276°
Posted 20 hours ago

A Line to Kill (A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery)

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

That said, Horowitz populates his literary festival with fictional authors, rather than drag any real contemporaries through the mud, and they’re an interesting and distinctive cast - a necessary must for what turns out to be a classic Agatha Christie country house murder mystery, and conceived and executed as superbly as anything by Dame Aggie. When I recognised the Christie-style set-up, I immediately wondered if this was a step too far for Horowitz. The Susan Ryeland series is already an ingenious and compelling homage to the world’s most successful author of fiction and I wondered if A Line to Kill would blur the boundaries between the two series. It does not and each in is, in its own unique way, providing contemporary crime fiction with a much-needed revitalisation. Anthony Horowitz and the subject of his book The Word is Murder, Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne, are invited to a literary festival on the Channel Island of Alderney, in preparation for their upcoming follow-up, The Sentence is Death. But what the pair don’t expect to find is an island divided by conflict and become embroiled in a nefarious country house homicide… I loved this smartly written whodunit, but it's the characters of Hawthorne and Horowitz that have completely won me over.' My first thought was, is the detective British or from another country, man or woman? What is the ethnicity, sexuality, marital status? Does he have problems? Does she want to be something different? Is she a robot, vampire, spaceman or ghost?” From many angles

Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world." — Booklist The first in this series ‘The Word is Murder’ was a joy, an inventive and often quite hilarious post-modern subversion of the murder mystery, with the actual author, Horowitz, taking part in the action alongside the brilliant, if socially inept, former detective inspector Hawthorne. Horowitz casts himself as the bumbling Watson to Hawthorne’s almost supernaturally gifted Holmes.

After Hawthorne, Horowitz, and others questioned Abbott about Charles and Helen’s deaths, Abbott left what appeared to be a suicide note in his home. He jumped to his death from a cliff, making it appear that he had committed the murder.

The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Horowitz, Anthony. A Line to Kill. Harper, October 19, 2021. Kindle.Real-Person Cameo: Hilda Starke, Anthony Horowitz's agent in real life, pops up as his agent in this book. Anthony is mildly peeved at her for not giving his career enough attention. Having loved the first two books in this series, "The Word is Murder," and "The Sentence is Death," I was thrilled, not only to read the third, but to hear in the interview at the end of this that Anthony Horowitz is planning further mysteries featuring Hawthorne. Surprise, surprise, someone is murdered, and I’m not going to reveal who, because I went in blind, so there. I will say that the murder doesn’t take place until a wee way through, which suited me as it gave me a chance to get the characters straight, and learn the layout of the island. French Maid: Kathryn Harris wears a French maid costume while serving drinks at le Masurier's party. Anthony watches le Mesurier drunkenly hit on her and is disgusted, but it turns out to be deliberate by Kathryn, part of a Honey Pot scheme.

It's a tiny island, just three miles long and a mile and a half wide. The perfect location for a brand-new literary festival. Private investigator Daniel Hawthorne has been invited to talk about his new book. The writer, Anthony Horowitz, travels with him. A Line to Kill is set just before the publication of The Word is Murder (the first in the series) and opens with Hawthorne and Horowitz being invited to speak at a literary festival on the tiny Channel Island of Alderney. Alderney is only three square miles in size, home to about 2,000 people, and has never had a murder… until the detective duo arrives. The novel is very much an homage to Agatha Christie, particularly the later Poirot novels, and she is mentioned both explicitly and implicitly, for example in a chapter title. Following Christie, Horowitz spends nearly a third of the narrative setting the scene for the murder: a small literary festival on a tiny island establishes a limited pool of suspects in a convincing manner; tensions concerning the construction of a Normandy-Alderney-Britain power line disturb the peace of an otherwise idyllic community; and a suitably obnoxious murder victim is presented in the form of Charles le Mesurier.That Horowitz is out manipulated, out maneuvered, and outshone by his own creation is a running joke. Horowitz also sets his sights on other tropes of the modern writer: publishers, agents, editors, literary festivals. He is an insider's insider. More importantly, he manages to make the reader care for Hawthorne, who is neither cuddly nor entirely admirable, but seems to live by his own code--a code which neither Horowitz nor the reader to this point have entirely apprehended. I don’t recommend this as a stand-alone. It will work much better if you have read the prior two books in the series, or at least the first, The Word is Murder. This begins with Horowitz feeling a little over-confident, as Hawthorne comes to a meeting at his publishers. Hawthorne, he imagines, will be in 'his world.' Of course, this confidence is premature, as Hawthorne manages to be the centre of attention, be utterly confident and embrace the idea of a literary festival on the Island of Alderney. With 'Tony,' as always disgruntled (Horowitz's self-deprecation is done masterfully) and, quite rightly questioning Hawthorne's willingness to attend the festival, the two men and the other 'celebrity' authors head off for the little island. I was invited to Alderney in the Channel Islands three years ago to a literary festival. I loved the island. It is tiny, three miles long, and a peculiar place with all these caves, tunnels, wonderful little beaches and slightly old-fashioned-looking blue telephone boxes. The moment I arrived, I thought, wow, this is a perfect setting for a murder mystery.” For the love of letters Insisting he loves all his writing, Horowitz admits a partiality for the Alex Rider books, which has helped a whole generation find literature, books and reading.

As the story opens Horowitz and Hawthorne are meeting with Horowitz's publishers to discuss a publicity campaign for their first collaborative book. Arriving on Alderney, Hawthorne and Horowitz soon meet the festival's other guests--an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children's author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic, and a war historian--along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line. Writing is never difficult for me. James Bond is perhaps the biggest challenge to write because I’m working in the shadow of Ian Fleming and there is so much research to do to get it right and to get the correct tone of voice. I find the process of writing one of immersion and absorption.” As the inexperienced cops bumble around, Hawthorne does the real investigating, his faithful scribe Anthony Horowitz tagging along. Anthony eventually finds out that Hawthorne had his own motive for going to Alderney, relating to Derek Abbott, a pedophile and child pornographer who got a light sentence after Hawthorne couldn't make the case, and who is now living on Alderney and worked for le Mesurier.Marc Bellamy – A culinary writer, there to promote his latest cookbook – Lovely Grub. Joining him is his assistant – Kathryn Harris. accompanies Daniel Hawthorne - a former Scotland Yard detective who became a private sleuth - on an investigation. Our guys are invited to a soiree at the home of Charles le Mesurier and his wife Helen. As a wealthy multi-millionaire, it seems that Charles finances most of the events on the island. But there's tension in the air that can be felt as neighbors are taking a stand for and against the proposal of a power line that will cut across property lines and the natural flow of the island. Someone will be profiting and the rest not so much. One less vote on the issue......Charles' body is found the next morning in his private retreat facing the sea. Agatha, herself, is peering down on this one. Let Off by the Detective: Defied. Anne Cleary appeals to Hawthorne for this but he bluntly refuses.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment