Scan barcode
emilyinlibraryland's review against another edition
3.0
A woman goes to a funeral parlor to pre-arrange and pay for her own funeral. Hours later, she is murdered. The Met calls in retired detective Hawthorne to help them work the case, and he uses his previous television consultancy work connections to get in touch with author/screenwriter Anthony Horowitz, who he wants to write a book about him.
The book is told from Anthony Horowitz (the character/author)'s perspective, which is where the problems began for me. There's a lot of him thinking about or talking about himself and his own work (did you know the Alex Rider books are popular and he does book tours for them?!? Now you do!), and being generally whiny about his "partnership" with Hawthorne. Hawthorne is not particularly better or more interesting. He refuses to tell the Horowitz character anything about himself, even though he is supposed to be starring in the book he approached Horowitz to write. He appears to have some Sherlock Holmes-esque deducting abilities, but he mostly refuses to share his insights with our narrator, so we frequently have no idea what he thinks about the case. There are also a lot of asides about how if Horowitz were writing this case in one of his books, it would have been totally different, but since this is real life, he has no idea what is happening!
It was irritating because the mystery aspect was actually interesting, and I kept reading to see who the murderer was. However, most of the book was focused on the Horowitz writing about a boring guy aspect, which didn't add much to the story for me. Then I got annoyed all over again when Horowitz continues pretending Hawthorne is real in the acknowledgements at the end of the book.
Overall, it may have been more of a 2.5 star book for me.
The book is told from Anthony Horowitz (the character/author)'s perspective, which is where the problems began for me. There's a lot of him thinking about or talking about himself and his own work (did you know the Alex Rider books are popular and he does book tours for them?!? Now you do!), and being generally whiny about his "partnership" with Hawthorne. Hawthorne is not particularly better or more interesting. He refuses to tell the Horowitz character anything about himself, even though he is supposed to be starring in the book he approached Horowitz to write. He appears to have some Sherlock Holmes-esque deducting abilities, but he mostly refuses to share his insights with our narrator, so we frequently have no idea what he thinks about the case. There are also a lot of asides about how if Horowitz were writing this case in one of his books, it would have been totally different, but since this is real life, he has no idea what is happening!
It was irritating because the mystery aspect was actually interesting, and I kept reading to see who the murderer was. However, most of the book was focused on the Horowitz writing about a boring guy aspect, which didn't add much to the story for me. Then I got annoyed all over again when Horowitz continues pretending Hawthorne is real in the acknowledgements at the end of the book.
Overall, it may have been more of a 2.5 star book for me.
mve94's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.25
ninjaterri's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
deschatjes's review against another edition
3.0
A very interesting conceit - writing yourself as author into a story. Of course now I’ll need to see how much is fact vs fiction.
Fast paced & the necessary blind alleys & a clever resolution.
Fast paced & the necessary blind alleys & a clever resolution.
rebplane's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
joceyreads's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fun mystery! A good twist. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book where the author writes the main character as a version of themselves. It was a great plot device. Really enjoyed it!
jcayala76's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75