- this edition published by Penguin Random House UK 2017
- ISBN 978-1-78-089685-4
- 387 pages
- Other Good Reads reviews
It’s been two years since Injustice aired
and Detective Daniel Hawthorne needs cash. Having gotten himself fired
from his job at the Metropolitan police, Hawthorne decides to approach
Anthony Horowitz. He’s investigating a bizarre and complex murder and he
wants Anthony to write a book about it, a bestselling book of course,
with a 50/50 split.
The only catch is they need to solve the crime.
But award winning crime writer Anthony Horowitz has never been busier in his life. He’s working on Foyle’s War and writing his first Sherlock Holmes novel. He has a life of his own and doesn’t really want to be involved with a man he finds challenging to say the least. And yet he finds himself fascinated by the case and the downright difficult detective with the brilliant, analytical mind. Would it be really such a crazy idea for Anthony to become the Watson to his Holmes? The Hastings to his Poirot?
Should he stick to writing about murder? Or should he help investigate?
A classic crime for the modern reader, The Word is Murder is a whodunnit to end all whodunnits.
My Take
Somehow I just wasn't prepared for the author himself to be acting as the narrator. And I never could decide how much was fiction. My best guess is that the author is trying to show how differently he works as an author, when compared to a top-notch detective. The author sets up a murder in a plot, describes the scene for us, and then lays clues about the murderer whose identity he already knows. The detective observes the scene after the fact and then interprets what he sees, and follows the clues. In THE WORD IS MURDER both detective and author are central characters and interact with each other. So even the dialogue between author and detective becomes interesting. Hawthorne, the detective, tries to put the author in his place, demanding that he be see but not heard. The author, Horowitz, refuses to be kept in his box, and often demands to ask his own questions.
It is probably a novel that would benefit from more study and from robust discussion in a book group.
My rating: 4.3
The only catch is they need to solve the crime.
But award winning crime writer Anthony Horowitz has never been busier in his life. He’s working on Foyle’s War and writing his first Sherlock Holmes novel. He has a life of his own and doesn’t really want to be involved with a man he finds challenging to say the least. And yet he finds himself fascinated by the case and the downright difficult detective with the brilliant, analytical mind. Would it be really such a crazy idea for Anthony to become the Watson to his Holmes? The Hastings to his Poirot?
Should he stick to writing about murder? Or should he help investigate?
A classic crime for the modern reader, The Word is Murder is a whodunnit to end all whodunnits.
My Take
Somehow I just wasn't prepared for the author himself to be acting as the narrator. And I never could decide how much was fiction. My best guess is that the author is trying to show how differently he works as an author, when compared to a top-notch detective. The author sets up a murder in a plot, describes the scene for us, and then lays clues about the murderer whose identity he already knows. The detective observes the scene after the fact and then interprets what he sees, and follows the clues. In THE WORD IS MURDER both detective and author are central characters and interact with each other. So even the dialogue between author and detective becomes interesting. Hawthorne, the detective, tries to put the author in his place, demanding that he be see but not heard. The author, Horowitz, refuses to be kept in his box, and often demands to ask his own questions.
It is probably a novel that would benefit from more study and from robust discussion in a book group.
My rating: 4.3
I've also read
4.5, THE HOUSE OF SILK
4.7, MAGPIE MURDERS
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