[GSL]⇒ [PDF] The Word Is Murder A Novel Detective Daniel Hawthorne Anthony Horowitz Books

The Word Is Murder A Novel Detective Daniel Hawthorne Anthony Horowitz Books

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The Word Is Murder A Novel Detective Daniel Hawthorne Anthony Horowitz Books

After reading Horowitz’s MAGPIE MURDERS, I was compelled to read this one straightaway. I am a big fan of his small screen series, such as Foyle’s War, a nuanced, intelligent series about a British detective during WW II and beyond to the Cold War, the short series Injustice, a tense drama about a tormented attorney, and the eccentric but suspenseful Midsomer Murders about a quaint English village and its people, coupled with murder. Magpie Murders had a combination of a vintage English murder, mixed with a contemporary meta-fiction that renders it more complex and twisty.

In this, another murder case, Horowitz is even more brazen by casting himself as himself, layering fictional characters and a storyline with the authentic Horowitz, in a sometimes gleefully tingling meta- scene. For example, the writer is in an actual meeting with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, and…well, I won’t reveal what happens, but it really blurs the lines between fact and fiction, that scene being the most arch of all the meta-scenes due to the billion-watt celebrities going eerily from foreground to background with a few strokes of a keyboard.

The story: It starts with a short narrative: a 60s-aged woman, Diana Cowper, walks into a funeral parlor to arrange her own funeral, and is murdered six hours later. This was more of a prologue, demonstrating the author’s draft of a story, and then the next chapter we get to the meat of the set-up, and how that funeral parlor scene came to be.

In London, Anthony Horowitz, busy with different writing projects and a screenplay, is contacted by a peculiar ex police force detective named Daniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne was once hired by Horowitz’s production team to be used as a consultant in his five-part miniseries, INJUSTICE, to help keep the script’s police procedures credible and methodical. He was brilliant with his advice, and apparently a crack investigator, but was fired by the Metropolitan police force prior to working with Horowitz on the series. Anthony never liked him—he found him morose, socially miscued, prickly, annoying, and intrusive, but he put up with him for his use on the series.

Horowitz is inwardly outraged and outwardly dismissive when Hawthorne calls him to offer him a 50-50 book deal to write about himself. Why would anyone want to read about Hawthorne? And how brazen for him to call Horowitz to write this? And 50-50??? Yet, when he finally does meet up with him and Hawthorne tells him about the Cowper case, Anthony is legitimately intrigued. The fact that she has a famous son, a stage and screen actor he’s familiar with, amps up the buzz.

Horowitz agrees to do it, i.e. to follow Hawthorne around (who has been curiously hired by the Met to consult, and seems to have primary privileges). The problem— to Anthony’s chagrin, Hawthorne is a cipher and refuses to answer any questions about himself. Anthony expresses to him that if he is going to write about him,
“I’d have to know where you live, whether you’re married or not, what you have for breakfast, what you do on your day off. That’s why people read murder stories.” Hawthorne’s response?
“I don’t agree. The word is murder. That’s what matters.”

As the case and story unfold, and the suspects pile up, it becomes just as thrilling to witness the testy relationship of Hawthorne and Horowitz as it is to watch how the investigation progresses. Moreover, the writer shares the writing process. Although the case is fiction (but treated as fact), you totally believe in it! Horowitz is a genius at including himself BUT getting out of his own way. Only an accomplished, meticulous writer is able to pull that off. You won’t be disappointed.


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The Word Is Murder A Novel Detective Daniel Hawthorne Anthony Horowitz Books Reviews

This book dragged on and on. I only finished it because I started it, but i didn’t care for the way it was written. It was hard to get into the characters; no one was very likeable. The author, writing in the first person, kept expressing how ambivalent he was about writing this book. I was just as ambivalent about the value of reading it. Definitely not a fun read, nor a particularly rewarding one. This was a major disappointment for me, especially after reading the Magpie Murders, one of the best mysteries I’ve read in a long time.
An ex-British police detective and an author of fictional mysteries get together to solve a crime in seemingly current day London. One is real, the eponymous writer of his 2017 novel, “The Word is Murder”, and the other, the presumably fictional Detective Daniel Hawthorne, living in the confine of its pages.

The opening is a terrific hook a woman walks into a funeral parlor to arrange her own funeral and, very shortly thereafter, is murdered at home. Coincidental, calculated, or something else?

The plot quickly unfolds as the back-stories come to light. Various characters have involvements with one another, some concealed and some obscured only to be revealed as the drama requires. And there is more than one murder to be explained.

Many of the characters you might expect to find in a large-scale film production a doting mother, an ambitious self-absorbed actor, his unmarried girlfriend with their young daughter, an unhappy couple with a disabled son and nanny, an unctuous funeral director and staff, to name a few.

The most curious relationship is between writer Horowitz and ex-detective Hawthorne. It initially seems to be an updated Watson and Homes pairing but given all the present television recreations, it is not surprising that this is different. They share similar traits, curiosity and desire to figure out what is happening, but they are quite distinct at the cores the writer is collaborative by nature of his trade, whereas the ex-detective is a loner with his own dark corners.

