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A review by orchestra_pit
The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
adventurous
funny
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? No
2.75
This book was really weird. I have never read any of Horowitz other books so I didn’t realize that he had made himself the main character until like half way through the book which made me feel a little weird tbh. Like he really just wrote a self-insert fic for himself.
It didn’t work very well. Mostly because I don’t know anything about the author but the book seems to think I should, as it doesn’t tell us anything about him or his life beyond what he does for work. His wife is mentioned a few times and appears in a few scenes, and he has two sons that are mentioned twice throughout the whole book. It also gets super meta and goes into the making of his other works and the publishing process which all feels super out of place. If your writing a murder mystery there should not be massive chunks of your book about your self-insert character trying to make it in the industry.
This is not helped by any of the other characters either. Hawthorn is the other main character and he is completely unlikable. We pretty much end the book knowing just as much about him as we did in the beginning. We know that he is intelligent, private, and homophobic. I’m not even kidding, that’s it.
The two main characters also hate each other, which is not very fun to read. With Holmes and Watson, you get fun banter with some arguments, but through it all, a respect that they have for each other. Not in this book. They literally just hate each other.
All that being said, the murder mystery is actually quite captivating. I found myself roped in by the twists and turns. So if you can get past the characters, then you might like this book.
It didn’t work very well. Mostly because I don’t know anything about the author but the book seems to think I should, as it doesn’t tell us anything about him or his life beyond what he does for work. His wife is mentioned a few times and appears in a few scenes, and he has two sons that are mentioned twice throughout the whole book. It also gets super meta and goes into the making of his other works and the publishing process which all feels super out of place. If your writing a murder mystery there should not be massive chunks of your book about your self-insert character trying to make it in the industry.
This is not helped by any of the other characters either. Hawthorn is the other main character and he is completely unlikable. We pretty much end the book knowing just as much about him as we did in the beginning. We know that he is intelligent, private, and homophobic. I’m not even kidding, that’s it.
The two main characters also hate each other, which is not very fun to read. With Holmes and Watson, you get fun banter with some arguments, but through it all, a respect that they have for each other. Not in this book. They literally just hate each other.
All that being said, the murder mystery is actually quite captivating. I found myself roped in by the twists and turns. So if you can get past the characters, then you might like this book.