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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.
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.
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
thebookpaiges's review
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Murder, Death of parent, and Child death
Moderate: Body horror, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts
not_another_ana's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
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? It's complicated
4.0
4/5
This was something I would learn about Hawthorne. He was someone who was only fully alive when he was working a case. He needed there to have been a murder or some other violent crime. It was his entire raison d'être - another posh phrase which I am sure he would have hated.
A woman walks into a funeral parlour and arranges her own funeral. Hours later she's been murdered. Coincidence or something more sinister is afoot? In comes our protagonist, former detective Daniel Hawthorne, as a consultant on the case. And like any good Sherlockesque hero he needs a Watson to record his exploits. Here is where the interesting bit that caught my eye comes in: the narrator is the actual author of the book, Anthony Horowitz.
This was a fun romp that reminded me of classic whodunnits. The mystery was intriguing and not easy to solve, though I will say that it could have been a bit more grounded in reality. Horowitz's prose makes this a page turner that draws you in. I had a lot of fun reading this and will definitely be picking up the others in the series.
My favorite part of the whole book was the character of Hawthorne. What if the protagonist was similar to say a BBC Sherlock detective or a loose cannon? Well, he would be fucking unbearable. And that worked here, with his outrageousness behavior giving this tale something more interesting than just the crime. He felt very fleshed out and I liked that the book didn't shy away from his faults, like his perceived homophobia and his callousness towards others.
What can be a bit hit of miss is the self insert of Horowitz. There were aspects of it that I enjoyed and some that made me loose my immersion in the plot. It can feel, at times, like a lot of self promotion of his works but it also gives us hilarious scenes like when Hawthorne crashes his meeting with Spielberg and Peter Jackson.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Child death
Moderate: Car accident and Violence
Minor: Infidelity and Homophobia
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
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).
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.
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
mariearen's review
I dnfed this after the introduction of quite explicit homophobic language into the story. So I don’t know if the detective character is redeemed or anymore nuance is added to that plot element later on. I don’t always dnf books for this reason, but I’m not in a headspace to be taking in that kind of homophobia, especially in what I picked up to be an easy fast paced read.
If I had been more gripped by the characters I might have stuck it out, but I found both men to be fairly uninteresting and didn’t connect with their dynamic. All this, in combination with the narrator’s reaction to the homophobia focusing more on the career fallout for him, than anything else, just meant I didn’t have it in me. Homophobia can be important to examine in fiction of course, but god a lot of the time I’m so exhausted from experiencing it, that I really just want my reading time to be a bit of time off.
If I had been more gripped by the characters I might have stuck it out, but I found both men to be fairly uninteresting and didn’t connect with their dynamic. All this, in combination with the narrator’s reaction to the homophobia focusing more on the career fallout for him, than anything else, just meant I didn’t have it in me. Homophobia can be important to examine in fiction of course, but god a lot of the time I’m so exhausted from experiencing it, that I really just want my reading time to be a bit of time off.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia
jillianeubauer's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
So I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, and I really enjoyed the layout of the story. I think part of that has to do with the narrator...huge thanks, Rory Kinnear. It was a brilliant book and I haven't ever heard of the author using himself as the main character. Currently, I am taking a beginner CSI class and of course obsessed with Criminal Minds, Monk, and Castle so this book only added to my interests right now. I am only giving it 4 stars because I don't see myself rereading this book, usually meaning that there was something lacking -I just can't put my finger on it right now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Homophobia and Blood
emilygv's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but a pretty cover has yet to let me down.
There was a point early on at which I'd debated dropping this book (the very beginning, aside from the wonderful first chapter that had me hooked, I found to be a bit slow. purely personal preference), and (aside from that) Hawthorne's suddenhomophobic outburst definitely caught me off guard, but I'm glad I stuck with it to the end.
I'm definitely a fan of Horowitz's writing style. I'm not even quite sure what it is (the descriptions? the balance of dialogue? the vocabulary choices?), but it stood out to me so much that I had to make note of it.
There's definitely some big Agatha Christie vibes that I got while reading, which I loved. And I'm almost embarrassed to say that I didn't realize the whole Holmes/Watson dynamic was intentional for several chapters.
I loved how even the smallest details in the descriptions ended up contributing to the big reveal. I didn't figure it out myself, but it was fun looking through all the early chapters to come to some smaller realizations that Horowitz would proceed to describe in the following pages.
Horowitz the narrator being a self insert character took some getting used to, especially with a few lengthy descriptions of his other projects thrown in, but the insights that came along with it really added to the experience in my personal opinion (though I've read some reviews with the opposite point of view).
I've already placed a hold on the next book in the series!
There was a point early on at which I'd debated dropping this book (the very beginning, aside from the wonderful first chapter that had me hooked, I found to be a bit slow. purely personal preference), and (aside from that) Hawthorne's sudden
I'm definitely a fan of Horowitz's writing style. I'm not even quite sure what it is (the descriptions? the balance of dialogue? the vocabulary choices?), but it stood out to me so much that I had to make note of it.
There's definitely some big Agatha Christie vibes that I got while reading, which I loved. And I'm almost embarrassed to say that I didn't realize the whole Holmes/Watson dynamic was intentional for several chapters.
I loved how even the smallest details in the descriptions ended up contributing to the big reveal. I didn't figure it out myself, but it was fun looking through all the early chapters to come to some smaller realizations that Horowitz would proceed to describe in the following pages.
Horowitz the narrator being a self insert character took some getting used to, especially with a few lengthy descriptions of his other projects thrown in, but the insights that came along with it really added to the experience in my personal opinion (though I've read some reviews with the opposite point of view).
I've already placed a hold on the next book in the series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Homophobia
aelmer's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.5
the main character is unnecessarily explicitly homophobic
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia