Probably just about everything I should say about this book I said previously in my review of book one, The Word is Murder. You'll find it <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2723990383">here</a> Seriously, I had the same thoughts about the 'characters' and the humour etc.

The murder mystery this time was just as good and just as detailed. I did feel like I guessed whodunnit but I'm sure it was just that, a guess. Why I chose this person out of the long suspect list was likely just a hunch as I did not work out the finer details as Hawthorne and Horowitz managed to do.

5 out of 5 and I'm definitely looking forward to more of this series.

The second book in the series is as good as the first. While I preferred the initial case, this one was unique and kept me guessing, especially with a $5,000 bottle of wine as the murder weapon—though that seems a waste of good wine! We learn more about Hawthorne and the author, who plays a Watson-like role.

The author is initially reluctant to get involved in another Hawthorne investigation but has a deal for two more books. His safety is increasingly at risk, but he's improving at solving the cases, coming close in this one. It's a wonderful series, and Kinnear's narration is amazing. I'm really enjoying these books.

I always imagine Anthony Horowitz chuckling away to himself as he writes these books because of our narrator’s constant grumbling about how he would much rather be writing fiction than, in his role as Hawthorne’s biographer, dutifully documenting the progress of the investigation, and how he wishes he could include scenes that would be more exciting for the reader. ‘Sadly, none of these possibilities were available to me. I was stuck with the facts. My job was to follow Hawthorne’s investigation, setting down his questions and occasionally trying, without much success, to make sense of the answers. It was really quite frustrating. It wasn’t so much writing as recording.’

Horowitz longs to find out more about Hawthorne, more than just that he likes constructing Airfix models, belongs to a book club and is a chain smoker. He’s also intrigued by Hawthorne’s past, convinced there is some secret to do with Hawthorne’s dismissal from the police force, and eagerly collecting any scrap of information. Hawthorne’s plain-speaking and non-PC views also concern him. After documenting one particular conversation, he protests ‘I can’t put that sort of stuff in the book… People won’t like it… They won’t like you’.

Horowitz acts as a kind of Dr Watson to Hawthorne’s Sherlock Holmes, even if Hawthorne is rather scathing about the abilities of Conan Doyle’s fictional creation. Anthony is always one step behind when it comes to spotting the clues that will lead to the identity of the murderer. Actually, that’s a bit unfair; he often spots the clues but reaches a completely wrong conclusion about what they mean. From time to time he gets a little disgruntled at Hawthorne’s unwillingness to share his thoughts on the case. ‘Whenever Hawthorne saw anything or worked something out, he deliberately kept it from me as if the whole thing was some sort of game.’

Each of the book’s cast of characters at one point or another appears to have the motive, means and opportunity to have committed the murder of Richard Pryce. As Horowitz innocently observes, ‘It was almost as if they were queuing up to be suspects’. There are the usual red herrings and false trails beloved of crime novelists, as well as cast-iron alibis than turn out to be anything but. Horowitz also comes up against the formidable DI Cara Grunshaw who is determined to beat Hawthorne to an arrest and doesn’t much care what she has to do to achieve it.

Alongside the investigation, there are references to the author’s work – his Alex Rider series, his Sherlock Holmes novels and his TV drama Foyles War – but these are balanced by his self-deprecating observations. There is also some gentle poking of fun at the snobbery of the literary establishment. And I suspect the author had a lot of fun writing the excerpt from a Game of Thrones-like fantasy novel.

The Sentence is Death is a clever, witty and thoroughly entertaining murder mystery.

I do like how Anthony Horowitz writes such different novels. This one is very easy to get into. It purports to be the author himself narrating. It must need a schizophrenic mind to use actual facts but in a fictional story. With his and his wife's real name and working on his real TV series Foyles War when he is invited to shadow a detective and solve a murder. Involving a real life book shop en route.
The murder seems to have u limited suspects but most have pesky alibis - if they are to be believed.
I found it quite unfathomable but very enjoyable and heartily recommend it, whether to mystery aficionados or just to enjoy rhe nicely described romp

Wit so sharp the author’s in danger of cutting himself with it!

I adore these clever novels where Horowitz explores and plays with genre tropes, style tropes, and writes books within books.

Horowitz is a wonderful writer – or should I say, a wonderful crowd of writers, as both within these Horowitz and Hawthorne novels, and in the Susan Ryeland/Alan Conway/Atticus Pund novels – not to mention his ‘in the style of…’ other authors (Holmes, Fleming) a host of golden authorial daffodils fill the reader’s heart with pleasure!!

This is book 2 of a 3 book deal which the author is writing about the very maverick ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne.

‘Real Life’ (Horowitz’s) teasingly and cleverly get woven in to the fiction Horowitz creates, with himself as a singularly inept Watson to Hawthorne’s Holmes.

The fictions, as well as the facts, continue to be jumbled together, delighting the reader, even within the Acknowledgements

I will say nothing about the unravelled murders within this one, but the entire journey, for this reader, was a joy. I particularly liked the impenetrably intellectual Ms Anno and the ‘Whaaa?????’ talk she gave to her adoring audience at Daunt’s bookshop

Will the REAL Anthony Horowitz (I should probably say the REAL Anthony Horowitz’s, reveal themselves??????

So I read the first in this series The Word Is Murder and was intrigued enough to get the second The Sentence Is Death over on NetGalley, but it's taken me three years to actually get around to reading it (oops).

If you don't know this series, the author, Anthony Horowitz himself, plays Watson to his fictional detective Daniel Hawthorne, chronicling their adventures as they try to solve murders. The murder in question for this novel is successful divorce lawyer Richard Pryce, who was bludgeoned to death with an expensive bottle of wine.

I remember when I read the first book I was a little confused about the author putting himself in the book, at the time I'd never really come across this but now I've seen it done a few times this sort of thing no longer bothers me.

On the surface the story is a bit like a cozy mystery, as the murder is more like a puzzle and there's not too much violence, but there is a fair bit of swearing with a smattering of unlikeable characters to give it a more gritty feel.

There were parts of the novel I really enjoyed, like the glimpse into the life of a TV writer as it shows some parts of Anthony Horowitz working on his show Foyle's War. Also, the introduction of copper DI Cara Grunshaw, who made Hawthorne seem not as bad in comparison and added an extra dimension to the story.

Unfortunately, while the author tried and throw a few twists in there, I figured out whodunnit well before the end. I was also hoping that Hawthorne would change his ways a bit, I still found him unlikeable most of the time.

Overall, The Sentence Is Death is a solid mystery with a cast of very memorable, (not always in a good way), characters.

We are back to the marmite of narratives. You either love the fact that Anthony Horowitz places himself firmly at the centre of the narrative or you can’t stomach it. I’m happily sitting pretty with the idea that I love this to meta-death. Is it an ego trip or is it just something different? He’s certainly taken the detective narrative by the horns recently starting with ‘The Magpie Murders’ with his very bizarre detective, Daniel Hawthorne, and moving on to the two books in this series.



In ‘The Word Is Murder’, the fictional Anthony Horowitz meets a detective who wants him to write his story. Detective Daniel Hawthorne is not the most helpful when it come to supplying Horowitz with data about himself, so he has not only to try and solve the murder presented but also the mystery of the mysterious detective.

This time the man who is murdered is a solicitor and, no big surprise, there are plenty of potential killers. While Horowitz blunders around, there are red herrings and dead herrings flying everywhere. We also learn a little more about Daniel Hawthorne and a lot about the insecurities of one Anthony Horowitz.

Thus follows the classic whodunit where all the clues are available and it’s up to you to get it right. I am most excellent at following misdirection, so I got absolutely everybody down as the murderer and, yes, I’m rubbish at Cluedo, too.

What I like is the little bits of the plot that involve Horowitz or Tony as he hates to be called in his real life. It’s like the picture where we can see a man looking at himself in a mirror and the reflection just carries on. Draw back a bit and there is yet another man looking at the man looking, my head hurts but it’s fun to look at fiction and ‘fact’ in the same narrative. In the next novel, I hope they start casting the TV version of the novels so we can add more Horowitz and more Hawthorne. Hours of amusement in working out who will play them and whether they will be real or fictional.

An easy book to get into, especially considering I hadn't read the first book in the series. I love the concept of Horowitz being in the book writing the book, it gives a really unique feel. Very clever and very entertaining!

So Anthony Horowitz has two very meta series going at the moment. If anything this is maybe the weirder - with Horowitz himself featuring as the protagonist, writing a book about Hawthorne, an ex-cop turned private investigator and police consultant. The murder mystery is good, Hawthorne is intriguingly dislikeable and "Anthony is a good narrator - if an endearingly stupid Watson to Hawthorne's Holmes. I think on balance I prefer the Susan Ryeland series, with their book within a book structure, but these are a good read and I will happily read more of these, if/when they materialise.

Clever, absorbing tale - you won't want to miss!

A fantastic who-dun-it, intelligently written with plenty of twists and turns. A big nod to golden age crime, it has everything - a quaint village setting, suspects galore, simmering secrets and a crime-solving detective to unravel all the kinks and explain everything how everything fits perfectly into place.

I couldn't put it down, one of the best books I've read all year!

A huge thanks to Random House UK & NetGalley for gifting me a copy in return for an open & honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anthony Horowitz as narrator is a wonderful addition to this thriller. Celebratory divorce lawyer Richard Pryce is murdered in his home in Hampstead, bludgeoned with a £2000 bottle of red wine, despite being teetotal. The police call in private detective Daniel Hawthorne to help them solve the crime. With the private eye comes his biographer, Anthony. Alongside the unfolding mystery there are snippets of Anthony’s life particularly the filming of Foyle’s War and his Alex Rider novels, all add to this unique reading experience. The murder victim has one terrible tragedy in his past, a climbing trip that resulted in a death. Daniel is sure this accident is at the route of Richard’s murder, despite what the police seem to think. Together Daniel and Anthony start to unravel the complex relationships of the people known to the victim.
This wonderfully written novel goes in so many directions as Anthony tries to solve the clues before Daniel , trying to prove he is as capable as this difficult, misogynistic, homophobic private detective.

Now I haven't read the first book in the series, however it didn't matter. I found it easy to read and I felt myself getting immersed in the storyline and I couldn't wait to finish the book to find out what happened. I do feel that I now need to go back and read the first book and I can't wait for the next one.

In the first book in this series, The Word Is Murder, Horowitz took the unusual step of placing himself in the book as the narrator, melding his real life with this fictional life as a writer engaged to write about Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne's cases. This made for delightful and amusing reading as Horowitz stumbles through the case in the wake of Hawthorne's somewhat more astute detective work. I was not sure how well this would work in a second episode but am happy to report that if anything it worked even better the second time around.

The case this time involves a high profile divorce lawyer, Richard Pryce, a teetotaller bashed with an expensive bottle of wine and then stabbed to death with broken glass from the bottle. On the wall above the body the killer painted the number 182 in green paint. At the time Pryce had been involved in a major case involving a celebrity writer, Akira Anno, who immediately becomes their main suspect, as she was recently witnessed pouring a glass of wine over Pryce's head in a popular restaurant and then threatening to hit him with the bottle. Or could that just be what the police are meant to think? Baffled they call in ex-dectective, PI Hawthorne and his biographical sidekick Horowitz to investigate.

Hawthorne is filling out more as a character in this second outing. Horowitz is still trying to fathom him out and find out more about his secretive past and current life but Hawthorne remains antisocial and unforthcoming. His investigative style reminds me a little of the 1970s TV private detective Marker - a bumbling, grumpy sort of character, giving little away but thinking deeply and two steps ahead of everyone else, particularly Horowitz who frequently upsets Hawthorne by putting his foot in at the wrong time in Hawthorne's interviews.
As in the previous book Horowitz weaves into the story his real life activities, writing episodes for 'Foyle's War' with Hawthorne blustering onto the set with little regard for the film crew. Horowitz also loves to poke fun at himself, depicting himself as hopeless at detective work. What results is a clever, gentle murder mystery reminiscent of the golden age of crime writing. As Horowitz has been contracted (fictionally) to write three books covering Hawthorne's cases, I look forward to the next episode. Highly recommended.

This is my first Horowitz book, but I have seen The Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders and Robin Hood and the new James Bond books are on my TBR list. I have not read the first book of the series, I just jumped in this one.

Was it a true-crime story? Was it fiction? Is Hawthorne real person? It’s an enigma inside and enigma. Since Midsomer Murders have always three murders, I was looking for them from start. Since in The Foyle’s War the culprit is always somebody you will not suspect, I was looking for the quiet person. And then there is this ahaa moment, that I got several pages before it was revealed.

It’s a fascinating story, that keeps you guessing all the time, that is filled with curve-balls and offers you just enough information, so you could feel like detective yourself.

Wonderful read!

I love the unusual narrative of this series. The way Horowitz weaves his own life into it, the reader feels they may be reading True Crime. I didn't guess 'whodunit' either. Looking forward to more.

Another fantastic and cerebral whodunit from Mr Horowitz. Book Two in this new series is as good as the first installment and I love the tidbits Mt Horowitz throws in with regards to his time as a screenwriter on the 'Foyle's War' series. The next book can't come quickly enough!

The wonderful thing about crime/ mystery stories is that you often don’t need to read what came before; I’m happy to say that this is one of them.
Plot aside, as the nature of the book means I need to keep the review spoiler free, the writing is impeccable and keeps you engaged from start to finish.

The second in this unusual series where the author is a character and the detective is a pleasing maverick with a mystery that keeps you guessing.

For me this book had so much to live up to. The Word is Murder ranked as my favourite book of 2017 so this had to be good. And perhaps that's why it took me a little longer to get into this time, or maybe it was I knew what to expect? I don't know but it certainly took a few chapters to grab me this time but when it did it had me in a choke hold. What I love about these books is how an immensely unlikeable character like Hawthorne is really very likeable and how wonderfully self depreciating Anthony Horowitz is in writing himself as a character. I like people who don't take themselves too seriously but more than that I love good writers and Mr Horowitz is both. Another great mystery, I'm looking forward to more.

An unlikable protagonist is offset by a relatable narrator in this fun murder mystery with just enough twists and suspects to keep things interesting without being convoluted. The clues are there if you know where to look, but nevertheless I was pleasantly surprised by the big reveal.

I'll definitely be looking for more from this series.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.