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Moriarty: A Novel
Moriarty: A Novel
Moriarty: A Novel
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Moriarty: A Novel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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“Anthony Horowitz throws down the gauntlet in his infernally clever Sherlock Holmes pastiche.” — Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

The game is once again afoot in this thrilling mystery from internationally bestselling author Anthony Horowitz, sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate, that explores what really happened when Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty tumbled to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls.

Horowitz’s nail-biting novel plunges us back into the dark and complex world of detective Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty—dubbed the Napoleon of crime” by Holmes—in the aftermath of their fateful struggle at the Reichenbach Falls.

Days after the encounter at the Swiss waterfall, Pinkerton detective agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. Moriarty’s death has left an immediate, poisonous vacuum in the criminal underworld, and there is no shortage of candidates to take his place—including one particularly fiendish criminal mastermind.

Chase and Scotland Yard Inspector Athelney Jones, a devoted student of Holmes’s methods of investigation and deduction originally introduced by Conan Doyle in “The Sign of Four”, must forge a path through the darkest corners of England’s capital—from the elegant squares of Mayfair to the shadowy wharfs and alleyways of the London Docks—in pursuit of this sinister figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, who is determined to stake his claim as Moriarty’s successor.

A riveting, deeply atmospheric tale of murder and menace from one of the only writers to earn the seal of approval from Conan Doyle’s estate, Moriarty breathes life into Holmes’s dark and fascinating world.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateDec 9, 2014
ISBN9780062377203
Moriarty: A Novel
Author

Anthony Horowitz

ANTHONY HOROWITZ is the author of the US bestselling Magpie Murders and The Word is Murder, and one of the most prolific and successful writers in the English language; he may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author. His novel Trigger Mortis features original material from Ian Fleming. His most recent Sherlock Holmes novel, Moriarty, is a reader favorite; and his bestselling Alex Rider series for young adults has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. As a TV screenwriter, he created both Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle’s War on PBS. Horowitz regularly contributes to a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines, and in January 2014 was awarded an OBE.

