The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz

by CarolNo Comments
First off, Rory Kinnear does a fabulous job as the narrator of The Twist of a Knife. The story is told in the first person by the fictionalized Anthony Horowitz, so hopefully, I'll never hear the real Horowitz speak, since I'll expect Kinnear's voice. Beyond that, though, he does all the characters' voices well, inserting their personality and feelings into their dialogue. When I first started this series, I wasn't a fan of Horowitz inserting himself into the story as the detective's sidekick, but I've changed my mind. The bits of his real-life intermingled with the fictional plot are fun. For example, he really did write a play called Mindgame that really was performed at the Vaudeville Theatre. As the blurb states, Horowitz is the main suspect this time, accused of murdering a theater critic, and the evidence is mounting. Of course, he turns to Hawthorne, who takes the case. (He has his own reasons for doing so; it's not just out...
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A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz

by CarolNo Comments
The hook here is that Horowitz has written himself into the book, a Watson figure to Hawthorne's Sherlock. It seems a silly conceit to me. I guess it lets him mention his other work, but we all know this is a fictionalized version of Horowitz, basically a character, so I don't see the point. Anyway, this time around Horowitz and Hawthorne are sent to the island of Alderney for a small weekend literary festival. And of course, while they're there, someone is killed - a wealthy sponsor of the festival, murdered at his own house party. The island is locked down, no one allowed on, no one allowed off, while the police, with Hawthorne's help, try to figure out who the killer is. Everyone on the island seems to have a reason to want the man dead. The house party/isolated island gives us a limited number of suspects, but everyone here has a secret and there are red herrings galore. Horowitz...
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Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

by Carol5 Comments
Moonflower Murders is the sequel to Magpie Murders, although I think it would work well as a stand alone. Once again we have a book within the book, and the return of publisher/amateur sleuth, Susan Ryeland. After the fallout from the last book, Susan is no longer working in publishing and is instead jointly owning and running a hotel in Crete with her long term Greek boyfriend, Andreas Patakis. A hotel is hard work day in and day out, with never-ending problems, and lots of debt. The truth is that she is missing England and her former profession as an editor. So when Susan is approached by wealthy couple, Lawrence and Pauline Trehearne, to return to England and stay at the exclusive Branlow Hotel in order to look into the disappearance of their daughter, Cecily, it feels like just what she needs to do- and she'll be getting paid. Eight years ago, a hotel guest had been brutally hammered to...
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The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz

The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz

by Carol4 Comments
Hawthorne has been called in by the police again to help solve a murder, and of course, he convinces Horowitz to join him. After all, Horowitz needs to write two more stories featuring Hawthorne. The Sentence Is Death is the second in the series and honestly, I liked the whole author as a character thing more enjoyable this time around. The first time around I found it almost clever for clever's sake, but in this one it was amusing, seeing how people reacted to him, or not, knowing he was an author. I don't really have much to say about this one. It's a good traditional mystery, kind of a take on Sherlock and Watson, with Hawthorne as Sherlock, putting together the clues. He's not entirely likable, definitely not politically correct, and a bit abrasive. He keeps his theories to himself right up until the end. And Horowitz is our bumbling Watson, never getting the clues quite right, asking the wrong...
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The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

by Carol6 Comments
Horowitz is just a little too clever for me. In The Word is Murder, he's inserted a fictional version of himself as the detective's sidekick. It's all very meta and distracting for me. The mystery itself is good, a woman is killed the same day she plans her own funeral. There are several secrets in her past that may have to do with the murder. She also has a famous actor son, which makes the case more interesting to the media. Horowitz the character is drawn into the case by a detective who consults for the police. Hawthorne can be a bit grating. He's supposed to be the brilliant, idiosyncratic Holmes-ish character to Horowitz. The characters and mystery are actually well-done. I like the false leads and how to some extent the slightly bumbling Horowitz encourages them. The clues are all there, but the time line falls apart a little. I think I tend to want to like Horowitz's stories more...
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Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

by Carol4 Comments
I should have loved Magpie Murders. It's definitely a book for mystery readers. Not only does it have two well-plotted mysteries, it has some great quotes about the nature of mysteries and reading. “You must know that feeling when it's raining outside and the heating's on and you lose yourself, utterly, in a book. You read and you read and you feel the pages slipping through your fingers until suddenly there are fewer in your right hand than there are in your left and you want to slow down but you still hurtle on towards a conclusion you can hardly bear to discover.” “As far as I'm concerned, you can't beat a good whodunnit: the twists & turns, the clues and the red herrings and then, finally, the satisfaction of having everything explained to you in a way that makes you kick yourself because you hadn't seen it from the start.” The set up is great, a novel within a novel, both murder...
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