Description: The British cosy as postmodern fiction. Author Anthony Horowitz takes on a role in his own novel. Horowitz basically plays Watson to former police detective Daniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne has a Sherlock Holmes approach to solving murders and Horowitz is along for the ride. He’s been roped into writing true crime–much to his agent’s dismay–instead of the fiction he’s known for such as Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders, The House of Silk, and the Alex Rider series for young adults.
The novel opens with Diana Cowper walking into a funeral parlour and arranging her own service. Later that night she is dead. If this was a play, the director would yell “cut!” The scene is wrong, the detective steps in, this is Horowitz’s first draft and Hawthorne is unimpressed. There are edits and corrections, then Horowitz catches us up on how it has come to pass that he met Hawthorne and agreed to write Hawthorne Investigates.
Just as Horowitz is a real-life person, so is another character Damian Cowper, the actor from Homeland. But this Damian is fictionalized whereas many details about Horowitz are true. Don’t worry, it’s not totally confusing, but I did find myself turning to google to search for who and what was real.
Overall this is a fun whodunit and I was left guessing until the end.
Favourite Moment: Well my favourite moment is when Horowitz finds himself in a bit of a pickle but if I tell you anything more then I’ll spoil the mystery.
Perfect for fans of Magpie Murders, or any of Horowitz’s previous works. If you like Agatha Christie, British mystery dramas, or AJ Finn’s The Woman in the Window, then you’ll like this. It’s a clever mystery
Read a sample or buy the book at HarperCollins Canada.