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Rating: 4.092592592592593 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Horowitz follows up on his authorized Sherlock Holmes novel House of Silk with this mystery set in 1891 immediately after Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarity are believed to have fallen from Reichenbach Falls.  The narrator is Frederick Chase, a Pinkerton detective who travels to Switzerland seeking American criminal mastermind Clarence Devereux whom he believes will rendez-vous with Moriarity.  In the wake of the supposed deaths of Moriarity and Holmes, Chase joins up with Scotland Yard detective Athelney Jones who displays a skill in deductive reasoning. Based on the title, one wonders if Jones is Moriarity in disguise?  Or Holmes in disguise?  I won't tell.  Chase and Jones return to London to continue the search for Devereux and find themselves pulled into the brutally violent underworld of expatriate American criminals.  It's a gripping mystery with a lots of twists and turns, and a great companion to the Holmes' canon.  The performance of Rhind-Tutt and Jacobi on the audiobook is particularly entrancing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Just supposed to be a fun mystery. Horowitz delivered. Very readable. The mystery is a bit clever—but enough information is given that a clever reader should be able to solve it. Still, I found the quick wrap up at the end to be a bit of a disappointment. It ended both too soon and too quickly. The book also tends more to the thriller side than to mystery, and for this I preferred Horowitz's first Sherlock Holmes mystery.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Best plot twist ending ever!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Five days after Holmes and Moriarty's final conflict at Reichenbach Falls, Pinkerton's senior investigator, Frederick Chase, encounters Inspector Athelney Jones, a Scotland Yard detective who learned much from Sherlock Holmes. Although on separate investigations, the two come to identify the body of Moriarty. Moriarty's death leaves a vacancy for in London's underground, which is now being sought to be filled by an American criminal mastermind, Clarence Devereux. The quest to catch Devereux may be difficult since he is a agoraphobic and rarely seen. This Victorian age mystery reminded me of Sherlock Holmes stories. Chase serves in the Watson role as the sidekick and narrator for the adventure while Jones substitutes for Holmes with his astute observations and deductive reasoning abilities. I would recommend reading this novel if for nothing else than one of the best twists I have read since Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The setting and prose are convincingly Victorian, and some of the snarky comments about Holmes are fun, but I did not find this an enjoyable Holmesian story. Okay, I know it's not about Holmes. It's about Moriarty, and I suppose that shift in focus is what made it unsatisfying for me. The twist at the end and the way it was sprung seemed contrived for shock value for contemporary readers, but it left me flat.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked the book and thought it was pretty creative storyline. The ending was great for its huge twist but I hated what happened to Inspector Jones! : ( I also wish Sherlock Holmes actually played a part in the book. I kept thinking he is going to show up anytime now but he never did! : (
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the second Sherlock Holmes novel by anthony Horowitz and I've listened to them both as audiobooks. I enjoyed the first immensely, this one not as much. 'Moriarty' has a good storyline, starting with the death of Sherlock Holmes and his rival Moriarty. There's mystery afoot, violence aplenty and just when you think the......but I won't say anymore! What I didn't enjoy this time was the narration of the audiobook, I didn't like the VOICE of the narrator. I suppose I shouldn't let this fact detract from my rating, but I do, because as an audiobook I feel the CHOICE of 'voice' to narrate is all important!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Liked Horowitz's House of Silk well enough to give this second foray by the author into the world of Sherlock Holmes a try. Another competent effort, though I had trouble warming to this tale for several reasons. The action in this novel takes place in the days/weeks following Reichenbach Falls, which may be one reason I wasn’t as engaged by the tale as I might have been – a Sherlock Holmes novel without Sherlock Holmes (or Watson, who’s barely mentioned here) poses certain limitations. Then, you have to wade through many chapters of explication and action until you encounter anything like a classic Arthur Conan Doyle puzzle: from two men standing over a bedraggled corpse in Switzerland (Moriarty? Not Moriarty?), we transition to Scotland Yard, where self-appointed Holmes protégé Inspector Athelney Jones, working in harness with a U.S. Pinkerton agent named Chase, endeavor to thwart American gangsters intent upon assuming control of London’s criminal underworld in Moriarty’s wake. Eventually you realize all the pages of explication in these chapters are necessary and relevant, but that doesn’t make them any less uneventful – plus, I suspect people who pick up Sherlock Holmes books in hopes of being challenged by a series of primarily intellectual, aesthetic puzzles may not find the pulpy gangster milieu of these chapters - featuring cartoonishly evil gangster brothers, several brutish but unimaginative murders, a bombing, a street shooting, and a sociopathic street child – particularly engaging. Eventually the plot does present us with a twist that Arthur Conan Doyle would have, I think, wholly approved. I just wish that I hadn’t had to wade through so much Alex Rider-like content to get there (Horowitz is also the author of the hugely popular Alex Rider spy story series for young adults), and some of the more glaring improbabilities posited by the tale’s resolution continue to rankle. To be fair, though, the argument could be made that ACD’s original “The Final Problem” short story, on which this tale is based, contained fully as many improbabilities, and I did appreciate how Horowitz’s tale cleverly stitched these into an alternative history that is atmospheric, well written, imaginative, and deeply respectful of the original Holmes canon.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well that was one heck of a twist at the end! Overall, not as strong as House of Silk, but Horowitz's second Sherlock Holmes novel makes up for the somewhat slower style with his impressive plot-twist-jujitsu (granted, one might see it coming, but still). That said, I hope that if Horowitz continues to write Holmes stories, I do hope we'll see a bit more of Holmes in future installments.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sherlock Holmes is one of the most enduring of fictional characters. Thousands of visitors flock each year to see his London address (even though 221b Baker Street has now been subsumed into the headquarters of a major high street bank), and more films have been made about him than any other single character. Many writers have tried to reincarnate the masterful detective and recreate the Conan Doyle's style, some more capably than others, but none have caught the Holmes zeitgeist as deftly as Anthony Horowitz.Horowitz is, of course, an accomplished writer of long standing having written novels, screenplays (he created both the Foyle's War and Midsomer Murders television series) and his books for children including the highly successful Alex Rider sequence. His most recent previous novel, The House of Silk, was commissioned by the Conan Doyle Estate, the first time that it had endorsed another writer to add to the Holmes canon. That book was a great success, receiving critical acclaim and securing high sales.Moriarty puts a slightly different twist on things, and is set in the immediate aftermath of the fight at the Reichenbach Falls. The story is narrated by Frederick Chase, an American investigator from Pinkerton's Agency (which would eventually evolve into the FBI) who has travelled to the small Swiss town of Meiringen, near to the famous Reichenbach Falls. There he is met by Inspector Athelney Jones (one of the Scotland Yard inspectors with whom Holmes had collaborated in some of his earlier adventures) where they attempt to identify a body that has been pulled from the river. On the basis of their inspection they agree that this is probably the corpse of Moriarty.Chase goes on to explain that Pinkerton's Agency has been investigating the rise of Clarence Devereux, an American gangster who has become the kingpin of a huge criminal network extending all throughout the States. Pinkerton's believe that he had been in negotiations with Moriarty with a view to establishing a transatlantic criminal empire. Chase and Jones agree to work together to try to discover how far those plans had progressed, and return to London.Horowitz mimics Conan Doyle's style very closely - I haven't read anything else that comes so close to the tone, pace and style of the original Sherlock Holmes stories. He even has the same ability to conjure London locations. Athelney Jones had been disturbed by his pervious encounters with Holmes, and had sworn to learn from the great detective's methodology. He has certainly come a long way, and demonstrates his own 'cold reading' skills to Chase at every opportunity. He has also developed some of Holmes's disdain for the lack of insight of several of the Scotland Yard detectives. There is one particularly poignant scene in which Chase and Jones meet Lestrade and a couple of the other detectives whom Holmes had, inadvertently, humiliated in the past, and they all trade memories of the great man. There are also several resonances to some of the original stories such as 'The Red-Headed League' and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. This is an enthralling novel in its own right, and a worthy homage to the Sherlock Holmes collection.