mycroft fears that they may be linked to a series of assassination attempts on Queen Victoria.The book has all the little flavors of Victoriana and Conan Doyle's work. It feels right. The story is unpredictable and compelling, with twists and turns at every angle. A very satisfying read.
    • 3/5
      Readers of classic mysteries and Sherlock Holmes will enjoy this, but it didn't engage me like Carr's work normally does. I recommend starting with one of his other works (or not giving up on him if you start here), but this was an interesting read, if slow at a few points.
    • 3/5
      I got about three quarters of the way through the book before realizing that I'd read it before some years ago. Normally, I'd blame this on my own shoddy memory, but I think this is a case of the book just not being very memorable. While the book isn't bad, per se, Carr adds nothing to the Holmes canon.

      His characterization is merely adequate. Holmes seemed strangely passive, while Carr was clearly more interested in Watson. It's nice that he found more for him to do than stand around dumbfounded at Holmes' brilliance, but the constant (and mistaken, to my mind) suggestion that Holmes needs Watson as some sort of expert on human emotions was grating.

      The book's real flaw, however, is the mystery, which is neither particularly interesting or even mysterious. Even worse, it is essentially solved with about a hundred pages left in the book, necessitating a climax more befitting an action movie than a Sherlock Holmes tale.
    • 3/5
      Substance: An attempt to build a sense of supernatural horror on top of an otherwise rather boring mystery.Style: Channels Watson effectively.
    • 2/5
      While similar in tone to the Conan Doyle works, this re-creation lacked the methodical mystery and deduction thereof. Carr gave us a synopsis and some clues and then just gave up and had the solution occur to Holmes out of the blue. There wasn’t any of his famous piecing of things together. No brilliant insights based on reason and fact; just hunches and guesswork. Sigh. I guess no one can do what Conan Doyle did. Back to the originals I go.And Watson’s style seems to have grown more verbose and flowery than I ever thought possible. The sentences were fairly choked with adjectives and adverbs. The real Watson’s style was descriptive, but pared down and readable. This was corpulent by comparison.Another thing that seemed wrong was Watson’s apparent lack of knowledge of his longtime friend. When Holmes mentioned that somehow he thought that the doings back in the 16th century might have something to do with the current mystery, he took him literally, thinking that Holmes meant ghosts. When has Holmes ever meant ghosts? He meant that the old murder was bound up in the new ones. That someone was using it as a ruse; and such proved true. How stupid of Watson.
    • 4/5
      Caleb Carr is back again with his newest offering, which features Holmes (both Sherlock & Mycroft) and Watson. This time, the game is afoot in Edinburgh, Scotland, at Holyrood, the palace home of Mary, Queen of Scots. Indeed, one of the mysteries involves the ghost of the Italian Secretary Rizzio, who was one of Mary's Catholic cohorts and who spent so much time with Mary and her immediate circle that his presence gave rise to rumors that she was going to attempt to impose Catholicism in Protestant Scotland. The original Rizzio was murdered and now his ghost is "haunting" the castle. But that's not why Holmes and Watson are summoned; there is a conspiracy at work which may or may not be the work of Scottish nationalists; they in turn may or may not be linked with the Kaiser in Germany. Two murders bring Mycroft to send a mysterious coded telegram urging Holmes & Watson to come at once to Edinburgh to help him solve the mystery. IMHO, The Italian Secretary is much closer to the original SH stories than a lot of what's been published pastiche-wise lately. And I'm hoping that this novel is successful, because Caleb Carr has long been a favorite author of mine. My only complaint is that the story seemed a little muddled at times and bogged down by a few too many details. However, overall it was a very good read and I would definitely recommend it to other fans of the great detective as well as to fans of Carr's Alienist series. You may not like this one as much as The Alienist, which is one of my all-time favorite mysteries, but it is well worth paying full price for.
    • 1/5
      Fun, but don't expect too much - a good book to fill a journey or an idle bit of time, but not the historical suspenseful epic that the blurb might lead you to expect.Caleb Carr's portrayal of both the Holmes brothers, and Watson is rich and interesting. However this is let doen by a ludicrous plot, a rather steriotypical setting, and a weak cast of supporting characters. There is not much of a mystery here and the initial atmosphere and suspense is not maintained once the novel gets going.While its "good enough" as a piece of Holmsian fun, I expected more from someone of Caleb Carr's talent.
    • 3/5
      Nothing great, nothing terrible... I was a little surprised at some of the things Carr did with the main characters... Mycroft comes across as average intelligence at best, Holmes is pretty bland, and Watson is seems the sharpest of the three--all three different than portrayed in the originals. Odd... I wonder why he chose to do that?
    • 4/5
      Not as good as The Alienist but worlds better than Angel of Darkness. I hope Carr writes more Sherlock Holmes mysteries.
    • 4/5
      "A further adventure of Sherlock Holmes" - I'll admit that it has been a while since I've read the original Holmes tales...but I did love them. And, I liked this Carr offering a good deal, too. (I'm waiting for a copy of The Alienist now at my Library.) It might not be quite up to snuff on the details of the mystery at hand and the turns of deductions in the original Conan Doyle stories, but I still found it fun to read. I enjoyed Watson wondering whether Holmes actually believes in ghosts - something which is never completely answered, but tied up in a satisfying way. There is humor throughout and the story is interesting, involving a historic killing as well as 'modern' (to Holmes) day murders. Not really a 'must read' for Holmes fans, but not a bad addition to the Holmes catalog.
    • 3/5
      An interesting insertion into the Sherlock Holmes canon. Authorised by the estate of A C Doyle, it's interesting. It lacks something when compared to the original but is quite reflective of them. Caleb Carr has a good hold on the era but failed to give a feel of Edinburgh during the book.