"The Italian Secretary"

by Caleb Carr

Hooray for Holyrood!

Hey, if you clicked on this article because you thought this was going to be a rave review, I’m sorry, I was referring to the Royal Palace of Holyrood in Scotland where most of the action in this book takes place.

Caleb Carr is a writer that I haven’t heard much about in recent years. I think ‘The Italian Secretary’ was the last novel he wrote and it was published in 2005. I admired Carr’s two ‘Alienists’ books, ‘The Alienist’ (1994) and ‘The Angel of Darkness’ (1997) and, though they took place in New York during the early 1900s, the character of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler always reminded me of Sherlock Holmes. Therefore, it wasn’t much of a surprise to find out that Carr had written a Holmes novel with the permission of the Holmes estate. I was very hopeful when I dug in to read this book because of the release of the new movie ‘Sherlock Holmes’ I thought my time with this book would be a complement to viewing the movie. Well, I liked the movie, but found the book to be mediocre.

If ‘The Italian Secretary’ was written by someone else, I wouldn’t have felt so let down, but because Carr wrote it I thought it would just come off better. I don’t want to imply that it is a total waste of time, because I didn’t find that to be necessarily the case. If you adore the Holmes character then you are probably going to find the novel at least worthy of a quick read.

The book begins with a telegram from Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older brother, asking for both Holmes and Dr. Watson to join him in Scotland and from there the game is afoot. The Italian Secretary in the title was a musician and alleged hunchback and friend/favorite of Mary Queen of Scots. He was murdered by an angry group of noble Scotsmen for no real particular reason other than he was close to the queen and they wanted to send a message to her (i.e. one that they felt they couldn’t just right out, sit down and chat with her about). He was a pawn in a larger game of political intrigue and the result of his bloody and senseless murder is that not only is he a historical footnote, but is rumored to still haunt the west tower of the palace in which he was murdered.

One of the major elements of the storyline is that Mycroft Holmes is sharing the confidence of the woman for whom the age was named, Queen Victoria. At the end of the 19th century Europe is awash with assination threats and rumors, but the queen will have none of that since she is related to most of the Royal houses on the continent. Unfortunately, two men have been killed in rarefied ways at the Holyroodhouse where the Queen occasionally stays, although she prefers the privacy of Balmoral Castle. Mycroft Holmes is afraid that his favorite monarch isn’t taking the threats seriously; particularly the ones from Germany where her grandson, Wilhelm II rules as Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia. He is afraid that the recent deaths at Holyroodhouse might be tied to a bigger plan.

Although I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I was hoping, it was a quick read and it did fire my interest in regards to the history of Holyrood Palace. If you are a Sherlock Holmes fan, I would recommend the book, if not, then check out Carr’s Alienist series (can two books be called a series?) because I found them to be much more fun.

Reviewed by Lisa Westerfield © 2010