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It was interesting to read this having just finished The Hound of the Baskervilles.The book is written in very similar manner to the style employed by Conan Doyle, and evokes the period well, but without coming across as laboured. The shadows of Sherlock Holmes and Watson cross every page, but they don't appear. Plenty of other characters from the originals do, with more depth of character than allowed by Conan Doyle. The story is fairly long (317 pages) but it moves quickly with quite a bit of action (as in the originals). Inexplicable clues and twists abound. The plot kept my attention throughout.I will say just one word about the end – unexpected.Nina Jon is the author of the newly released Magpie Murders - a series of short murder mysteries – and the Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection crime and mystery series, about private detective Jane Hetherington.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A Scotland Yard Officer teams up with a Pinkerton detective from the US to capture the new crime kingpin seeking to expand his empire to London after the deaths of Professor Moriarity and Sherlock Holmes. Written in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, this duo meets with a variety of obstacles and villains before they are able to capture the kingpin. Spoiler Alert: The ending is what changed this from a four star rating to a five. A great swerve!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This thoroughly enjoyable romp through Victorian England teams Scotland Yard's Inspector Anthelney Jones and American Pinkerton detective, Frederick Chase, in Reidenbach Falls just subsequent to Sherlock Homes' and Professor Moriarty's plunge to their purported deaths. Chase has followed in search of a US criminal mastermind Clarence Devereaux. A nasty piece of work, Devereaux -- and his equally nasty henchmen -- are taking advantage of the vacuum of nefarious power to control London's underground. Jones' and Chase's pursuit takes them from upscale clubs to seedy meat markets and to the US Legation. Minor characters in Dr. Watson's tales are given new life in Horowitz's writing. The ending was truly a surprise -- and I don't surprise easily. The narration by Julian Rhind Tutt and Derek Jacobi was splendid.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It’s May, 1891, and the world is ringing with the news that Sherlock Holmes and his arch-enemy Professor James Moriarty plunged to their death at the Reichenbach Falls; narrator Frederick Chase, a Pinkerton agent, has followed master criminal Clarence Devereux from America, having learned he and Moriarty plan to combine resources, creating a trans-Atlantic crime empire. Moriarty may be dead but Devereux is at large and taking over vthe London underworld: Chase combines forces with Holmes-wannabe Inspector Athelney Jones, searching everywhere from the most sordid slums and seediest clubs all the way to the US embassy as they hunt the elusive evil genius. Neither Sherlock Holmes nor the faithful Watson make an appearance, yet Moriarty is immersed in enough period atmosphere to satisfy even Conan Doyle; the mystery deepens, the body count grows and the suspense mounts until all is revealed in startling final twist which is [spoiler alert] worthy of Agatha Christie herself.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In his second Sherlock Holmes novel, Anthony Horowitz explores the period between Holmes' "death" in "The Final Problem" and his return in "The Adventure of the Empty House". Horowitz approaches the story from a unique perspective: a Sherlock Holmes story with neither Holmes nor Watson. Instead, Scotland Yard Inspector Athelney Jones (from "The Sign of the Four") fills the Holmes role while partnering with a Pinkerton detective, Frederick Chase, who takes the place of Watson. Together, these two attempt to track down an American master criminal named Clarence Devereaux.Jones and Chase believe that Devereaux had been in contact with the late Professor Moriarty just prior to his death and, following news of both Moriarty's and Holmes' death, the American will attempt to seize control of London's criminal underworld, filling the vacuum left by Moriarty. The story continually contrasts the gentlemanly criminality of Moriarty with the gangster-like work of Devereaux, setting up Horowitz's twist ending.Horowitz demonstrated his affinity for Moriarty in his previous novel, The Silk House, in which the Napoleon of Crime has a minor cameo and actually aides Watson and Holmes to rid England of a criminal enterprise even he finds reprehensible. Moriarty continues this trend of elevating the Professor's character while retaining his status of criminal mastermind. The story, while interesting in its own right, feels tangential to the Holmes canon at times, despite minor cameos from Inspector G. Lestrade and Inspector Tobias Gregson. Only when Horowitz reveals his twist ending, which I shall not divulge here, does the reader suddenly find this story immediately fitting into the canon with goosebump-inducing results.Moriarty is a worthy successor to The House of Silk while featuring a different enough story that it can stand on its own. Both works demonstrate Horowitz's commitment to the canon, as evidenced by the Conan Doyle Estate's official endorsement of this work. In short, Moriarty is sure to entertain new and old fans of Sherlock Holmes and his world.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I picked this book up on a lark (the first I've read by Anthony Horowitz); I just sort of stumbled across it. I've always been a big Sherlock Holmes fan, so I was excited to read this "spin off." I think Horowitz found a proper "gap" in the Sherlockian universe with room to build a story. However, it felt TOO brief (if that's a logical claim for a nearly-300-page novel).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the second full length Sherlock Holmes novel by this author, following The House of Silk in 2012. In fact, this is entirely a spin-off as Holmes does not feature at all, the story taking place during the Great Hiatus after his struggle with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. Nor does Watson appear. The chief figure from the canon throughout the novel is Inspector Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard, who featured in The Sign of Four, and who is seeking to emulate the Great Detective's methods and habits. I can't give away plot details without revealing significant spoilers, but there is a major revelation five sixths of the way through that alters the reader's perception of events. It's a very good read overall.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Moriarty is one of those novels that looks very appealing, starts off in a very appealing way...and becomes rapidly less appealing the longer it goes on. Its major problem is that, from the word "go," it lets you know that there's going to be some sort of revelation or twist - the very nature of the book's premise ("What if the incident at the Reichenbach Falls isn't the end of the story?") pretty much ensures that. You, as the reader, know that there is some information that Dr. John H. Watson or Arthur Conan Doyle either kept from you or unwittingly obscured, and the narrator of this current tale as good as promises to reveal all. Any reader worth his or her salt, then, is going to be on the alert, and I would be lying if I didn't say that in the course of the first twenty pages, I had already come up with three entirely separate "twists" that seemed more or less probable based on the information I had already obtained.The very first one turned out to be correct. And I suck at solving mysteries.I'm not sure what game Anthony Horowitz thought he was playing with this novel; if he'd gone for a more straightforward approach it would have been a lot better. As an experienced dramatist and novelist, Horowitz has a deft hand with action, a good command of pace, and a skill at defining characters quickly. (His one obvious short-coming - an over-reliance on dialogue - is probably down to his career as a screenwriter first and foremost.) He clearly has a lot of fun writing these kinds of stories and he wants you, the reader, to have fun, too. With Moriarty, though, he's appealing to one of the oldest, most well-read and cynical "fandoms" of all - Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts have read it all, and they are not easily misled. Indeed, Horowitz is clearly a massive fan himself, and he runs loops around himself to answer little bits of Sherlockian errata: are there two Moriartys? Are Inspectors Athelney and Peter Jones related? How did Moriarty come to exert influence on American crime in The Valley of Fear? It goes on and on, and if you manage to not be distracted by it, it functions as excellent fan fiction.With that kind of box-ticking going on, though, you'd think Horowitz would give his readers credit for being people who...well...like to connect things. Yet the parlor tricks that Horowitz attempts in this book are so simplistic that when the truth finally comes, there's a screamingly obvious sense of "Yes, and...?" I can't believe any but the most inexperienced reader wouldn't have known something was coming, and - especially in the second half - that renders a light, entertaining read into more of a timekeeping exercise. If the twist hasn't at least crossed your mind by the time of the reveal, well...I haven't read The House of Silk, although I presume that - as a more traditional Sherlock Holmes adventure - it has no real connection to Moriarty. I'd certainly be more interested to read that than a follow-up to this current work, despite an obvious hook at the end that suggests the potential for a series. (For what it's worth, I'm not sure who would actually want to read that series. It's...not an exciting premise.) I would only hope that there, and in any further Sherlockian endeavors, Horowitz focuses on telling an interesting story. Leave the tricks and traps and someone else.