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doramar 's review for:
Close to Death
by Anthony Horowitz
I'm disappointed in Anthony Horowitz. This is the man who wrote such entertaining crime/murder mysteries in Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War and the Sherlockian novel House of Silk.
His more recent work is all gimmickry. There's the Magpie Murders/Moonflower Murders which use a "book within a book" gimmick, which I found annoying.
And then there's this Hawthorne & Horowitz series, where Horowitz himself is supposedly documenting (and often getting dragged into) the investigation of real-life murders. A great many pages are conveniently taken up with Horowitz talking about his writing process, his dealings with his publisher, and his ponderings on the case (he never guesses the truth till the end). Some people may find that fascinating but it feels like filler to me.
In this particular novel, the case was unremarkable, the cast of characters was boring, and I suspected the murderer from the start. There was the absurd involvement of a shady omniscient security firm, which had no relevance to the case and sounded like he'd accidentally inserted a chapter from one of his Bond novels. I can only assume it's going to feature in future books in the series, but if that's going to lead it further into spy territory, that doesn't bode well IMO.
His more recent work is all gimmickry. There's the Magpie Murders/Moonflower Murders which use a "book within a book" gimmick, which I found annoying.
And then there's this Hawthorne & Horowitz series, where Horowitz himself is supposedly documenting (and often getting dragged into) the investigation of real-life murders. A great many pages are conveniently taken up with Horowitz talking about his writing process, his dealings with his publisher, and his ponderings on the case (he never guesses the truth till the end). Some people may find that fascinating but it feels like filler to me.
In this particular novel, the case was unremarkable, the cast of characters was boring, and I suspected the murderer from the start. There was the absurd involvement of a shady omniscient security firm, which had no relevance to the case and sounded like he'd accidentally inserted a chapter from one of his Bond novels. I can only assume it's going to feature in future books in the series, but if that's going to lead it further into spy territory, that doesn't bode well IMO.