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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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, and Child death
Moderate: Homophobia and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pedophilia and Suicidal thoughts
erinicole's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Murder
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
charelia's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I've been a fan of Anthony Horowitz since the age of seven, when I started reading his Diamond Brothers series of children's books, which incidentally is also a series of detective stories told from the point of view of said detective's sidekick, so I was excited to finally dive into the author's adult works.
Horowitz brings a new spin to the done-to-death trope of the thoroughly loathsome detective and his everyman foil who serves as narrator, by inserting himself — as in, critically acclaimed author Anthony Horowitz, best known for his Alex Rider series of children’s books — in place of the latter. We get the unique point of view of a fiction novelist trying to craft a story from the narrative in which he's been swept up and, for the first time in his career, he is unable to control. With the exception of a couple of immersion-breaking monologues the format works surprisingly well. It's delightfully meta, although his page-long lament about the backlash he would face should his inclusion of a problematic protagonist be interpreted as an endorsement of the character's views, came across as a little tone-deaf and melodramatic, especially since the offensive content is promptly swept under the rug, lampshade and all.
A good mystery novel must walk the fine line between handing the reader all the necessary clues and allowing them to piece together enough parts of the puzzle to feel a sense of triumphant satisfaction, whilst keeping it subtle enough that the reader will be kicking themselves once the rug is pulled, the final pieces fall into place, and it turns out the big picture was visible all along. Horowitz mastered this balancing act in his children's books, and he masters it here.
There is however one plot element that seriously bothers me, which is the fact thatthe murderer's motivation centres on the fact that they were a contemporary of the second victim at drama school. Yet they are described as being "about forty years old", whilst another former classmate is described as being "in [their] early thirties". Of course the murderer could have simply been older when they enrolled, but this feels like obstructing the reader's deduction with a straight lie rather than the misdirection a mystery novel should employ. It feels especially egregious when the penultimate chapter suddenly revises the murderer's age to "mid-thirties" after the truth has been revealed.
Horowitz brings a new spin to the done-to-death trope of the thoroughly loathsome detective and his everyman foil who serves as narrator, by inserting himself — as in, critically acclaimed author Anthony Horowitz, best known for his Alex Rider series of children’s books — in place of the latter. We get the unique point of view of a fiction novelist trying to craft a story from the narrative in which he's been swept up and, for the first time in his career, he is unable to control. With the exception of a couple of immersion-breaking monologues the format works surprisingly well. It's delightfully meta, although his page-long lament about the backlash he would face should his inclusion of a problematic protagonist be interpreted as an endorsement of the character's views, came across as a little tone-deaf and melodramatic, especially since the offensive content is promptly swept under the rug, lampshade and all.
A good mystery novel must walk the fine line between handing the reader all the necessary clues and allowing them to piece together enough parts of the puzzle to feel a sense of triumphant satisfaction, whilst keeping it subtle enough that the reader will be kicking themselves once the rug is pulled, the final pieces fall into place, and it turns out the big picture was visible all along. Horowitz mastered this balancing act in his children's books, and he masters it here.
There is however one plot element that seriously bothers me, which is the fact that
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Car accident
Minor: Homophobia, Violence, and Infidelity
sam_rm94's review against another edition
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder and Child death
Minor: Homophobia
melshoo's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Violence, and Death
Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, and Murder
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.
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
shepardsolbear's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Homophobia and Child death
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Car accident, and Murder
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Homophobia
Minor: Suicidal thoughts