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I did enjoy the book. I thought the writing was good, reminding stylistically original Sherlock Holmes stories. The problem is that I suspected the ending almost right from the beginning, which means that it wasn't a very good mystery.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I was overjoyed to see a book 2 in this series.Anthony Horowitz does provide the readers with a thrilling although slow story that climaxes with a mind blowing ending. I enjoyed this novel for the author's ability to simulate the Victorian/Sherlockian (is that a word?) environment espoused in original Sherlock Holmes novels. The story reads like a Sir Conan Doyle original down to the author's particular prose. However, House of Silk was better.Moriarty contains believable characters with just the right amount of precarious situations to keep the story alive and the reader wanting more. What it doesn't contain is the man himself, Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Watson. But this story is not about them. I enjoyed the novel but did have an issue with Horowitz's repetitive use of the antagonist's name in conversations between Frederick Chase and Inspector Anthelney Jones. It was as if they had to remind each other of who they were chasing.Of the two, my favorite was House of Silk but Moriarty should still be read for its complementary writing style to that of the originals.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The action in this story picks up from The Final Problem in which Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty had fought at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland and both fell over the falls … both presumed dead. The reader becomes acquainted with Frederick Chase through his first person narration of this story. He introduces himself as a New York Pinkerton Detective traveling to Europe on the heels of an American crime lord who he believes planned to meet with Moriarty. He meets Athelby Jones, Scotland Yard, who accompanies him as they examine the recovered body of Professor Moriarty. Together they find a note carefully sewn into the jacket lining of the deceased. It begins to provide them with the clues they need to begin solving the murders.Athelby Jones had been that bumbling detective Watson referenced in The Sign of the Four. Determined to overcome that image, he has made an intensive study of the deductive reasoning utilized by Sherlock Holmes, but he’s not quite perfected it. So at least for a while, the duo become very similar to Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes (Chase as Watson and Jones as Holmes) as they work together to try to solve the execution style murders taking place in their vicinity.I found this author very talented at ending one chapter with a mysterious lead in to the next. While I felt that middle grade or high school students could read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, I don’t feel comfortable with recommending this book for younger readers. The writing style had similarities to Doyle, but it has several scenes with graphic physical violence. The ending was a major twist of events that I thought was very clever. The character development of Jones was well done showing his love of his job; his love of his family; and the pursuit of a balance. Rating: 4 out of 5.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It was entertaining. We are drawned into the world of Sherlock Holmes and Professor MOriarty right after their death at the Reichebach fall. We follow a investigation of Scotland Yard into the arrival of a new crime Lord. Clarence Devereux, is an american criminal and he intends on taking over the criminal world of England. He is like nothing Scotland Yard as ever seen.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Holmes and Watson without either. I think this book is best for Sherlock skeptics, fans who are not worshippers of the great detective, because this is how most of the stories really should go. Or at least one of them should. Next I want the novel in which things don't work out so neatly for the villain, either. Except that leads to the messy modern mysteries, so maybe never mind. Possibly Laurie King makes better use of post-Doyle Sherlock except that I just enjoyed reading this novel more than any of the Mary Russell series.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz, the second in the Sherlock Holmes series which began with House of Silk takes place directly after the events at Reichenbach Falls. Where locked in battle, Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty plunge to their deaths.Newly arrived from America, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase arrives in Reichenbach Falls five days after the event in hopes of reaching and following James Moriarty, only to be confronted by the dead body on the slab before him. Joined by Scotland Yard Inspector Atheleny Jones, Chase explains that he was pursuing Moriarty in hopes that the master criminal would lead him to another master criminal. An American by the name of Clarence Devereux. It is Chase's belief that Devereux was going to join forces with Moriarty and together create a criminal empire that would control all illegal activity on both shores. Unlike Moriarty, Devereux is a particularly vicious criminal with a penchant for the use of violence to the extreme."...Scotchy Lavelle was sitting in one of the heavy wooden chairs that I had noticed the day before and which had been dragged forward expressly for this purpose. He was dressed in a silk nightshirt which reached his ankles. His feet were bare. He had been positioned so that he faced a mirror. Whoever had done this had wanted him to see what was going to happen. He had not been tied into place. He had been nailed there. Jagged squares of metal protruded from the backs of his broken hands which even in death still clasped the arms of the chair as if determined not to let go. The hammer that had been used for this evil deed lay in front of the fireplace and there was a china vase, lying on its side. Nearby, I noticed two bright ribbons which must have been brought down from the bedroom and which were also strewn on the floor. Scotchy Levelle's throat had been cut cleanly and viciously in a manner that could not help but remind me of the surgeon's knife that Perry had so cheerfully used to threaten me in the Café Royal. I wondered if Jones had already leapt to the same, unavoidable conclusion. This horrific murder could have been committed by a child..."Returning to London, Chase and Jones pursue the phantom that is Devereux through a host of middle men hoping to catch the elusive crime lord. Jones employing many of Holmes' techniques and Chase with a more direct American approach. But this criminal is very different from the type they are use to and will they and their families survive the coming battle.Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz is a brilliant and sinister mystery in the fashion of all the Holmes' tales but with one exception. There is no Holmes. There is no Watson. Moriarty himself plays a small part for much of the story and I will not say more on that otherwise it would spoil the reading of this well thought out tale. The issue with the book is that it tries too hard to make up for the lack of the two main characters of any Holmes mystery and actually works at being too clever for its on good. Inspector Athelney Jones is a younger, less confident version of Holmes, who can deduce what is before him, but lacks the ability to judge what is coming next. Chase as the narrator is out of his depth for much of the story. The creation of Devereux as their adversary is brilliant. He is as ruthless as he is flawed. Overall a very well done mystery but will seem tedious and slow to some who are not lovers of the writing style that is a Sherlock Holmes novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Moriarty is a spin-off of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels published in 2014 and written by Anthony Horowitz. Chronologically it is set directly after Sherlock Holmes' supposed death at Reichenbach Falls and covers the time during which Holmes had disappeared from the scene. Therefore, the novel features neither Sherlock Holmes nor his sidekick John Watson. Yet, some of the original characters are included in the book. These are mainly detectives of Scotland Yard, such as Lestrade and Athelney Jones, and, obviously, Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes' nemesis. Readers of the orginal Holmes novels might wonder how that is possible as Moriarty is also considered to have died at Reichenbach Falls. But this is something that should be resolved by reading this novel.The plot of Moriarty is easily told. An agent of the American Pinkerton agency, Frederick Chase, follows the mysterious criminal Clarence Devereux to London in order to arrest him. Devereux wants to build up a large criminal network together with Professor Moriarty, who, however, is said to have died at Reichenbach Falls. Right at the beginning of the novel, Frederick Chase and Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard become acquainted as their paths cross due to the investigation of the Reichenbach Falls incident and the capture of Clarence Devereux, both of which have Professor Moriarty as a common denominator. Quickly, the two detectives join forces and continue to investigate together. They unravel a criminal network in London and things start to become more dangerous as the novel goes on.While I enjoyed reading Moriarty, there was the issue of the narrator that bugged me from the beginning. I was completely annoyed by the fact that the spelling was British English throughout the novel although Horowitz chose Frederick Chase, an American, as his narrator. My first idea was that Frederick Chase is actually Sherlock Holmes in disguise as I already knew from the original Sherlock Holmes novels that the famous detective had not died. Several clues pointed in this direction. Yet, it turned out to be wrong soon enough. The issue of the narrator is resolved towards the end and I have to say that I was quite attracted by what Horowitz did there. At first I was appalled because I was misled by the narrator but then this is exactly the point that I eventually came to like most about Moriarty. The novel has its plot twists and its fair share of problems that are solved by deduction on the part of Athelney Jones. Yet, in my opinion it is not as good as the original Sherlock Holmes stories and novels.On the whole, Moriarty is a worthwhile reading experience but nothing all too special. 3.5 stars.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Review based on ARC.Moriarty is the new book by Anthony Horowitz, touted as the only author approved by the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle. I understand [House of Silk] to be an excellent piece of "Holmes" literature, though I have not read it myself. Although I have not read Doyle myself, my husband is a big fan, I intend to read the books someday soon, and I am a huge fan of the BBC's newest Sherlock series and, in particular, think the actor cast as Moriarty therein has made him one of the more intriguing characters in literature. So I was rather excited to have won a copy of Moriarty.I was disappointed. The plot is interesting enough.. New York Pinkerton detective Chase heads to England in pursuit of one of the worst criminal masterminds America has seen, Clarence Devereux, who himself has purportedly headed to London to hook up with Moriarty in an effort to expand his criminal enterprise. However, Chase discovers that Moriarty and Holmes (and/or their cohorts) have just committed double homicide on one another at Reichenbach Falls. Chase follows the body, hoping to be given an opportunity to find a letter from Devereux to Moriarty discussing their suggested partnership. Thus he meets Scotland Yard investigator Athelney Jones, who has previously appeared in Watson's own explanations of Holmes investigations as a somewhat bumbling idiot. Jones has devoted many efforts to discerning Holmes' own investigation methods, and Chase and Jones create a sort of Holmes-Watson duo... like, the kid version.Together, they set forth to try to hunt down Devereux, bodies piling up left and right in the brutalist of manners as they go. All the while, Chase ponders the apparent ill-information Watson has provided regarding Reichenbach falls and contemplates what really happened, and how.So all that sounds great! And the plot wasn't bad. But... it wasn't really good either. It was choppy and weirdly paced and felt like ... it felt a little like a novice author. Which I know is not the case! And the conversations were weird -- they didn't feel normal even for the timeframe in which they were occurring. And it almost felt like Horowitz was trying to fit a puzzle and "make it work," rather than simply telling a story.However, as I say, it *was* interesting. And it had some compelling reveals and turns. And the ending certainly redeemed a lot of what happened in the rest of the book (though I won't even hint at what that means because it is worth discovering on your own). Also, there was some interesting foreshadowing.. Although the ultimate reveal was somewhat predictable and a little unbelievable, I enjoyed it all the same.So, overall? I thought this hyped-up book was not particularly well done. The language was inorganic, the relationships were stilted, and I just never felt like I was really there in the story... On the plus side, as mentioned, it was interesting, had some good plot development, and the end added a bit of credit.Recommended to .... well, I think this is best recommended to people who need more Holmes, however they can get it. And maybe recommended to other Holmes fans, just with the understanding that it's not amazing.THREE AND A HALF of 5 stars.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The game, to quote a famous detective, is afoot and the story of Moriarty is in hands every bit as capable as those of Sir Arthur himself as he chronicled the exploits of the great Sherlock Holmes.Briefly, so as not to divulge story spoilers, diffuse clues, or give away twists of plot . . . just after Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty have tumbled over the Reichenbach Falls, Scotland Yard Inspector Athelney Jones joins Pinkerton detective Agent Frederick Chase in hunting down the fiendish American criminal mastermind, Clarence Devereux, who has relocated from New York to London. This book is their story.“Moriarty” is true to the characters and settings readers expect to find in a Sherlock Holmes tale; the requisite suspense, excitement, surprises, peril, and plot twists keep the narrative moving along at breakneck speed. Fortunately, this telling is not lacking in those obvious little details that everyone misses but which, in retrospect, are patently obvious. It’s a page-turning mystery, ending with a twist worthy of the great detective himself. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Frederick Chase, American detective with the Pinkerton Agency and narrator of this tale, is in Switzerland after a body is recovered near the Reichenbach Falls. It is believed that the body is that of Professor James Moriarty, one of England’s greatest criminal masterminds who fell over the falls in a struggle with Sherlock Holmes, England’s greatest consulting detective whose body is still missing. Chase has come seeking another criminal, Clarence Devereux, an American who Chase believes was trying to unite with Moriarty in the creation of a world-wide criminal enterprise and who was responsible for the death of another agent who had managed to infiltrate the organization. Chase meets Athelney Jones, a detective inspector with Scotland Yard who has also come to establish the identity of the body. Jones had played a minor role in one of Holmes’ previous cases and Watson had portrayed as the stereotypical bumbling Copper. Stung by the criticism, he has studied Holmes’ methods and has become something of a master of them. Impressed by Jones, Chases elicits his aid in finding Devereux once they return to England and, to do so, he will willingly play Watson to Jones’ Sherlock.Moriarty was written by author Andrew Horowitz, who earlier wrote The House of Silk about Sherlock Holmes but it should be noted that neither Holmes nor Watson appear in this book except in references to them by other characters. But that’s okay because Chase and Jones do more than admirably as their stand-ins. The story retains all the twists and turns, the disguises, and even some of the characters and quotes from the original tales. It is also, perhaps not surprising, quite a bit more bloody and dark than the originals. I did expect a twist at the end and I wasn’t disappointed but it definitely wasn’t the one I was expecting – in fact, it was something of a WTF moment. Horowitz does end the book with an explanation of how the characters got from where they started to where they ended which was good because, otherwise, I’d still be re-reading to find all the clues and red herrings I missed. Once I began Moriarty, I couldn’t put it down - and can’t recommend it enough for fans of Holmes and mysteries in general. Well played, Mr. Horowitz, well played!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Although I really enjoyed [House of Silk] last year, sadly Moriarty didn't do much for me. There's no Holmes or Watson and you know all along that there's a twist coming. For me it just didn't work.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Athelney Jones is an assiduous student of Holmes’ methods, monographs, and chronicles as relayed by the faithful Dr. John Watson. Jones is at Reichenbach Falls shortly after the tragic accident that has apparently taken the lives of Holmes and his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty. Here he meets Frederick Chase, a Pinkerton agent in pursuit of the ruthless American criminal mastermind, Clarence Devereux. Devereux brings a level of violence and cruelty to his takeover of Moriarty’s gang never imagined or seen in Britain. Jones and Chase join forces to find the elusive Devereux and end the bloodshed.It’s apparent why Mr. Horowitz has the endorsement of the A. Conan Doyle estate. MORIARTY strongly evokes the atmosphere of the Victorian era and Conan Doyles’ Holmes. MORIARTY neither tries to be nor compete with the iconic consulting detective but complements him and his adventures. Minor characters re-introduced as major players, referencing the stories as events in the recent past, and having a room full of Scotland Yard Inspectors discuss Holmes and his successes inventively highlight Holmes while passing the stage over to Jones and Chase.Athelney Jones is an interesting protagonist chock full of admirable qualities. None of his encounters with Holmes showed him in a positive light but they inspired his desire to improve his detecting abilities. It’s easy to identify with Jones.Frederick Chase, a Pinkerton agent, is a bit of a duck out of water. He badly needs the assistance and entree Jones can provide. He defers to Jones in many instances while contributing when and how he can. Jones and Chase form an alliance of necessity that occasionally veers toward an unlikely budding friendship with an eye to potential partnership. Gritty, briskly paced, and hard to put down MORIARTY hurtles the reader to its startling conclusion. Undeniably one of the best historical mysteries I’ve read this year.4.5 stars Reviewed for Miss Ivy's Book Nook Take II, Manic Readers, & Novels Alive TV

