Anthony Horowitz blends fiction with non-fiction as he inserts himself into his own mystery novel as the first-person narrator. As a real world author, he fuses his real life experiences and interactions with his fictional characters.

It is a rather clever device, but Horowitz dismally fails with his own express intentions - "I had to be sure that I wasn't too obtrusive, that I didn't get in the way". Horowitz's continued attempts to upstage his own principal protagonist, the disgraced former detective, Hawthorne, came across as facile and churlish.

Hawthorne, who is unashamedly a Holmesian clone, is not well supported by his Watson, namely Horowitz, who continously seems to bungle the investigation and place himself in absurd situations.

Anthony Horowitz is a talented author and, despite my criticisms, this crime novel is still a page-turner for a younger audience with some twists that I did not see coming. Unfortunately, Horowitz's own intrusions into his narrative wasn't the right foil for his complex detective to truly shine.

A woman walks into a funeral directors to arrange her funeral.

Six hours later she is dead.

Coincidence?

Murder?

A private detective, Daniel Hawthorne has been called in by the police to help with this case. A consulting detective like Holmes or Poirot but with a character and manner all of his own. So gruff and strange I could not be anything but fascinated by him. Hawthorne is private in many ways, we know little about him and whilst he was once a police inspector, it takes us a while to find out what happened.

The narrator of this story, is drawn into Hawthorne's world.

The narrator is in fact an author, who has used Hawthorne before to help in his research in previous novels and television adaptations. Here you can quite easily think Watson to Holmes, Hastings to Poirot. Except this author, this narrator, we all know.

It is in fact Anthony Horowitz.

All of a sudden, The Word is Murder becomes part autobiography, part fiction and part fact and it was actually fascinating to learn all about Horowitz's world as an author and script writer, to  the idiosyncrasies of the publishing and television world. A parody but actually not  - more a reality, a truth. 

But just like us as readers, Horowitz is drawn to Hawthorne and the murder of the woman hours after arranging her funeral. He is reluctant to become involved but something draws him back to Hawthorne, because it is not just the murder to unpick Horowitz needs to understand the detective as well. Without that surely he will never have a book.

This is an interesting book, where you have to remind yourself when you are reading, what bit could be true and what part was the fiction of the story being weaved by Horowitz as he helped Hawthorne (not a real person) complete his investigation. 

I chose not to go into much detail about the murder in this review, mainly because I am always too frightened of giving some obvious clue and rendering anyone else reading the book as a pointless exercise. 

A cleverly crafted novel which will appeal to fans of murder mysteries. I would not put it down as a thriller but it is certainly a page turner. Very different to Magpie Murders published last year but both of these books have the potential to be developed further.

When Diana Cowper is murdered just hours after she arranged her own funeral the police just think it another aggravated burglary. However there are two complications, firstly Diana is the rich mother of a young Hollywood actor and secondly, ten years ago Diana was the driver of a car that killed an eight-year old boy and left his twin with terrible injuries. Brought in to consult by the police is an ex-Detective, Hawthorne, and he decides that he would like to star in his own detective story so enlists the author Anthony Horowitz to write the account of him solving the crime.

This book has such a great idea at its heart, Horowitz writes in the first person and includes all the details of his life whereas the crime and the solving of it is pure fiction. It is pure Agatha Christie as all the clues are there but only the detective Hawthorne can put them together and Horowitz is the bumbling but affable stooge and companion. The plot bounces along with red herrings galore and loads of knowing references. It's just a great fun read.

This is such a clever book! I'm still not sure that it's actually fiction. Horowitz writes in the first person as he describes how he becomes involved with a former police detective. Hawthorne, the detective, wants Horowitz to collaborate on a book about him and his investigation. We see everything through the author's eyes as he becomes a character in his own book, following the twists and turns and the false clues until the exciting denouement. This is a gripping read and is so well plotted that I feel like going back to the beginning to find the clues that were scattered for us. A most unusual detective story - I hope that Hawthorne does make 50% of the profit!

