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The Word Is Murder (A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery)

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This was my very first foray into the writings of Mr Horowitz. It will not be my last as its clever writing, easy style and the ability to draw one into the story line is quite alluring. Most alluring is the fact that the author himself is one of the main protagonists. and his being so made this book just plain fun. True, it was a murder and mayhem mystery, but the telling of this tale with Mr Horowitz being exactly what he is an author, made for an excellent way to both get to know him as well as read of his interaction with the very astute but totally weird ex detective Daniel Hawthorne, a bit of a British Detective Columbo.

HOROWITZ: It was certainly very interesting. I mean, when I was approached by one of my editors to do a new series of murder mysteries, and I hope this is the first of many, I was looking for a way to sort of turn the whole formula - the format upside down. And by putting myself into the book, I suddenly realized that everything I wrote would be different, that my view of the landscape would be different, that I would have no knowledge of what was happening, when, of course, normally, the author knows everything. Near the novel’s climax, Horowitz grows frustrated with his role of Hawthorne’s Dr. Watson and attempts to solve the case himself. “I have allowed myself to become a silent partner, a minor character in my own book,” the character complains. Yet when he acts on his own, the result is disaster.Drawn to the world that Holmes and Watson inhabited, the gas lamps, the growlers rattling over cobblestones and the swirling London fog, Horowitz writes himself into the novel by accepting a commission to work with ex-Police detective Daniel Hawthorne in solving a crime where two coincidences spell of a planned murder and two deaths, involving a mother and son, spell of a deadly game. If you haven’t read Horowitz before, know you are in for a treat with his unique writing style. Last year I read and LOVED Magpie Murders and while I would say that Magpie remains my most favourite, this novel is a very close second! The distinction between fiction and non-fiction, I’d like to believe, is clear enough where I don’t need to explain it. When we read fictional novels, we do so to distance ourselves from reality, to entertain ourselves with hypothetical scenarios which happen to people who aren’t real. However, we can never help but imagine how we ourselves would fare in those stories, and Anthony Horowitz set out to find out just this in The Word is Murder, the first novel in the Detective Hawthorne Series. HOROWITZ: Evil does have an attractive quality. I think doing something bad, being mean, breaking the law has a strange visceral appeal. Maybe it's something to do with liberty - the fact that being bad sets us free because we're not obeying rules, we're breaking them. I don't know. I mean, in my life, I try to do good, but I'm often tempted by bad. And it's certainly true that when I'm writing a book, the villain is the one that I enjoy creating most. Told from Horowitz’s first -person perspective, the reader is schooled about the life of an author, while he takes every available opportunity to promote himself and his work along the way.

ANTHONY HOROWITZ: It's a pleasure. Thank you. And what a wonderful way to describe my book. I so enjoyed that. Sometimes a book shows up on my radar and its premise is so unusual and so intriguing, there is just no way I can pass it up. That's what happened with The Word is Murder. Former Detective Inspector Hawthorne has approached Anthony Horowitz- yes, the real author is a character in the story- to write a book about him. Although dubious, Horowitz agrees to do so. The pair wind up teaming up together, Holmes and Watson style, to solve a puzzling murder mystery. SIMON: And, if I may, there was kind of a family scandal that hit you when you were a young man, wasn't there?

Anthony Horowitz, a.k.a. Tony, the narrator, a ghostwriter for Hawthorne based on the author himself

Daniel Hawthorne, a former inspector with Metropolitan Police Force, is engaged as a private consultant on the case. Hawthorne convinces author Anthony Horowitz to write a book about him and his case, a fifty-fifty agreement that has Hawthorne tagging along with the seasoned detective while he investigates. Horowitz is a bit out of his depth (understandably so) when it comes to studying murder scenes, but is determined to hold his own. Hawthorne has his own inimitable style – he is smart, perceptive but secretive, not quite people-friendly and more than a bit curt with Horowitz who is often at his wit’s end trying to get Hawthorne to share his thoughts on the case, let alone himself. Writing a book about him isn’t going to be an easy task! The twists, despite being numerous, are still spaced out well enough to give you some time to reflect and absorb what you’ve been reading. It might not be the most original or groundbreaking mystery I’ve ever read, but I would certainly classify highly among its kind. There is an additional mystery which, if I understand correctly, will be eventually developed upon over the course of the series: the darkness within Hawthorne himself. What was lost was considerable: the family home, White Friars, was so big that when demolished it was replaced by no fewer than 16 five-bedroom houses. Both his parents were away much of the time, leaving Horowitz and his two siblings in the care of servants and his grandmother, a woman of such hellish cruelty he used her as the template for the eponymous villain in his children’s novel Granny.

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

During the 1980’s Anthony Horowitz started creating work for film as well as television, as he begun to expand upon his output. Writing for children’s shows such as ‘Dramarama’ and ‘Robin of Sherwood’ he started to create a name for himself within the field. It was then later on that he wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film ‘Stormbreaker’, whilst he’s also set to write the new Tintin film coming out too. Winning a number of awards throughout the years, Horowitz is not without his fair share of critical acclaim either. Expanding upon the mediums and formats he writes within, such as comic-books as well, this looks set to continue in the years to come. Creating more work all the time, his appeal is growing both critically as well as commercially, as he gains more success. SIMON: I don't get a chance to ask this question of many people. How many people do you think you've killed? Obviously, I enjoyed this book immensely! It’s one of the best murder mysteries I’ve read since…. Well, perhaps since ‘Magpie Murders”- another plug for Horowitz- as if he needs any promotional help from me. And what they know is this !!!. A woman walks into a funeral parlour, in South Kensington, and arranges her own funeral, right down to the last detail. And on the same day, six hours later, she is found strangled in her own home. A woman who did not have an enemy in the world and liked by everyone.

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