Book preview

Moriarty - Anthony Horowitz

ONE

The Reichenbach Falls

Does anyone really believe what happened at the Reichenbach Falls? A great many accounts have been written but it seems to me that all of them have left something to be desired – which is to say, the truth. Take the Journal de Genève and Reuters, for example. I read them from start to finish, not an easy task for they’re both written in that painfully dry manner of most European publications, as if they’re reporting the news because they have to, not because it’s something they want you to know. And what exactly did they tell me? That Sherlock Holmes and his foremost adversary, Professor James Moriarty, of whose existence the public were only now learning, had met and that both of them died. Well, it might as well have been an automobile accident for all the excitement those two authorities managed to put into their prose. Even the headlines were dull.

But what really puzzles me is the narrative of Dr John Watson. He describes the entire affair in Strand Magazine, starting with the knock on the door of his consulting room on the evening of April 24th 1891 and continuing with his journey to Switzerland. I yield to no one in my admiration for the chronicler of the adventures, exploits, memoirs, casebooks and so on of the great detective. As I sit at my Remington Number Two improved model typewriter (an American invention, of course) and begin this great labour, I know that I am likely to fall short of the standards of accuracy and entertainment that he maintained to the end. But I have to ask myself – how could he have got it so wrong? How could he have failed to notice inconsistencies that would have struck even the most obtuse police commissioner as glaringly obvious? Robert Pinkerton used to say that a lie was like a dead coyote. The longer you leave it, the more it smells. He’d have been the first to say that everything about the Reichenbach Falls stank.

You must forgive me if I seem a touch overemphatic but my story – this story – begins with Reichenbach and what follows will make no sense without a close examination of the facts. And who am I? So that you may know whose company you keep, let me tell you that my name is Frederick Chase, that I am a senior investigator with the Pinkerton Detective Agency in New York and that I was in Europe for the first – and quite possibly the last – time in my life. My appearance? Well, it’s never easy for any man to describe himself but I will be honest and say that I could not call myself handsome. My hair was black, my eyes an indifferent shade of brown. I was slender and though only in my forties, I was already too put-upon by the challenges life had thrown my way. I was unmarried and sometimes I worried that it showed in my wardrobe, which was perhaps a little too well worn. If there were a dozen men in the room I would be the last to speak. That was my nature.

I was at Reichenbach five days after the confrontation that the world has come to know as ‘The Final Problem’. Well, there was nothing final about it, as we now know, and I guess that just leaves us with the problem.

So. Let’s take it from the start.

Sherlock Holmes, the greatest consulting detective who ever lived, flees England in fear of his life. Dr Watson, who knows the man better than anyone and who would never hear a word said against him, is forced to admit that at this time Holmes is at less than his best, utterly worn out by the predicament in which he finds himself and which he cannot control. Can we blame him? He has been attacked no fewer than three times in the space of just one morning. He has come within an inch of being crushed by a two-horse van that rushes past him on Welbeck Street; he has almost been hit by a brick that falls or is thrown from a roof on Vere Street – and, right outside Watson’s front door, he finds himself attacked by some good fellow who’s been waiting with a bludgeon. Does he have any choice but to flee?

Well, yes. There are so many other choices available to him that I have to wonder what exactly was in Mr Holmes’s mind. Not, of course, that he’s particularly forthcoming in the stories, all of which I’ve read (without ever once guessing the solution, for what it’s worth). To begin with, what makes him think he will be safer on the Continent than he will be closer to home? London itself is a densely knit, teeming city, which he knows intimately and, as he once confided, he has many rooms (‘five small refuges’, Watson says) scattered around the place, which are known only to him.

He could disguise himself. In fact he does disguise himself. Only the next day, after Watson has arrived at Victoria Station, he notices an aged Italian priest in discussion with a porter and even goes so far as to offer him his assistance. Later, the priest enters his carriage and the two of them sit together face to face for several minutes before Watson recognises his friend. Holmes’s disguises were so brilliant that he could have spent the next three years as a Catholic priest without anyone being the wiser. He could have entered an Italian monastery. Padre Sherlock . . . that would have thrown his enemies. They might even have let him pursue some of his other interests – beekeeping, for example – on the side.

Instead, Holmes goes haring off on a journey that seems to have nothing that resembles an itinerary and he asks Watson to accompany him. Why? The most incompetent criminal will surely work out that where one goes, the other will quite probably follow. And let’s not forget that we are talking here about a criminal like no other, the master of his profession, a man who is equally feared and admired by Holmes himself. I don’t believe for a minute that he could possibly have underestimated Moriarty. Common sense tells me that he must have been playing another game.

Sherlock Holmes travels to Canterbury, Newhaven, Brussels and Strasbourg, followed every step of the way. At Strasbourg, he receives a telegram from the London police informing him that all the members of Moriarty’s gang have been captured. This is, as it turns out, quite false. One key player has slipped through the net – although I use the term ill-advisedly as the big fat fish that is Colonel Sebastian Moran has never been anywhere near it.

Colonel Moran, the finest sharpshooter in Europe, was well known to Pinkerton’s, by the way. Indeed, by the end of his career, he was known to every law enforcement agency on the planet. He had been famous once for bringing down eleven tigers in a single week in Rajasthan, a feat that astonished his fellow hunters as much as it outraged the members of the Royal Geographical Society. Holmes called him the second most dangerous man in London – all the more so in that he was motivated entirely by money. The murder of Mrs Abigail Stewart, for example, an eminently respectable widow shot through the head as she played bridge in Lauder, was committed only so that he could pay off his gambling debts at the Bagatelle Card Club. It is strange to reflect that as Holmes sat reading the telegram, Moran was less than a hundred yards away, sipping herbal tea on a hotel terrace. Well, the two of them would meet soon enough.

From Strasbourg, Holmes continues to Geneva and spends a week exploring the snow-capped hills and pretty villages of the Rhône Valley. Watson describes this interlude as ‘charming’, which is not the word I would have used in the circumstances but I suppose we can only admire the way these two men, such close friends, can relax in each other’s company even at such a time as this. Holmes is still in fear of his life, and there is another incident. Following a path close to the steel-grey water of the Daubensee, he is almost hit by a boulder that comes rolling down from the mountain above. His guide, a local man, assures him that such an event is quite commonplace and I am inclined to believe him. I’ve looked at the maps and I’ve worked out the distances. As far as I can see, Holmes’s enemy is already well ahead of him, waiting for him to arrive. Even so, Holmes is convinced that once again he has been attacked and spends the rest of the day in a state of extreme anxiety.

