The Italian Secretary: A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes

I don’t know why I keep reading Caleb Carr books. I haven’t found any I like; there’s just some sort of annoying undercurrent in all of them.The Italian Secretary is, unfortunately, no exception. This Sherlock Holmes pastiche has a telegraphed plot and a ridiculous murder weapon. Carr introduces spurious detail in an attempt at authenticity; for example, in the Conan Doyle stories Watson, when armed, uses his “service revolver” while Carr makes it a “Webley”. Well, if Carr had actually paid attention to the canon he would have note that Watson was invalided out of the army after a jezail bullet wound at the 1880 Battle of Miawand in the Second Afghan War and the Webley wasn’t introduced until 1887; Watson would have show more carried either a Beaumont-Adams or an Enfield Mark I. Similarly, in a battle in Holyroodhouse, Watson, with the entire palace gunroom at his disposal, outfits himself with a .375 Holland and Holland rifle, a singularly inappropriate weapon for a close-quarters battle and not introduced until 1912. The whole book is full of stuff like this. Not recommended unless you’re an obsessive Holmes collector. show less

I'm ridiculously pedantic when it comes to Sherlock Holmes, for obvious reasons. I never much like pastiches, either. My theory is, why can't we just leave a good thing alone?

That being said, this is an excellent Holmes and Watson pastiche. Carr has a good feel for Doyle's narrative style and (this may be what sold me on the book) we get to see much more of Mycroft, who makes all too short of an appearance in the original Holmes collection. Importantly, Carr seems just as true to Watson as he is to Holmes--he is portrayed as the intelligent, staunchly loyal medical man that he is.

The book also incorporates a lot of action (those who yearn for Victorian train travel and political espionage will not be disappointed) and, although a good show more read, this is when the reader is most reminded that it is indeed a pastiche. However, the book is no less enjoyable for that. show less

Probably closer to 2.5. I mean…it was ok…I guess. It was fun reading new Holmes and Watson stuff, and the plot was ok…but it was just missing that ACDoyle flair. The panache. The…Holmes. I saw what it was trying to do, I just felt that it fell a little flat.

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 show more 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. show less

Carr captures Doyle's ambience and style but plot simplistic. Enjoyable.

This book was invited by Jon Lellenberg, U.S. representative for the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle estate based on Carr's writing about Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologically oriented forensic detective, in The Alienist and Angel of Darkness. In this story Holmes and Watson are called to Scotland to assist in solving two murder cases occurring at Holyroodhouse, last residence of Mary, Queen of Scots and a secondary residence of Queen Victoria when she does not stay at Balmoral. The Italian Secretary of the title is a tutor and dancing instructor of Mary's who was brutally murdered there in the 16th century. The legend of his murder is woven throughout the Holmes investigation and these murders are similar. Interesting look at a small piece of show more history with a touch of the supernatural added to a typical Holmes resolution. show less

Caleb Carr, best known for The Alienist, has tried in The Italian Secretary to do the impossible: write a decent Sherlock Holmes story without being Arthur Conan Doyle. The result is surprisingly not bad; typically I cannot get through attempts like this, but Carr's effort was worth it - he comes perhaps as close as possible, but there's still something missing from the Holmes and Watson who appear in this novel (as I think there must be).

Nonetheless, this is a fine mystery in itself, with suitable suspense, decent plot twists, and appropriately nefarious villains. A fast read.

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