Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

11 reviews

natashaball's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Excellent premise - the author putting himself in a fictional murder story, even in the acknowledgments. A few unexpected twists and turns, and the ones I thought would happen never did, which was great! Definitely recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Homophobia and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia and Suicidal thoughts

leahthebooklover's review against another edition

4.0

I chose this book because it was "pressed" upon me by a podcast I recently started listening to called "Currently Reading" (great podcast, but it's seriously adding to the length of my tbr pile). The premise intrigued me. Anthony Horowitz is a prolific author and screenwriter, and in this book (the first of a series of at least 10 intended books, 4 of which have been published to date) he himself is a major character. He is approached by an enigmatic and unlikeable detective named Daniel Hawthorne who is a police consultant and is working on a uniquely puzzling murder. A middle aged woman goes to a funeral home to make her own funeral arrangements. Six hours later she is strangled to death in her own apartment. Her body isn't discovered until two days later when the housekeeper arrives for work. Hawthorne is called in to consult, and it's at this point, before much actual investigation has begun, that he approaches Horowitz with an unusual proposal. He wants Horowitz to accompany him as he investigates, and then write a book based on the case. The book blurs the line between fact and fiction. The facts about Horowitz himself that are inserted in the book are true enough - the previous books he has written and so on - but the case itself, the character of Hawthorne and the rest of the victims, suspects, and events described, are all fictional. Hawthorne has been described as a "modern day Sherlock Holmes" while Horowitz is his Watson counterpart. It's a bit of a stretch, but not totally unrealistic, especially considering that in real life, Horowitz has been authorized by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate to write new Sherlock Holmes mysteries (see "House of Silk" and "Moriarty"). In creating the genre blending Daniel Hawthorne series, Horowitz is proving again what a versatile writer he is. For sensitive readers, this is a murder mystery, so there are some graphic descriptions of death. Also, the character of Hawthorne (who I previously described as unlikeable) is shown to be prominently homophobic. Horowitz addresses his objection to this aspect of Hawthorne's personality, even going so far as wondering if he can continue working with him, but by that time he's so invested in trying to "one-up" Hawthorne and solve the case himself that he continues on (of course he does, or else there wouldn't be a book). The matter is not addressed again in this book, perhaps it will be dealt with in later books in the series. I certainly hope so, because otherwise I find it's inclusion to be pointless and offensive. Part memoir, part murder mystery, written like a true crime story, this is a series with a few problems and a fair amount of promise. I'm going to give the next book in the series ("The Sentence is Death") a try fairly soon.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Car accident

Minor: Homophobia, Violence, and Infidelity

zlizzyv's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It was a slow start and throughout the book it felt like Horowitz was self promoting. At first it was exciting to realize he was talking about himself, referencing books I had read before, but it soon became too much. It felt like every chapter he mentioned one of his works, and it didn’t add to the plot in any meaningful way. I didn’t get fully hooked on the storyline until halfway in, partially because of this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Blood, Car accident, Body horror, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Death, Grief, and Vomit

Minor: Drug use

betholomew's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Maybe the real character development was the friends we made along the way

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Homophobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

alisonvh's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A solid homage to Holmes and Watson, especially if Holmes had been a manipulative prick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Blood, Body horror, Misogyny, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Gore

mlottermoser's review

adventurous mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Anthony Horowitz, a YA novel and screen writer, delves into a new genre by writing a detective novel with Hawthorne, a crime consultant. Hawthorne proposes that Horowitz can document his process and write a novel and they can split the proceeds 50/50. While mostly fiction this book includes enough facts about Horowitz that it leaves you wondering, did this really happen in real life?
Fun modern twist to the Holmes/Watson relationship. Moves steadily while still leaving you guessing at the end.
Wish we knew more about Hawthorne. More incentive to keep reading the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content, Drug use, Addiction, Homophobia, and Suicide

Minor: Domestic abuse

leebeeloves's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Cursing, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

frantically's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This feels like a book written by a posh, white, straight man for other posh, white, straight men who want to feel better about being posh, white and straight — after all, at least they're not homophobic too (they just want to understand the homophobes' reason). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Blood

Moderate: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug abuse, and Violence

Minor: Infidelity

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Fun, almost a cosy mystery but a lot more gruesome. Curious to see where this grumpy-sunshine duo goes from here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Animal death, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, and Drug abuse

ambermahalia's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail