''The Italian Secretary'' is mystery fiction by Caleb Carr featuring Sherlock Holmes and

Dr. Watson John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1887). The last work by Doyle f ...

. This literary pastiche had the approval of the Doyle estate having originally been commissioned as a short story for the collection ''Ghosts of Baker Street'' which then expanded into a novel.

Plot summary

Architect Sir Alistair Sinclair and his foreman, Dennis McKay, have been slain in the midst of rehabilitating the medieval west tower of the Royal Palace of Holyrood—the very wing where

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...

, had lived, and where

David Rizzio David Rizzio ( ; it, Davide Rizzio ; – 9 March 1566) or Riccio ( , ) was an Italian courtier, born in Pancalieri close to Turin, a descendant of an ancient and noble family still living in Piedmont, the Riccio Counts di San Paolo e Solbrito ...

had met his brutal, politically motivated end.

Mycroft Holmes Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character appearing in stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1893 to 1908. The elder brother (by seven years) of detective Sherlock Holmes, he is a government official and a founding member of the Diogene ...

fears these murders portend new threats against Britain's present monarch—the elderly

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

, who occasionally lodges at the palace—by a known assassin, perhaps in nefarious league with the German Kaiser. En route north, Holmes and Watson are menaced aboard their train by a red-bearded bomb thrower (supposedly a rabid Scots nationalist), only to discover that still greater dangers await them, and others, at

Holyroodhouse The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh ...

. The plaintive drone of a weeping woman, cruelly punctured and shattered corpses, a pool of blood "that never dries", and a disembodied Italian voice with unexpected musical tastes all imply the wrath of wraiths behind recent atrocities. But Holmes and Watson deduce that greed, rather than ghosts, may be to blame.

Characters in ''The Italian Secretary''

* Sherlock Holmes * John H. Watson M.D. *

Release details

* 2005, United States, publisher , Pub date 2005, binding

Reception

Geoff Nicholson, writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', called the action "rip-roaring stuff" and called it "good honest hokum." Colin Greenland of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praised Carr's characterization of Sherlock Holmes and Mycroft but found the book longwinded at times, saying "Carr's version reproduces superbly the peculiar éclat of Holmes's often absurd but spectacularly correct "deductions", though he's a terrible windbag. The mystery isn't much of a mystery, and it's interrupted far too much by explanations of things Doyle could take as read: who Mary Queen of Scots was, for instance." ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' found the book underwhelming compared to earlier efforts saying "while the novel captivates, it matches neither of Carr's previous megasellers in plot invention or depth of character." '' Kirkus Reviews'' also criticized the book saying "It’s fun for about a hundred pages, because Carr apes Conan Doyle’s plummy storyteller’s voice quite ably...But the successive disclosures become increasingly preposterous."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Secretary, The 2005 American novels Novels by Caleb Carr Sherlock Holmes novels Sherlock Holmes pastiches Novels set in Edinburgh Carroll & Graf books