When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. ― Anthony Horowitz, The Word Is Murder The Ciphers of our Amusement 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. Robin Of Sherwood: Sanctuary (By: Michael Praed,Paul Birch,Richard Carpenter,Barnaby Eaton-Jones,Andy Secombe,Nikolas Grace) Such an interactive narrator is helpful at times in the mystery, as Horowitz gives vague clues that hint at the novel’s twist. For instance, Horowitz writes, “As for Chapter One, forget the bell and the Mont Blanc pen…[b]ut be assured that the rest of it, including a clue which would indicate, quite clearly, the identity of the killer, is spot on.” It is this narration that allows “The Word Is Murder” to be more than the average detective novel. What’s more, the detective in question does not fall into the usual character trope, although he possesses the uncanny ability to derive information from the simplest clues much like most detectives in such novels. Hawthorne is ex-police (due to a mysterious, years old incident that got him fired) and he is wholly unlikeable and a raging homophobe. Beyond these basic facts, Horowitz seems to know little else about Hawthorne, making the detective of the story a bit of a mystery himself.

The Word Is Murder: The bestselling mystery from the author

Living in central London now, he currently resides with his wife and two sons there as he continues to write to this day. Producing his television series ‘Foyles War’, he met his wife Jill Green in Hong-Kong in 1988, after which they had their two children. His two children now are said to help him with ideas providing new material and fresh insight for his many books to come. Writing Career Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. While I can’t pretend to know the author or what he is like, there’s a feeling of him trying to explore his own inner world by laying it all out on paper, and ultimately for the reader, this ends up making for quite a few interesting interactions between the two, some amusing, others thought-provoking. In the end, I think few can mix reality and fiction in as appealing a manner as Horowitz did here.

Café Mortel, an opportunity to discuss one’s mortality over tea and cake. ― Anthony Horowitz, The Word Is Murder Clash of Reality and Fiction in The Word is Murder

THE WORD IS MURDER | Kirkus Reviews THE WORD IS MURDER | Kirkus Reviews

It’s been two years since Injustice aired and Detective Daniel Hawthorne needs cash. Having gotten himself fired from his job at the Metropolitan police, Hawthorne decides to approach Anthony Horowitz. He’s investigating a bizarre and complex murder and he wants Anthony to write a book about it, a bestselling book of course, with a 50/50 split. Read this book for: author self-insert, reality/fiction blend, UK mystery, amateur detective, consulting detective, unique format Anthony Horowitz is an English author from Stanmore, Middlesex, whose family had the distinction of being of having a history worthy of a novel in and of itself, largely revolving around his father’s mysterious occupation and fortune. First published on the 4th of September, 2000, in the UK, this bestselling book was set to propel Anthony Horowitz’s profile forwards. Not only getting a film deal out of it, he’s also had a video-game and graphic-novel come from it as well over the following years. Setting up the ‘Alex Rider’ series, it creates the overall tone and feel for the books, whilst also establishing many of the main characters. The Twist of a Knife is consistently, delightfully entertaining, with Horowitz's own theatrical experience providing just the right amount of bittersweet bite' AirmailSix hours after widowed London socialite Diana Cowper calls on mortician Robert Cornwallis to make arrangements for her own funeral, she’s suddenly in need of them after getting strangled in her home. The Met calls on murder specialist Daniel Hawthorne, an ex-DI bounced off the force for reasons he’d rather not talk about, and he calls on the narrator (“nobody ever calls me Tony”), a writer in between projects whose agent expects him to be working on The House of Silk, a Holmes-ian pastiche which Horowitz happens to have published in real life. Anthony’s agreement with Hawthorne to collaborate on a true-crime account of the case is guaranteed to blindside his agent (in a bad way) and most readers (in entrancingly good ways). Diana Cowper, it turns out, is not only the mother of movie star Damian Cowper, but someone who had her own brush with fame 10 years ago when she accidentally ran over a pair of 8-year-old twins, killing Timothy Godwin and leaving Jeremy Godwin forever brain-damaged. A text message Diana sent Damian moments before her death—“I have seen the boy who was lacerated and I’m afraid”—implicates both Jeremy, who couldn’t possibly have killed her, and the twins’ estranged parents, Alan and Judith Godwin, who certainly could have. But which of them, or which other imaginable suspect, would have sneaked a totally unpredictable surprise into her coffin and then rushed out to commit another murder? Taking a more horror slanted angle, this book was initially released in 2005 on the 1st of June in the United States by Anthony Horowitz. Combining both fantasy and horror, it was to set-up ‘The Power of Five’ series creating an overall arc and tone for the books. Having a graphic-novel adaptation as well in 2010, its popularity has continued to endure since it was first published. A woman crosses a London street. It is just after 11 a.m. on a bright spring morning, and she is going into a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later the woman is dead, strangled with a crimson curtain cord in her own home. With its unorthodox protagonist, clever plotting, brilliantly imperfect characters, and escalating sense of urgency and intrigue, THE WORD IS MURDER is an instant crime classic that will keep you reading as fast as you can… one of the best and most compulsively readable mysteries of the year. Hugely satisfying on every level." ( Written by Sime) 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.