Book Notices | The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz, The Word is Murder

Amazon   Anthony Horowitz injects himself into the story in this first book in his Hawthorne and Horowitz series, playing the John Watson figure to an enigmatic ex-policeman known mostly by his last name. A particularly intriguing case—the murder of a popular actor's mother on the day she plans her own funeral—prompts Hawthorne to propose the partnership, and after some initial reluctance, Horowitz signs on. So Horowitz is the real-life author writing about his fictional experience tailing the fictional detective while he solves a fictional crime. I write those adjectives with the certainty of someone who's Googled to find out exactly where the many real-life details in this book give way to fiction. The blend is exquisite. So I really enjoyed that playfulness—the melding of reality and fiction—and I like the first-person narrative in which Horowitz brings us along not only while he shadows Hawthorne but also while he tries to figure out how to approach writing this kind of story in the first place. It's quite a fun read, and there are (to date) three more books in the series waiting to be enjoyed! Hopefully they'll keep coming. (In closing, I must say that I love the cover art for these books. Also, in my head, Hawthorne was played by actor Bruce Weitz.)