03/23/2006 9:56 PM
Posted by VeggieSteph

The Italian Secretary: A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes by Caleb Carr

I picked up The Italian Secretary because it was a highlighted book in my book club, and I have been on a serious mystery kick lately. I love Sherlock Holmes mysteries (another recent purchase has been the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes, in two volumes) and I will watch almost any movie adaptation or TV show of these stories. Young Sherlock Holmes (loved it), TIVO The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries from PBS (check), remember fondly the illustrated collections of The Speckled Band and The Hound of the Baskervilles from my childhood (gotcha). So when I saw this was a “continuing adventure” I worried slightly, but my book club is rare to steer me wrong, so I took a chance. I was pleasantly surprised.


The Italian Secretary brings Sherlock and his trusty sidekick Watson back into the service of Her Majesty and Holmes’s brother Mycroft. Queen Victoria is under siege, with several attempts on her life by several young men all using the same weapon. Mycroft is worried that there is a deeper plot involving some Scottish revolutionists, and he secrets Holmes and Watson to Scotland where the Queen is currently visiting. Holmes and Watson begin the investigation at Holyrood Castle, where the infamous murder of David Rizzio was committed, and where the ghost of the murdered Italian secretary for Mary, Queen of Scots is still rumored to roam in the dark. Holmes and Watson do eventually turn up the solution, and to tell you much more would give away the twists that are involved here.

I was encouraged to read that a representative of the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate approached Caleb Carr to write this book. It gave me confidence that was not misplaced. I’m not a Sherlock Holmes expert, but I do enjoy Doyle’s stories, and I think that Caleb Carr was an excellent choice. I sped right through the text; it felt like I was reading a new story by Doyle. The characters felt familiar, the story was engaging, and the mystery was simple and solved naturally through Holmes’ powers of observation. I especially enjoyed the Afterward, where Jon Lellenberg compares Carr’s own created character of Dr. Kreizler to Doyle’s character of Holmes. It shows just why the Doyle Estate would have chosen Caleb Carr to write The Italian Secretary.

I liked this book so much I made sure to add Caleb Carr’s first two books, The Alienist and Angel of Darkness, to my list of books to pick up. If you like mysteries and are a Sherlock Holmes fan, you should give The Italian Secretary a try. (Interestingly enough, in the past year I read a nonfiction book about Mary, Queen of Scots and the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley that involves the murder of David Rizzio. How interesting to see it used here.)