At last he reaches the village of Meiringen on the River Aar where he and Watson stay at the Englischer Hof, a guest house run by a former waiter from the Grosvenor Hotel in London. It is this man, Peter Steiler, who suggests that Holmes should visit the Reichenbach Falls, and for a brief time the Swiss police will suspect him of having been in Moriarty’s pay – which tells you everything you need to know about the investigative techniques of the Swiss police. If you want my view, they’d have been hard pressed to find a snowflake on an Alpine glacier. I stayed at the guest house and I interviewed Steiler myself. He wasn’t just innocent. He was simple, barely taking his nose out of his pots and pans (his wife actually ran the place). Until the world came knocking at his door, Steiler wasn’t even aware of his famous guest’s identity and his first response after the news of Holmes’s death had been revealed was to name a fondue after him.

Of course he recommended the Reichenbach Falls. It would have been suspicious if he hadn’t. They were already a popular destination for tourists and romantics. In the summer months, you might find half a dozen artists dotted along the mossy path, trying to capture the meltwater of the Rosenlaui Glacier as it plunged three hundred feet down into that ravine. Trying and failing. There was something almost supernatural about that grim place that would have defied the pastels and oils of all but the greatest painters. I’ve seen works by Charles Parsons and Emanuel Leutze in New York and maybe they would have been able to do something with it. It was as if the world were ending here in a perpetual apocalypse of thundering water and spray rising like steam, the birds frightened away and the sun blocked out. The walls that enclosed this raging deluge were jagged and harsh and as old as Rip van Winkle. Sherlock Holmes had often shown a certain fondness for melodrama but never more so than here. It was a stage like no other to act out a grand finale and one that would resonate, like the falls themselves, for centuries to come.

It’s at this point that things begin to get a little murky.

Holmes and Watson stand together for a while and are about to continue on their way when they are surprised by the arrival of a slightly plump, fair-haired fourteen-year-old boy. And with good reason. He is dressed to the nines in traditional Swiss costume with close-fitting trousers tucked into socks that rise up almost to his knees, a white shirt and a loose-fitting red waistcoat. All this strikes me as a touch incongruous. This is Switzerland, not a Palace Theatre vaudeville. I feel the boy is trying too hard.

At any event, he claims to have come from the Englischer Hof. A woman has been taken ill but refuses for some reason to be seen by a Swiss physician. This is what he says. And what would you do if you were Watson? Would you refuse to believe this unlikely story and stay put or would you abandon your friend – at the worst possible time and in a truly infernal place? That’s all we ever hear about the Swiss boy, by the way – although you and I will meet him again soon enough. Watson suggests that he may have been working for Moriarty but does not mention him again. As for Watson, he takes his leave and hurries off to his non-existent patient; generous but wrong-headed to the last.

We must now wait three years for Holmes’s reappearance – and it is important to remember that, to all intents and purposes, as far as this narrative is concerned, it is believed that he is dead. Only much later does he explain himself (Watson relates it all in ‘The Adventure of the Empty House’), and although I have read many written statements in my line of work, few of them have managed to stack up quite so many improbabilities. This is his account, however, and we must, I suppose, take it at face value.

After Watson has left, according to Holmes, Professor James Moriarty makes his appearance, walking along the narrow path that curves halfway around the falls. This path comes to an abrupt end, so there can be no question of Holmes attempting to escape – not that such a course of action would ever have crossed his mind. Give him his due: this is a man who has always faced his fears square on, whether they be a deadly swamp adder, a hideous poison that might drive you to insanity or a hell-hound set loose on the moors. Holmes has done many things that are, frankly, baffling – but he has never run away.

The two men exchange words. Holmes asks permission to leave a note for his old companion and Professor Moriarty agrees. This much at least can be verified for those three sheets of paper are among the most prized possessions of the British Library Reading Room in London where I have seen them displayed. However, once these courtesies have been dispensed with, the two men rush at each other in what seems to be less a fight, more a suicide pact, each determined to drag the other into the roaring torrent of water. And so it might have been. But Holmes still has one trick up his sleeve. He has learned bartitsu. I had never heard of it before but apparently it’s a martial art invented by a British engineer, which combines boxing and judo, and he puts it to good use.

Moriarty is taken by surprise. He is propelled over the edge and, with a terrible scream, plunges into the abyss. Holmes sees him brush against a rock before he disappears into the water. He himself is safe . . . Forgive me, but is there not something a little unsatisfactory about this encounter? You have to ask yourself why Moriarty allows himself to be challenged in this way. Old-school heroics are all very well (although I’ve never yet met a criminal who went in for them) but what possible purpose can it have served to endanger himself? To put it bluntly, why didn’t he simply take out a revolver and shoot his opponent at close range?

If that is strange, Holmes’s behaviour now becomes completely inexplicable. On the spur of the moment, he decides to use what has just occurred to feign his own death. He climbs up the rock face behind the path and hides there until Watson returns. In this way, of course, there will be no second set of footprints to show that he has survived. What’s the point? Professor Moriarty is now dead and the British police have announced that the entire gang has been arrested so why does he still believe himself to be in danger? What exactly is there to be gained? If I had been Holmes, I would have hurried back to the Englischer Hof for a nice Wiener schnitzel and a celebratory glass of Neuchâtel.

Meanwhile, Dr Watson, realising he has been tricked, rushes back to the scene, where an abandoned alpenstock and a set of footprints tell their own tale. He summons help and investigates the scene with several men from the hotel and a local police officer by the name of Gessner. Holmes sees them but does not make himself known, even though he must be aware of the distress it will cause his most trusted companion. They find the letter. They read it and, realising there is nothing more to be done, they all leave. Holmes begins to climb down again and it is now that the narrative takes another unexpected and wholly inexplicable turn. It appears that Professor Moriarty has not come to the Reichenbach Falls alone. As Holmes begins his descent – no easy task in itself – a man suddenly appears and attempts to knock him off his perch with a number of boulders. The man is Colonel Sebastian Moran.

What on earth is he doing there? Was he present when Holmes and Moriarty fought, and if so, why didn’t he try to help? Where is his gun? Has the greatest marksman in the world accidentally left it on the train? Neither Holmes nor Watson, nor anyone else for that matter, has ever provided reasonable answers to questions which, even as I sit here hammering at the keys, seem inescapable. And once I start asking them, I can’t stop. I feel as if I am in a runaway coach, tearing down Fifth Avenue, unable to stop at the lights.

That is about as much as we know of the Reichenbach Falls. The story that I must now tell begins five days later when three men come together in the crypt of St Michael’s church in Meiringen. One is a detective inspector from Scotland Yard, the famous command centre of the British police. His name is Athelney Jones. I am the second.

