{{Short description|2005 novel by Caleb Carr}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject Books --> | name = The Italian Secretary | image = TheItalianSecretary.jpg | caption = First edition | author = Caleb Carr | audio_read_by = Simon Prebble | country = United States | language = English | cover_artist = | series = | genre = Detective & Mystery novel | publisher = Carroll & Graf | release_date = 2005 | media_type = Print | pages = 256 | isbn = 0-7867-1548-0 | dewey = 813/.54 22 | congress = PS3553.A76277 I86 2005 | oclc = 58804944 | preceded_by = | followed_by = }}
'''''The Italian Secretary''''' is mystery fiction by Caleb Carr featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. This literary pastiche had the approval of the Doyle estate<ref name="Nicholson">{{cite web|last=Nicholson|first=Geoff|title='The Italian Secretary': The Kaiser Is a Suspect|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/books/review/the-italian-secretary-the-kaiser-is-a-suspect.html|work=The New York Times|date=May 22, 2005|accessdate=January 13, 2019}}</ref> having originally been commissioned as a short story<ref>{{cite web|title=Interview with Caleb Carr|url=https://strandmag.com/the-magazine/interviews/interview-with-caleb-carr/|work=The Strand Magazine|date=30 March 2018 |accessdate=January 13, 2019}}</ref> for the collection ''Ghosts of Baker Street'' which then expanded into a novel.<ref name="pw">{{cite web|title=Fiction Book Review: The Italian Secretary|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7867-1548-0|work=Publishers Weekly|date=March 4, 2005|accessdate=January 13, 2019}}</ref>
==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, had lived, and where David Rizzio had met his brutal, politically motivated end. Mycroft Holmes fears these murders portend new threats against Britain's present monarch—the elderly Queen Victoria, 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 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. * Mycroft Holmes
==Release details== * 2005, United States, publisher {{ISBN|0-7867-1548-0}}, Pub date 2005, binding <!--major publication history to be included here, not everything if too extensive--> <!--example--> <!--*1999, USA, C.S. Black & sons ISBN 8768768760 {{Please check ISBN|reason=Check digit (0) does not correspond to calculated figure.}}{{Please check ISBN|reason=does not match hyphenation rules and is probably invalid}}, Pub date 1 April 1999, Hardback -->
==Reception== Geoff Nicholson, writing for ''The New York Times'', called the action "rip-roaring stuff" and called it "good honest hokum."<ref name="Nicholson"/> Colin Greenland of ''The Guardian'' 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."<ref>{{cite web|last=Greenland|first=Colin|title=Review: The Italian Secretary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jul/30/fiction.arthurconandoyle|work=The Guardian|date=July 29, 2005|accessdate=January 13, 2019}}</ref> ''Publishers Weekly'' 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."<ref name="pw"/> ''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."<ref>{{cite web|title=The Italian Secretary|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/caleb-carr/the-italian-secretary/|work=Kirkus Reviews|date=May 20, 2005|accessdate=January 13, 2019}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Caleb Carr novels}} {{Sherlock Holmes by others}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Secretary, The}} Category:2005 American novels Category:Novels by Caleb Carr Category:Sherlock Holmes novels Category:Sherlock Holmes pastiches Category:Novels set in Edinburgh Category:Carroll & Graf books