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A review by ms_gouldbourne
The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
This one is a whole world of no from me, I'm afraid. I'm usually a real fan of Anthony Horowitz, but I think that might be because my main exposure to him is through Alex Rider; I think he's much better at writing young adult fiction than he is at tapping into the slightly more complex and emotional storylines expected by adults. I will concede that I haven't read the first book in this series, which might have made me more sympathetic to this, the second - but I suspect that all that would have happened is that I wouldn't have made it to this one.
The Sentence is Death introduces us - for the second time, if you've been reading this series in the proper order - to writer Anthony as he's working on the screenplay for a TV show. And here is the conceit that has allowed me to give this book a higher score than it would otherwise have received from me, because I absolutely loved the way Horowitz blended fact and fiction together for this series. Telling a story from the point of view of a character based on himself, including details from his own career so that you actually find yourself wondering if he really was pulled into a murder inquiry by accident, if this really is based on truth... it's an absolutely inspired way to tell an otherwise rather prosaic story, and I was very much caught up by the cleverness of it.
It's a good thing too, because it was about the only thing I enjoyed about The Sentence is Death. The plot was relatively uninspired, but that's okay - murder mysteries don't have to break the mould to be fun. What utterly ruined it for me was the unlikability of any of the characters. His private investigator Daniel Hawthorne cannot be described as anything other than an asshole. He's brutish, bigoted - and no, having your Horowitz character express distaste at Hawthorne's homophobia does not make it acceptable to have included it, especially when it adds nothing to the plot - and downright cruel to Horowitz.
Their relationship is obviously supposed to mirror the great detective pairings of classic crime fiction, but neither Sherlock nor Poirot behaved as callously towards their respective sidekicks as Hawthorne does to Horowitz. Rather than finding Horowitz's bumbling towards incorrect conclusions amusing, as I do with Hastings and to a lesser degree Watson, I just cringed as he was humiliated and shamed by Hawthorne's cruelty and derision. Hawthorne was so unpleasant that I couldn't enjoy him at all. I had absolutely zero interest in the deeper mystery that shrouded his past, and every time he spoke I basically wanted to punch him in the face. Yes, it's possible to make a protagonist unlikable, but if you make him so unlikable that your reader wants to shut the book to get away from him, you're doing something wrong.
This coupled with the aforementioned homophobia and some pretty nasty ableism - Horowitz is astounded that a character in a wheelchair could possibly have a personality or use beyond his disability, which, gross - just cemented the fact that this is not a series I could ever or will ever enjoy. And unfortunately the fact that one of the protagonists is supposed to actually be Anthony Horowitz makes me question his own bigotry... which is a real shame for my future reading of Alex Rider. Boo!
The Sentence is Death introduces us - for the second time, if you've been reading this series in the proper order - to writer Anthony as he's working on the screenplay for a TV show. And here is the conceit that has allowed me to give this book a higher score than it would otherwise have received from me, because I absolutely loved the way Horowitz blended fact and fiction together for this series. Telling a story from the point of view of a character based on himself, including details from his own career so that you actually find yourself wondering if he really was pulled into a murder inquiry by accident, if this really is based on truth... it's an absolutely inspired way to tell an otherwise rather prosaic story, and I was very much caught up by the cleverness of it.
It's a good thing too, because it was about the only thing I enjoyed about The Sentence is Death. The plot was relatively uninspired, but that's okay - murder mysteries don't have to break the mould to be fun. What utterly ruined it for me was the unlikability of any of the characters. His private investigator Daniel Hawthorne cannot be described as anything other than an asshole. He's brutish, bigoted - and no, having your Horowitz character express distaste at Hawthorne's homophobia does not make it acceptable to have included it, especially when it adds nothing to the plot - and downright cruel to Horowitz.
Their relationship is obviously supposed to mirror the great detective pairings of classic crime fiction, but neither Sherlock nor Poirot behaved as callously towards their respective sidekicks as Hawthorne does to Horowitz. Rather than finding Horowitz's bumbling towards incorrect conclusions amusing, as I do with Hastings and to a lesser degree Watson, I just cringed as he was humiliated and shamed by Hawthorne's cruelty and derision. Hawthorne was so unpleasant that I couldn't enjoy him at all. I had absolutely zero interest in the deeper mystery that shrouded his past, and every time he spoke I basically wanted to punch him in the face. Yes, it's possible to make a protagonist unlikable, but if you make him so unlikable that your reader wants to shut the book to get away from him, you're doing something wrong.
This coupled with the aforementioned homophobia and some pretty nasty ableism - Horowitz is astounded that a character in a wheelchair could possibly have a personality or use beyond his disability, which, gross - just cemented the fact that this is not a series I could ever or will ever enjoy. And unfortunately the fact that one of the protagonists is supposed to actually be Anthony Horowitz makes me question his own bigotry... which is a real shame for my future reading of Alex Rider. Boo!
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism and Homophobia