The third man is tall and thin with a prominent forehead and sunken eyes which might view the world with a cold malevolence and cunning were there any life in them at all. But now they are glazed and empty. The man, formally dressed in a suit with a wing collar and a long frock coat, has been fished out of the Reichenbach Brook, some distance from the falls. His left leg is broken and there are other serious injuries to his shoulder and head, but death must surely have been caused by drowning. The local police have attached a label to his wrist, which has been folded across his chest. On it is written the name: James Moriarty.

This is the reason I have come all the way to Switzerland. It appears that I have arrived too late.

TWO

Inspector Athelney Jones

‘Are you sure it is really him?’

‘I am as sure of it as I can be, Mr Chase. But setting aside any personal convictions, let us consider the evidence. His appearance and the circumstances of his being here would certainly seem to fit all the facts at our disposal. And if this is not Moriarty, we are obliged to ask ourselves who he actually is, how he came to be killed and, for that matter, what has happened to Moriarty himself.’

‘Only one body was recovered.’

‘So I understand. Poor Mr Holmes . . . to be deprived of the consolation of a Christian burial, which every man deserves. But of one thing we can be certain. His name will live on. There is some comfort in that.’

This conversation took place in the damp, gloomy basement of the church, a place untouched by the warmth and fragrance of that spring day. Inspector Jones stood next to me, leaning over the drowned man with his hands clasped tightly behind him, as if he were afraid of being contaminated. I watched his dark grey eyes travel the full length of the cadaver, arriving at the feet, one of which had lost its shoe. It appeared that Moriarty had had a fondness for embroidered silk socks.

We had met, just a short while ago, at the police station in Meiringen. I was frankly surprised that a tiny village stuck in the middle of the Swiss mountains surrounded by goats and buttercups should have need of one. But, as I’ve already mentioned, it was a popular tourist destination and what with the recent coming of the railway, there must have been an increasing number of travellers passing through. There were two men on duty, both of them dressed in dark blue uniforms, standing behind the wooden counter that stretched across the front room. One of them was the hapless Sergeant Gessner who had been summoned to the falls – and it was already obvious to me that he would have been much happier dealing with lost passports, train tickets, street directions . . . anything rather than the more serious business of murder.

He and his companion spoke little of my language and I had been forced to explain myself using the images and headlines of an English newspaper, which I had brought with me for that express purpose. I had heard that a body had been dragged out of the water beneath the Reichenbach Falls and had asked to see it, but these Swiss police were obstinate in the way of many a uniformed man given limited power. Speaking over each other, and with a great deal of gesticulation, they had made it clear to me that they were waiting for the arrival of a senior officer who had come all the way from England and that any decision would be his. I told them that I had travelled a great deal further and that my business was quite serious too but that didn’t matter. I’m sorry, mein Herr. There was nothing they could do to help.

I took out my watch and glanced at it. It was already eleven o’clock with half the morning wasted and I was afraid the rest of it would go the same way, but just then the front door opened and, feeling the breeze on the back of my neck, I turned to see a man standing there, silhouetted against the morning light. He said nothing, but as he moved inside I saw that he was about the same age as me, perhaps a little younger, with dark-coloured hair lying flat on his forehead and soft grey eyes that questioned everything. There was a sort of seriousness about him, and when he stepped into a room, you had to stop and take notice. He was wearing a brown lounge suit with a pale overcoat, which was unbuttoned and hung loosely from his shoulders. It was evident that he had recently been quite ill and had lost weight. I could see it in his clothes, which were a little too large for him, and in the pallor and pinched quality of his face. He carried a walking stick made of rosewood with an odd, complicated silver handle. Having approached the counter, he rested on the stick, using it to support him.

‘Können Sie mir helfen?’ he asked. He spoke German very naturally but with no attempt at a German accent, as if he had studied the words but never actually heard them. ‘Ich bin Inspector Athelney Jones von Scotland Yard.’

He had examined me very briefly, accepting my presence and filing it away for later use, but otherwise he had ignored me. His name, however, had an immediate effect on the two policemen.

‘Jones. Inspector Jones,’ they repeated, and when he held out his own letter of introduction they took it with much bowing and smiling and, having asked him to wait a few moments while they entered the details in the police log, retired to an inner office, leaving the two of us alone.

It would have been impossible for us to ignore each other and he was the first to break the silence, translating what he had already said.

‘My name is Athelney Jones,’ he said.

‘Did I hear you say you were from Scotland Yard?’

‘Indeed.’

‘I’m Frederick Chase.’

We shook hands. His grip was curiously loose, as if his hand were barely connected to his wrist.

‘This is a beautiful spot,’ he went on. ‘I have never had the pleasure of travelling in Switzerland. In fact, this is only the third time I have been abroad at all.’ He turned his attention briefly to my steamer trunk which, having nowhere to stay, I had been obliged to bring with me. ‘You have just arrived?’

‘An hour ago,’ I said. ‘I guess we must have been on the same train.’

‘And your business . . . ?’

I hesitated. The assistance of a British police officer was essential to the task that had brought me to Meiringen, but at the same time I did not wish to appear too forward. In America, there had often been conflicts of interest between Pinkerton’s and the official government services. Why should it be any different here? ‘I am here on a private matter . . .’ I began.

He smiled at this, although at the same time I saw a veil of something in his eyes that might have been pain. ‘Then perhaps you will allow me to tell you, Mr Chase,’ he remarked. He considered for a moment. ‘You are a Pinkerton’s agent from New York and last week you set off for England in the hope of tracking down Professor James Moriarty. He had received a communication which is important to you and which you hoped to find about his person. You were shocked to hear of his death and came directly here. I see, incidentally, you have a low opinion of the Swiss police—’

‘Wait a minute!’ I exclaimed. I held up a hand. ‘Stop right there! Have you been spying on me, Inspector Jones? Have you spoken to my office? I find it pretty bad that the British police should have gone behind my back and involved themselves in my affairs!’

‘You do not need to concern yourself,’ Jones returned, again with that same strange smile. ‘Everything I have told you I have deduced from my observation of you here, in this room. And I could add more, if you wish.’

‘Why not?’

‘You live in an old-fashioned apartment block, several floors up. You do not think your company looks after you as well as it might, particularly as you are one of its most successful investigators. You are not married. I am sorry to see that the sea crossing was a particularly disagreeable one – and not just because of the very bad weather on the second or perhaps the third day. You are thinking that your entire trip has been a wild goose chase. I hope, for your sake, it is not.’

He fell silent and I stared at him as if seeing him for the first time. ‘You are right in almost everything you say,’ I rasped. ‘But how the devil you managed it is quite beyond me. Will you explain yourself?’

‘It was all very straightforward,’ he replied. ‘I might almost say elementary.’ He chose the last word carefully, as if it had some special significance.

‘That’s easy enough for you

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