Anthony Horowitz borrows quite literally from his own life experiences, including real people in the entertainment world who briefly and somewhat distractingly appear in the story. Other than establishing the author’s need to work with others, the information seems to slow down the pace.

On the other hand, Daniel Hawthorne (borrowed from Nathaniel Hawthorne?) seems to be waiting for Horowitz to animate him. He lives in borrowed quarters, has an estranged wife and son, reads Albert Camus’ “The Outsider”, and builds models of former real life military equipment. Seems like a cipher.

The author has had great success layering stories within stories as he did in “Magpie Murders.” In that tale, partially set in current times, his characters are all fictional. (If it helps, here’s the link to my review of the same https//www./review/R2EDCBY3ZMPP4D/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8)

While overlapping dramas from different time periods is a great technique for entertaining, this time the real life details seems to hamper the fun of the chase.
Having thoroughly enjoyed Anthony Horowitz’s “meta” mystery, “Magpie Murders”, I joyfully dove into “The Word is Murder” which has similar playful “conceits”. While not quite a book-inside-a-book, “The Word is Murder” is about Horowitz (yes, he’s written himself into the story) collaborating with a former Detective Inspector named Hawthorne, to both solve a murder and write a book about it.

Basic premise a woman walks into a funeral home to arrange her funeral details, and a few hours later she’s murdered in her own home. Coincidental? Hawthorne doesn’t believe in coincidences.

Fans of “Magpie Murders” will enjoy all the “real life” references to actors, directors, authors, works of literature, film, and TV series (many of Horowitz’s own writing). The book doesn’t at all feel like a “commercial” for Horowitz – though it did compel me to add the BBC series, “Injustice” to my Prime Watch List. Pretty much anything Horowitz writes appeals to me; his plots are well crafted, his characters are interesting and quirky (Hawthorne is a real piece of work!) and his “Brit Wit” is exceptionally appealing.
After reading Horowitz’s MAGPIE MURDERS, I was compelled to read this one straightaway. I am a big fan of his small screen series, such as Foyle’s War, a nuanced, intelligent series about a British detective during WW II and beyond to the Cold War, the short series Injustice, a tense drama about a tormented attorney, and the eccentric but suspenseful Midsomer Murders about a quaint English village and its people, coupled with murder. Magpie Murders had a combination of a vintage English murder, mixed with a contemporary meta-fiction that renders it more complex and twisty.

In this, another murder case, Horowitz is even more brazen by casting himself as himself, layering fictional characters and a storyline with the authentic Horowitz, in a sometimes gleefully tingling meta- scene. For example, the writer is in an actual meeting with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, and…well, I won’t reveal what happens, but it really blurs the lines between fact and fiction, that scene being the most arch of all the meta-scenes due to the billion-watt celebrities going eerily from foreground to background with a few strokes of a keyboard.

The story It starts with a short narrative a 60s-aged woman, Diana Cowper, walks into a funeral parlor to arrange her own funeral, and is murdered six hours later. This was more of a prologue, demonstrating the author’s draft of a story, and then the next chapter we get to the meat of the set-up, and how that funeral parlor scene came to be.

In London, Anthony Horowitz, busy with different writing projects and a screenplay, is contacted by a peculiar ex police force detective named Daniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne was once hired by Horowitz’s production team to be used as a consultant in his five-part miniseries, INJUSTICE, to help keep the script’s police procedures credible and methodical. He was brilliant with his advice, and apparently a crack investigator, but was fired by the Metropolitan police force prior to working with Horowitz on the series. Anthony never liked him—he found him morose, socially miscued, prickly, annoying, and intrusive, but he put up with him for his use on the series.

Horowitz is inwardly outraged and outwardly dismissive when Hawthorne calls him to offer him a 50-50 book deal to write about himself. Why would anyone want to read about Hawthorne? And how brazen for him to call Horowitz to write this? And 50-50??? Yet, when he finally does meet up with him and Hawthorne tells him about the Cowper case, Anthony is legitimately intrigued. The fact that she has a famous son, a stage and screen actor he’s familiar with, amps up the buzz.

Horowitz agrees to do it, i.e. to follow Hawthorne around (who has been curiously hired by the Met to consult, and seems to have primary privileges). The problem— to Anthony’s chagrin, Hawthorne is a cipher and refuses to answer any questions about himself. Anthony expresses to him that if he is going to write about him,
“I’d have to know where you live, whether you’re married or not, what you have for breakfast, what you do on your day off. That’s why people read murder stories.” Hawthorne’s response?
“I don’t agree. The word is murder. That’s what matters.”

As the case and story unfold, and the suspects pile up, it becomes just as thrilling to witness the testy relationship of Hawthorne and Horowitz as it is to watch how the investigation progresses. Moreover, the writer shares the writing process. Although the case is fiction (but treated as fact), you totally believe in it! Horowitz is a genius at including himself BUT getting out of his own way. Only an accomplished, meticulous writer is able to pull that off. You won’t be disappointed.