A review by not_another_ana
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

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.
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