The House of Silk The House of Silk The House of Silk is a Sherlock Holmes novel written by British author Anthony Horowitz, published in 2011. The book was promoted with the claim it was the first time the Conan Doyle Estate had authorised a new non-Doyle Sherlock Holmes pastiche. "The House of Silk" begins with a brief, personal recounting of events by Watson, much like that in "A Study in Scarlet" by the original author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The reader is informed of the particulars regarding the first meeting of Watson and Holmes, including the circumstances of the Afghan War and a
Adrian Conan Doyle Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". Sir Arthur's widow Jean chose a spiritualist, the Rev. John Lamond, to write an authorised life of him, "Arthur Conan Doyle: A Memoir" (John Murray, 1931). The memoir emphasised his paranormal interests but was not what readers wanted, so after their mother's death Adrian and Denis grudgingly allowed Hesketh Pearson to write "Conan Doyle: His Life and Art" (Methuen, 1943). But Pearson's book offended Adrian and Denis by saying that the secret of their father's success was that he was the "common man". Adrian threatened criminal proceedings against Pearson's "fakeography", and wrote an article in protest,