Sherlock Holmes (Anthony Horowitz) Books in Order

Horowitz’s Sherlock Holmes books are modern pastiches that try hard to feel like Conan Doyle, without turning into parody. They keep Holmes in Victorian London, with Watson as narrator, and they lean into the pleasures of a classic case: a strange client, a trail of clues, and a solution that makes you want to flip back and see what you missed.

Part of the appeal is the craft. Horowitz builds scenes the way the original stories do, quick interviews, brisk trips across London, and small observations that turn out to matter later. You don’t need deep knowledge of the canon, but if you have it, you’ll notice the careful touches in the language and the rhythms of Watson’s storytelling.

The entry point is The House of Silk, which was written with the blessing of the Conan Doyle estate. It opens with an anxious client and a mystery that keeps getting darker the further Holmes and Watson push. Horowitz writes the duo with affection, but he also lets the stakes bite, this is not a gentle tea-and-biscuits puzzle, it’s a story where the “respectable” parts of society have reasons to keep secrets.

Holmes notices what everyone else walks past.

Moriarty takes a different angle. Set in the aftermath of the Reichenbach Falls, it follows investigators hunting the criminal world left in the wake of Holmes’s apparent death. The book plays with the idea of what happens to an underworld when its biggest names vanish, and it turns the chase into a game of masks and misdirection.

You’ll also find shorter pieces like The Three Monarchs, which give you a quicker hit of Holmes and Watson in the same voice. These shorter stories tend to focus on a single tightly built mystery and the pleasure of watching Holmes connect dots that look unrelated to everyone else.

If you want to read in order, start with The House of Silk and then move to Moriarty, saving the short fiction for whenever you want an extra case. The books work whether you’re a long-time Holmes reader or you’re just curious how a modern writer handles the characters. They’re also refreshingly plot-first. Come for the deductions, stay for the chase, mostly.

The big promise is the same: smart clues, strong atmosphere, and a mystery that feels at home on Baker Street.