A quirk too far... 3 stars

One spring morning, Diana Cowper, a healthy woman in her sixties, calls into a local undertaker's and arranges her own funeral. Nothing too uncommon about this, especially since she is a widow and her only son has moved to the States to pursue his successful acting career. But it takes on a very different aspect when, later that same day, she is strangled to death in her own home. Disgraced ex-policeman Daniel Hawthorne is called in by his old boss to investigate the crime on a consulting basis. Hawthorne thinks it would be a great idea if someone were to write a book showing him in action – and he knows just the man for the job...

Horowitz is one of the cleverest plotters out there at the moment and I've loved his last several books. In this one, however, I feel he allows that cleverness to lead him down a route that, for me at least, becomes too quirky to be totally enjoyable. It transpires that the man Hawthorne has in mind to write his book is none other than Horowitz himself. So the fictional mystery quickly gets blended into a lot of, I assume, largely factual stuff about Horowitz's actual writing career. My problem with this is that either his characterisation of himself is heavily fictionalised, in which case, what's the point? Or it's mostly true, in which case, sadly, I found him a rather unlikeable chap with an overhealthy sense of his own worth and importance, who simply loves to name-drop. I spent most of the book trying to convince myself he was attempting to be humorous by deliberately showing himself off as a cultural snob and an aspiring lovey, but if so, it wasn't made clear enough. I tired quickly of the long digressions where he breaks away from the story to discuss the making of Foyle's War, the amazing success of his books, or his meetings with Steven Spielberg and David Jackson to discuss film scripts, even though he occasionally attempts to include a bit of self-deprecatory humour.

I've said before that personally I prefer not to know much about authors since knowing about their personalities can get in the way of my appreciation of their books. I therefore avoid literary biographies and autobiographies of all but the long dead, and rarely read author interviews or articles about them for the same reason. So I'm aware that my adverse reaction to this book arises out of that dislike and therefore won't be the same for readers who do like to know about authors' lives – in fact, I'm almost certain they'll find this aspect adds a lot of fun.

Otherwise, the plotting is excellent, as is the quality of the writing. The clues are all given, so in that sense it's fairplay, though I think it would take a healthy dose of luck for anyone to get close to the solution – I certainly didn't. The story goes to some dark places but there's a lot of humour so that the overall tone is of a light entertainment. Hawthorne didn't ring true to me at all, nor did the idea that a policeman who had been sacked would be called in on a murder investigation, but I didn't feel Horowitz was really going for realism. To be truthful, I'm not altogether sure what he was going for. He's clearly doing a kind of update of the Holmes/Watson relationship – he gives the impression that he was writing this at the same time as his excellent books set in the Holmesian world, The House of Silk and Moriarty. But, unlike Holmes and Watson, I found neither of these characters particularly admirable or likeable. And an awful lot of the “detection” element simply consists of characters giving great long uninterrupted speeches explaining all the various events in their pasts that have some connection with the present-day crime.

Overall, I found it a reasonably enjoyable read but, probably at least in part because of my high expectations, something of a disappointment. I'm sure most Horowitz fans will enjoy it and have already seen several people praise it highly, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it as one for newcomers to his work. And I'm hoping I can get Horowitz the character out of my head before Horowitz the author publishes his next book...

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Random House Cornerstone.

A successful writer is approached by a private to write about his work. The writer is reluctant initially as the detective, Hawthorne, doesn't seem to be an obvious choice as a subject. He's extremely private and reticent in sharing his working methods plus he's obnoxious and unlikable. However the case he is investigating is intriguing. Diane Cowper walks into a funeral parlour to arrange her funeral, nothing unusual in that - lots of people plan ahead....what is different  that Diane is dead within 6 hours. Is it a massive coincidence or did she know she was going to be murdered? 

Wow. What a fantastic book. Horowitz has taken the fourth wall and not just broken.....he is to fourth walls what the Night King and his pet dragon is to The Wall. He doesn't just break it. He obliterates it by actually setting himself as the narrator. So it's Horowitz that Hawthorne approaches in this alternate universe. Not only has Horowitz written an immensely enjoyable murder mystery but he has also seamlessly woven elements of his real life into this imaginary world. He's done it so well I began to doubt my knowledge of current affairs - did this actually happen? Did I miss this somehow? (Well I never claimed to be the brightest!). But fiction it is and fiction that is set perfectly in the mould of Agatha Christie, with elements of Sherlock Holmes and Morse thrown in. It's somehow delightfully old fashioned in a very charming and yet also very modern. You may have guessed if you have got this far passed the gushing that I very much liked this book. Can I give it more than 5 stars? Maybe 5 stars with a distinction....no? Oh well in that case all I can say is it is definitely my favourite book of 2017 so far.

What if you like a book, but for the wrong reasons? That’s my dilemma after reading The Word is Murder, the new crime thriller from Anthony Horowitz. This is apparently the first in a series of eight or nine novels in which Horowitz plays the role of fourth-wall-breaking sidekick to bad-boy ex-cop Daniel Hawthorne.

The book is written in the first person, and that person is called Anthony Horowitz, but I am not sure whether the character is actually Horowitz, or Horowitz playing a part, rather like Coogan and Brydon in The Trip. What I can tell you is that Horowitz the writer appears to be having a great time, making little asides to the reader that both glamorise and send up what it is like to be a famous, successful author. He has lunches with his aggressive agent! He knows how to play the crowd at Hay! More exquisitely, he scans the bookshelves of each house he goes into, to see if he’s featured. He also gets to provide asides on topics like online intolerance which are close to his heart.

It helps that the murder mystery involves showbiz types, and Horowitz the character is able to move in that world. There’s a farcical meeting with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. There’s a scene at a funeral that is a comic set piece as well as being a crucial moment in the plot. These and other scenes are drawn beautifully. But you do wonder at times whether some of the characters – for example, the narcissistic thesp Damian Cowper – are drawn for the lolz rather than as credible beings.

Daniel Hawthorne is given a bunch of Sherlock Holmes devices: he deduces that Horowitz has been to his seaside second home because of sand on his shoes; he generally makes outrageous demands on Horowitz’s time; he doesn’t share his thinking, leaving Horowitz to flounder around like an idiot, but an idiot who makes asides about what it’s like to develop and write a successful TV series.

And I think this is where the problem lies. Horowitz lifts the veil too much to know when and whether he is being serious. He tells us that Hawthorne is not a great main protagonist

The world has had quite enough of white, middle-aged, grumpy detectives

and he gives him a set of negative characteristics. Worse, having provided this unsympathetic lead, he describes the process through which Christopher Foyle was developed, both originally, on the page and when working with Michael Kitchen:

Only when [Kitchen was cast] did the real work begin. There was always a tension between the two of us. For example, Michael insisted almost from the start that Foyle would never ask questions, which made life difficult for me and seemed…unusual for a detective…We found other…ways to get to the information that the plot demanded…In this way, year after year, the character developed.

Obviously Hawthorne will develop as a character as the series progresses (as will Horowitz’s character) but the effect is to remind the reader of better work elsewhere. Foyle fans will be both excited and disappointed by this novel.

And there’s the paradox of The Word is Murder. The mystery itself is improbable but plausible, as Jonathan Creek might say (indeed, it reminded me of a few of Creek’s puzzles): it’s fine, by which I mean both well put together and just OK. You aren’t going to sit up late at night pondering it, and it isn’t going to make you think in a broader sense. The far more interesting aspect of the book and what makes it worth reading (for it is definitely that) is how Horowitz the writer, Horowitz the narrator and Horowitz the character work together as a kind of writerly and incredibly meta trinity. Whether that’s enough of a foundation for an entire series remains to be seen.

Wow! I was blown away by this book in so many ways. I have always read and admired Anthony Horowitz' work but this book is great I'm not sure I've come across many books where the author is the narrator and has such a strong voice and usually you can guess 'whodunnit'. But this kept me guessing until the end. Fantastic read as always

If you have read the Magpie Murders by Horowitz then this book won’t seem at all bizarre or unusual. He is an author who likes to think outside the box. His plots are wee bit like Conan Doyle does Schrödinger’s Cat in the form of a murder mystery. While I’m on the subject it is worth mentioning that in 2011 the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle gave Horowitz the official endorsement to write a continuation of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

The Word is Murder more or less features Anthony Horowitz as himself in the main role. It is an interesting way to approach a crime story. I’m sure readers will start to wonder how much is fiction and how much of the actual crime story is fact.

