Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Sentence Is Death

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz

5 reviews

not_another_ana's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.25

From my experience of Hawthorne, I knew he had a way of firing off seemingly irrelevant observations. He wasn't being deliberately offensive. It was just that offensive was his default mode.

Hawthorne and Horowitz are back and ready to solve a murder! When a cutthroat divorce lawyer is brutally murdered, and a mysterious message left in the crime scene, it's up to private investigator Daniel Hawthorne to get to the bottom of the case. Of course following along for the ride is Anthony Horowitz, the real life author's failsona and Hawthorne's biographer, who is trying to figure out a different mystery, who really is Hawthorne? With a variety of suspects, who all had motives and even opportunity, and a suspicious incident in the victim's past this won't be an easy case to crack.

The second book of this funky series was a good solid read, but I did enjoy the first one far more. Things I loved in this one: Hawthorne continues to be a horrid human being that you can't help but be drawn into. His character is great, incredibly human to the point of being disgusting. I thought the pacing was good enough and I enjoyed most of the investigation.

Special mention to the caving incident, way to give me a new fear. What a horrible way to die! I also really liked the description of the investigation into the suicide and how that whole department works, solid stuff.

However, the murder mystery in this one wasn't as enjoyable. It was fine, but the misdirection became a bit too obvious at points. I solved it with a quarter of the book to go, so it definitely kept me guessing, but the ending wasn't so satisfying.

My biggest gripe here is how little we saw the actual murderer, for me that gave it away a bit. What the numbers actually meant was kinda meh, though I do think the motive made a lot of sense.

The two new cop characters were too cartoonish to me, they could have been toned down a bit. While it was interesting to see Hawthorne's private life a bit more there was too much set up into a future reveal about his past that was left hanging by the end of this book, I could have done with a morsel of truth.

Content Warnings

gillianengelbrecht's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

scherbs's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

hkburke2's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

Oof. The plotting and generally writing style work for me here, as Horowitz does a good job emulating cozy mysteries and buddy detective stories and all that. HOWEVER the homophobia, racism, and ableism in this one didn't feel like character development. It didn't add to my understanding of the two main characters, it just me dislike them. I'm okay with disliking characters in general, but there's no depth here and I don't think it's intentional that way. Just... Irritating.

Content Warnings

possiblyeve's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

a solid murder mystery - what i really enjoyed was Horowitz’s narration. i loved the narration on his book ‘Magpie Murders’, where you can’t really tell what’s the character speaking and what is Horowitz’s actual experience. i still can’t tell if this is 100% fiction, and i really enjoyed reading it.

Content Warnings

More...