Reviews

A divorce attorney is murdered Hawthorne is asked to investigate, is it related to a contentious divorce or a caving accident from the past? Hawthorne asks Horowitz to be his sidekick again, so Horowitz can write a second book. The murder mystery was good, it is fun to watch the relationship between H and H develop. Overall a good read.

allisonqo's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I wanted desperately to like this book, but both the plot and characters fall incredibly flat past the halfway point. I gave two stars for the actual mystery plot content, but I didn’t find the novel to be particularly well written (unexpected, considering how widely acclaimed the author is.

I legitimately had to ask myself if the author even cares for women while I was reading the novel. I’m totally on board for writing unliveable characters, women included, but why are *all* the women painted so bitterly (Akira as the cold blooded and melodramatic feminist writer, DI Grunshaw is aggressive overweight and unattractive) ?

There were also some pretty pointed comments slid into the text of the novel - I get that this is a self-insert, but there were many moments where it felt like Horowitz threw a political line in there just to say it. There’s a sentence about police having to close precincts so now knife crime is running rampant, another something about “people being accused of something and everybody believes them before there’s proof”, or something to that effect. I could go into the treatment of Hawthorne’s racism and homophobia but, it’s been beaten to death and I won’t add much more to what others have said.

Those are the two main reasons this novel was overall a disappointment.

shubha_tree's review against another edition

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4.0

While a compelling thriller, the sentence is death loses some of its novel charms. I will say that I am proud of figuring out who the killer is before the book's end!

snowy4's review against another edition

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mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I've read the Alex Rider books as a child which I loved at that age so I thought I should read some of his adult books.

It was a book that I read fairly quickly. I didn't have the urge to finish it though. However, I have not read the first book which may have helped with understanding the characters a little more.

The pace I feel could have been fastest, but I suppose you can't hide clues as well if its not full of descriptions and little facts.

I will try to read the other books in the series.

skoochagian's review against another edition

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4.0

I would’ve finished sooner if I didn’t use all my monthly reading minutes on Spotify. But wow!! I think I liked this one more than the last Hawthorne book. You would think from the beginning premise of the crime that it would be an easy solve, but it was far from it! I never figured it out, but when I found out the culprit I was shocked! I think the other plot lines were a lot more interesting and really made the crime harder to solve. I sensed more notes of Agatha Christie in this story, but Sherlock Holmes style writing was definitely still there. Onto the next one!

clak5686's review against another edition

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4.25

The second entry in this series is better than the first. Horowitz continues to try to learn more about Hawthorne. The is a revelation that I expect will be explored in future books. I'm definitely intrigued. This case was interesting and solved satisfactorily. The writing continues to be excellent including some humor. I liked the structure of the book. I highly recommend this book. I listened to the audio book and really enjoyed it.

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