It isn’t until Horowitz actually mentions a few of his accolades that you realise just how accomplished and successful he is. In this scenario his diminishes his success, and plays with the fact he has prominent contacts.

A woman walks into a funeral parlour to plan and arrange her own funeral, and a few hours later she is ready to use the coffin she just bought. Is it just a huge coincidence or did someone end her life prematurely? Well the cord around her neck speaks volumes.

Horowitz is unaware of this particular event until an ex-police detective asks him to write a book about the murder with himself starring as the savvy detective. Horowitz finds it hard to work with this eccentric, obstinate and yet very observant detective, however he can’t help but be pulled into the intriguing story that unfolds in front of him. Hawthorne is like a grumpy Columbo with Sherlock’s deductive skills.

I enjoyed it, just like I really enjoyed the Magpie Murders, because the author isn’t afraid to mix it up and challenge his readers. Thinking outside of the crime and mystery schemata to create unusual and yet captivating reads. The word is murder, but in this case the word is also Horowitz and Hawthorne are the new Watson and Sherlock.

https://lynns-books.com/2017/09/04/the-word-is-murder-by-anthony-horowitz/
What an interesting and curious story this is. I couldn’t help thinking when I first picked this up that Horowitz took a real risk here in writing a story in which he himself narrates but I’m pleased to say that the risk paid off and was in fact a clever ploy – I found myself becoming totally sucked in and really enjoying this. A whodunnit with a difference.

At the start of the story we learn of Diana Cowper who within hours of visiting a funeral parlour to arrange her own funeral is found dead in her apartment. The police commission one of their own PIs (Hawthorn) who specialises in unusual cases and he in turn approaches Horrowitz to write a story based simply on the facts of the case. It’s a very unusual way of coming up with a story but I have to admit, after my initial reluctance I became completely absorbed in this untraditional style whodunit and I think that Horrowitz makes a great Watson to Hawthorn’s Holmes.

This is such an unusual way of telling the story because it mixes all sorts of truths in with the fiction which perhaps seems a puzzling way of writing a story and yet at the same time adds a level of realism that made me at times wonder if these events did actually take place. I suppose if you think of the Holmes stories, they’re narrated by Watson who gives his version of accounts and this is a very similar way of telling the story. We don’t always see what Hawthorn is up to and although there are clues throughout the book Horrowitz, like Watson, quite often misinterprets them – which again is such an unusual twist to the story because he’s the writer – so he knows what’s happening after all. This is a total head warp to be honest but for me it worked.

I won’t go into the plot. There are twists and turns aplenty. Red herrings and clues dot the pages and undoubtedly some readers may pick things up quicker than I did as we follow the breadcrumb trail but I was caught up in the events and anxious to turn the pages.

In terms of the characters, well, Horrowitz plays himself, obviously! It’s an interesting element to the book in which we watch his internal struggles to remain with a story that appears to be running out of his control, to deal with a character that he actually doesn’t really like as the story starts and the concerns he has about whether anybody would even pick up this book and read it – it all feels like extra layers that all add their own individual elements. Then we have Hawthorn. He’s this secretive, blunt, not always terribly nice character who seems to be riddled with prejudices that simmer just beneath the surface. Did I like him? Well, at the start he’s definitely a cold fish but he reluctantly becomes more human as the plot progresses and eventually gives up some of his secrets. I love his clinical methods of deduction that are, again, Holmes-like. He just comes out with random statements and seems to have this pleasure in listening to Horrowitz trying to figure out how he reached such conclusions.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this – I rather hope, in fact, that Horrowitz decides to continue with more stories from H&H – I think they made a great team and I could imagine this being a series that wins a good following. A modern day Holmes and Watson, an intriguing story and a tale of observation. I would certainly read more.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy through Netgalley. The above is my own opinion.

This book is simply magnificent. Think contemporary Sherlock Holmes, if John Watson had a backbone and an understanding of the publishing industry. Horowitz himself plays the part of Watson, he puts so much of himself into this book that it's impossible to tell where fact and fiction meet - the author's self deprecating humour as a narrator is really enjoyable, putting himself out there to his readers makes everything a bit more thrilling.

I'm not sharing any of the mystery at all, you need to read the book itself to find out what happens. All I can say is that I loved the clues, the excellent characters, the nods to the author's own career and the dash of sensationalism to finish it all off. It wasn't overdone and the tension was kept at a high throughout the entire novel.

Horowitz fans are going to love this book, as are all fans of classic detective novels. It's cleverly written and deliciously cliched, without being so convoluted that you end the book somewhere between confused and disappointed.

The Word is Murder is a very clever and different type of murder mystery. I don’t think I’ve read anything like it before, one in which the author himself plays a major role.

Diana Cowper was killed later the same day after making the arrangements for her funeral. She was strangled in her own home. The police at first thought she’d been killed during a burglary, but there were no fingerprints or indeed any other clues to help find her killer.

The novel goes into a different realm with the introduction of ex-policeman, Daniel Hawthorne, who had been an adviser for Horowitz’s Foyle’s War series. The police call on Hawthorne as a consultant on out-of-the ordinary cases and he is working on the Diana Cowper murder. He proposes that Horowitz writes a book about him and his investigations into the case. However, they disagree about what Horowitz should write, which highlights the difference between writing crime fiction and true life crime books – and Horowitz gets dragged into the investigations.

At first I was slightly confused – were the details about Horowitz fact or fiction (a lot of it is true), was Hawthorne a real person or a fictional character, what was fact and what was fiction? It really is one of the most complicated and bemusing books I’ve read, full of realistic characters acting in a mystery full of red herrings and multiple twists and turns. I was soon totally immersed in this fascinating novel. I loved Magpie Murders, and I think Horowitz The Word is Murder is equally as amazing and maybe even better! I was totally unable to solve the mystery, the clues were all there, but I was so involved in sorting out what was real and what wasn’t and enjoying the puzzle that I completely missed them.

I am so delighted that I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

The Word is Murder is a very different and clever book .Anthony Horowitz is the real author drawn into the middle of crime with an ex detective who wants a book written about himself .So he is trying to help solve it and write about it at the same time .At the beginning I thought the book was a Bio about Mr Horowitz's life and career with a lot of mention of Foyle's War .!!! The ending was very good .all the loose ends tied up .

This was an extremely entertaining read form me. I really liked how Horowitz puts himself into this story and gave us an inside into the world of a famous writer.

A woman goes to an undertaker and takes care of her own funeral. This is not so unusual, but what makes it mysterious is that she is murdered just a few hours later. Did she know that she was going to die?

Anthony Horowitz is a successful writer of books and screenplays. He puts himself inside this story. There are probably other writers who did this before but I never read a story like this. And it was absolutely fun to read! Horowitz shows himself working on some projects when he is approached by an consulting detective which he met before. Hawthorne worked for TV as a consultant and Horowitz met him while working on an TV show. Hawthorne was asked by the police to look into the murder of this lady. He thinks this murder case in interesting enough and he asks Horowitz to write a book about him and this case. Horowitz is not interested at first. He has so much work to do and he is not a true crime writer. But somehow he agreed to write this book. So he has to follow Hawthorne around and is part of his investigation. He feels a bit intimidated by Hawthorne, who is a very good detective and a bit Sherlock-like. He feels always like he is one step behind the enigmatic Hawthorne.

I immensely enjoyed this book. It was less the crime story which is complex and with a satisfying solution. But I loved all that was around it. Horowitz gives us insights of how a writer works and what’s it like. There is a lot of name dropping and gossip about the theatre and film world. There is a scene were Horowitz meets Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in a quite bizarre meeting which turns out to be not as he imagined. It was hilarious.

This was my second book from Anthony Horowitz. I only read “Moriarty” and it was just an OK read. But I liked “The Word is Murder” and his writing very much. It was very British, with a fine humor. I already got “Magpie Murders” on my list and I will watch out for Mr. Horowitz in the future.

The Word is Murder in the new book by Anthony Horowitz and features in a supporting role, Anthony Horowitz. In another twist on the genre after his highly successful and intriguing Magpie Murders Horowitz gets us into the story by foul means.
He is approached by a private detective who wants to do a deal. He wants to be the star of Anthony’s next book. Hawthorne is very annoying and persistent. He gives very little of himself but demands answers and responses from Horowitz. Hawthorne has an intriguing murder, almost a classic locked room case and he wants a 50:50 deal. Hear the literary agents cry nooo! Without meaning to, Anthony gets sucked into an intrigue. Who could resist the murder of a woman who, hours before, has arranged her own funeral?
The essence of the case is the difficult relationship between the writer and the detective. The egos clash and the writer ‘wins’ as it is he who gets to do the writing and order the events. Wrong footing the reader with details of the writer’s ‘real life’ there is a constant desire to understand if any of this is true or if it simply part of the fiction. I say simply but it really throws me to consider Horowitz as the protagonist. In my mind, I have cast Anton Lesser as the avatar of Horowitz strolling the London streets in a state of woeful ignorance. What he is clearly trying to say to us is that no matter how many books and plots you can construct don’t think you can second guess a psychopath.
I love this book as it as it wasn’t a run of the mill mystery. Horowitz has fun with us. He invites us into his world and runs around us in circles laughing. Part of this is almost a memoir except whilst you are enjoying the little autobiographical facts you can’t help wondering which garden path you are currently being steered up.
As an example of alternative fiction this throws a few curve balls to the reader. At some point, you desperately want this to be a true story and then you don’t. A fine example of the unreliable narrator The Word is Murder is one long tease with an exciting denouement that brings it to a breathless conclusion. There is definitely scope for a couple of sequels if Horowitz has the time.

I enjoyed The Word Is Murder, although I did have reservations about it. It has a structure which I would expect to dislike: Anthony Horowitz casts himself in a central role in what purports to be a true-crime story, but is, of course, completely fictional. This leads to a lot of knowing stuff about how he is going to write the book and the whole thing is as much about how he writes his work as it is about the crime story. Horowitz does it very well and, to my surprise, I liked those aspects of the narrative.

Set in London in 2011, the story is of a woman who walks into an undertaker's office to make arrangements for her own funeral, and is then murdered a few hours later. The case is investigated by the police, of course, but also by Hawthorne, and ex-police officer with whom Horowitz has worked as a consultant on TV screenplays. Hawthorne wants Horowitz to write a book about his investigation, and he eventually agrees to become his amanuensis and sort of assistant. This all works pretty well as a device; it allows Horowitz to have fun introducing aspects of his own life (which may or may not be true, of course) and also allows him to have his cake and eat it rather. There's a good deal of "if I was making this all up, I wouldn't have done it like this" sort of stuff – which again, I was surprised to find I rather liked. (You can tell, by the way, that he has been writing Sherlock Holmes stories, as Hawthorne's methods, if not his character, have a very Holmesian feel.)

It's not all great; the ending is pretty silly, to be honest – with the killer explaining everything to the captured investigator whom he intends to kill as a crowing cliché. Also, there are a few characters who are made to resemble real people closely enough to be disconcerting. A vain, manipulative actor called Damian who is about to star in a new series called Homeland? The physical description doesn't fit and he went to the wrong acting school, but… Or a director who "wishes to remain anonymous," about whom Horwitz then gives such full, extraneous detail that she is plainly identifiable as Janet Steel. It's odd, and it's something I didn't like.

Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable, readable book. Place and characters are well evoked and I found it a very entertaining read for most of its length. Recommended.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

This is the second book in the space of a few weeks that I have read where the author is the narrator and part of the plot, working with their fictional detective. But whereas I was disappointed with the other book, this is brilliant!
The narrator here is actual real-life author Anthony Horowitz, and the intermingling of fact with fiction is so cleverly done that you are never quite sure how much of the plot is made up and what might actually be true. It is such a hard job to walk that tightrope and keep the reader on board but Horowitz manages it brilliantly. Hawthorne, his detective, is someone who is not easy to like but he is clever and that is what you really want in a detective. So the character is accepted even while his faults are decried. The author admits that he doesn't like him but he can't help admiring his quickness of mind and being fascinated by the mystery of the man. All the way through the book the writing process is to the fore, and yet it doesn't interfere with the story in any way, rather it heightens the effect and adds to the reader's enjoyment. The mystery at the heart of the novel is well played out, with all the clues there for the reader to find, and yet well enough hidden that solving the whodunit is not easy. Very Agatha Christie! All in all a most enjoyable and innovative read.

Goofy, spoofy, - and (sometimes) truthy, but sometimes…..not

Anthony Horowitz is a wonderfully tricksy, playful and mischievous writer. A very clever one, too. I have to admit that some writers who play tricksy, clever games on their readers can feel tiresome, especially if the reader senses this comes out of a feeling of over-intellectualised self-congratulation. It is very different when the writer encourages the reader to enjoy the game, as Horowitz assuredly does…….rather like an audience who come to watch a stage magician. We want to discover the ‘trick’ but, at a deeper level, hope we won’t.

Horowitz’s trick (well, one of them) in this dazzle of a crime investigation book ‘ Murder Is The Word’ is that he is actively involved in investigating the murder, in this book, in the guise of being a kind of ghost-author for Daniel Hawthorne, ex policeman now private investigator. The whole book comes as Hawthorne’s suggestion/commission. Hawthorne first met Horowitz when employed as a series advisor on the TV adaptation of Foyle’s War, which Horowitz wrote the screenplays for. Hawthorne has been kept as a kind of consultant by the police force, and gets called in to assist investigations when the murder investigation team are making no headway. As is the case here, in this account, which Horowitz, initially unwillingly, takes on, becoming a kind of Watson to Hawthorne’s maverick but Sherlockianly astute investigation.

Diana Cowper, a perfectly healthy, not to mention wealthy, late middle aged woman made funeral arrangements for herself – an increasingly popular practice – with an impeccable firm of undertakers. However, later that same day she is found murdered at her home.

Interspersed with Horowitz’s account of the tortuous, wriggly, herring filled solving of this crime, Horowitz includes a lot of material from his own personal and professional history.

The reader would not have had half as much pleasure reading this book has it been written in a pre-internet, pre-Google search world. Indeed, it is unlikely Horowitz could or would have written such a book, Part of the lure and addiction of reading this is the constant desire to check facts, dates, people, places…..is this real?....a real event…..or is it invention?

Every time I checked something and it proved to be a ‘real Horowitz event’, I chortled appreciatively, and every time interest led me to look up something which turned out to be ‘invented Horowitz’, or at least slight-bending-of-the-truth-Horowitz I chortled with even more delight. Real luminaries stalk these pages, but entering into some real-ish situations are Horowitz characters a playing. Some other reviewers have mentioned the best of these, but I am staying mum, for your readerly delight – I’m sure that a particular encounter with luminaries will be a better high spot for not being revealed.

‘The Word Is Murder’ is not a book which Horowitz wrote without certain, difficult challenges to face. As he explains, comparing the writing of ‘The House of Silk’ his magnificent homage to, and ‘as if’ written by, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle :

“It struck me from the very start that my job was to be invisible. I tried to hide myself in Doyle’s shadow, to imitate his literary tropes and mannerisms but never, as it were, to intrude. I wrote nothing that he might not have written himself. I mention this only because it worries me to be so very prominent in these pages. But this time round I have no choice; I’m writing exactly what happened”

And here, Horowitz as Watson (so, still flirting with those tropes) is having to record the investigations which Hawthorne is intent on – not to mention, at times, a little sneaky investigation by Horowitz into the secretive, shadowy ex cop himself. Poor Horowitz also struggles to be allowed the task of writing this book, in his style. Hawthorne may be a brilliant, left-field investigator, but he is no writer, though he shows himself something of a control freak, fighting every attempt Horowitz makes to inject style and atmosphere into the telling of the story. Hawthorne would prefer Plod-the-Policeman dialogue, all ‘I was proceeding in a south-westerly direction’. Horowitz, understandably, wants to give the facts of the investigation and keep our interest going, and the reader, awake

“If I had sat down to write an original murder mystery story I wouldn’t have chosen anyone like Hawthorne as its main protagonist. I think the world has had quite enough of white, middle-aged, grumpy detectives and I’d have tried to think up something more unusual”

In case, by focusing on the meta-fiction aspects, I have put off any potential readers who just want a credible, difficult, sometimes gory murder investigation, sometimes spiced with real danger, twists and satisfying herrings aplenty, and an utterly credible denouement, expertly written by someone who utterly respects the genre, and is, moreover well versed in its history – rest assured Horowitz is, fabulously, that writer. Not to mention the fact that Hawthorne, despite, or perhaps, because of, his grumpy, secretive brilliance, is the investigator the reader is keen to be spending further time with.

I sincerely hope that Hawthorne, finding a well deserved fan base for his criminal investigations, will decide to stick with Horowitz as his ‘Watson’ and that he does not decide to either go it alone and write his own books, or approach some other writer to record any future investigations he may be called on to solve.

Please, if you read this, Mr Hawthorne, let us have many more of your cases, but do stick with Anthony Horowitz as your ‘recorder’

I was delighted to receive this as a review copy. As should be obvious, highly, highly recommended

This is a quirky, highly original first person narrative starring the author in an Agatha Christie type role whilst working, somewhat reluctantly, with a Morse/Sherlock Holmes kind of private investigator called Hawthorne! The investigation is into the murder of Diana Cowper which happened just six hours after she’d arranged her own funeral. Hawthorne is an ex-police detective who is called in to assist with some of the more bizarre investigations and he’s also the man who wants Anthony Horowitz to shadow him during this investigation to enable him to write about him solving this murder.

The whole story is a real page turner, with a splendid mix of murder mystery, suspense and thriller with a large dose of more factual information concerning the author’s work as an author and scriptwriter. I found it a fascinating read with stories within stories like Russian Dolls you reveal as the story progresses. The author portrays his mood and attitude as events unfold as well as sharing many of his accomplishments which serve as background to the main story. His somewhat strained relationship with Hawthorne results in great banter between the two and the author is often portrayed as being inept in the investigation by Hawthorne’s comments and responses. Horowitz is reluctant to work with Hawthorne but is drawn in by the strange circumstances preceding the murder - like the reader, he wants to know what happened, so still keeps working with Hawthorne.

This has to be one of the most unique books I’ve read, complete with plenty of angst, twists and turns to keep readers guessing to the very end. The story is an enthralling skilful blend of fact and fiction, mixed together by a highly talented wordsmith to create a superb murder mystery that I have no hesitation whatsoever in highly recommending.

I requested and was given a copy of this book via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion after choosing to read it.

At first I was so confused by this book. Is it fiction? Is it true crime? You see the writer, Mr Anthony Horowitz himself, is in the book, narrating the whole thing in the first person. The only time I’ve ever come across that before was in an autobiography.
The best way I’ve come to see it is this: it was like he wrote a piece of Sherlock fanfiction but replaced Doctor Watson with himself and renamed Sherlock Holmes, Daniel Hawthone.
If that’s confused you more then I’m sorry.
The reason I compare it to Sherlock Holmes, apart from the fact I know the author has written two Holmes novels, is Hawthorne and Mr Horowitz have a very Sherlock/Watson relationship .i.e. Hawthorne is always making him feel stupid. There is also a Lestrade type character in a Detective Inspector Meadows.
In fairness he did change a few aspects of the detectives personality, making Hawthorne not particularly likeable. He smokes like a chimney, is homophobic (two things I despise in real people never mind fictional ones!) and is fairly smug.
But, and there is a but, if I ignored the previous points, I did find the story quite enthralling and I didn’t manage to figure out the killer, which is always a bonus for crime fiction!
This story really stuck in my head giving me a terrible book hangover, thanks for that Mr Horowitz, but I find that is the sign of a good book.
Also if you are reading the book keep your eyes peeled for cameo’s from Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson!