The Word Is Murder

Thought this dragged a bit. Though the intent is to make Hawthorne a Sherlock-type character, he's just not interesting enough.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S THE WORD IS MURDER ABOUT?
The setup here is that a former police detective, Daniel Hawthorne, is doing some work as a consulting detective and as a consultant for TV. He's one of the consultants on Anthony Horowitz's show, in fact. And now he comes to Horowitz with a proposal, Horowitz should follow him around on some of his cases, watch him at work and write True Crime books about it, with the two splitting the profits.

Horowitz is hesitant but is talked into the deal. And regrets it almost immediately—and would probably walk away from the deal if he wasn't intrigued by Hawthorne (who he really didn't know at all until this point) and the case.

It's hard to say if the murder case is the “A Story” or the “B Story” in this novel—I think it's the A, with the storyline focusing on the writing of Horowitz's first Hawthorne book as the B Story. But it'd be easy to argue the other way—which really doesn't matter, I'm just bringing it up to describe how the novel works.

I should probably talk about the murder case, though—it's pretty clever. A wealthy woman (also the mother of a famous actor) goes to a funeral parlor and starts making arrangements for her funeral. A few hours later, she's murdered. It's not as if she predicted her death (maybe not, anyway, that's to be determined), just the kind of freaky coincidence that gets the attention of journalists, consulting detectives, and spy novelists looking for a new project.

It's not just a good hook—plenty of twists, turns, intrigue, and colorful suspects follow.

NOT THE MOST FLATTERING DEPICTIONS
When you first meet him, you think that Hawthorne's probably just a misunderstood guy because of a combination of his brusque manner and genius. You may even think that this work with Horowitz may lead to a redemptive arc, a rehabilitation arc, or something. But as the book goes on, the less convinced I was of any of that. I think he's just a foul sort of person who's really good at something. By most measures, he's not a good sort of person—but those are frequently fun characters.

Horowitz really doesn't come across much better. I remember in junior high when I came across a handful of mysteries that Steve Allen (yeah, that one) wrote and I couldn't help but wonder why someone would write himself so unflatteringly. I eventually sussed it out and by the time I got to Kinky Friedman's mysteries, I expected it. See also, Brent Spiner's new book. Horowitz fits into that scheme—he's bright enough but doesn't have the stomach, the instincts, or cynicism to handle a murder investigation on his own—which is fitting, he's a writer, not a detective. He's a good Watson figure to Hawthorne—even while it's clear that he wants to do better.

HOW WAS THE NARRATION?
I've listened to interviews with Horowitz before, but I halfway wonder if I listened to another one and it didn't sound like Rory Kinnear if I'd believe it was him. Kinnear did a great job embodying the narration and characters–he's definitely the kind of narrator I'd want to listen to again.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE WORD IS MURDER?
This was a fun mystery—you put any PI/PI duo in the mystery part of the story and it would've worked well*, it's just so well-conceived. Not surprisingly at all, Horowitz can construct a strong mystery/story and he does that here. I'm ready to read/listen to something like that any day. The victim, the suspects, the various motives, the red herrings, and the ultimate reveal provide everything you want.

* In my mind, that's a compliment to the design of the story. I'm not sure it reads that way when it's read.

What makes this distinct is the characters of Hawthorne and Horowitz—how they interact with each other and the suspects. Their new business relationship and its ups and downs over the course of the novel make this more than just a good PI story and turn it into a series that you're going to want to come back to.

And you will want to. I'm glad there are at least two more and am looking forward to diving in.

4.5

Honestly, this is really not bad. I'll definitely be continuing this series. The murder mystery in itself was entertaining enough, and had a serviceable plot twist, but it had a pretty interesting gimmick that I haven't seen before. The author wrote himself into the book, starring himself (yes, Anthony Horowitz) as the book-writing Watson to his fictional Sherlock, ex-detective Hawthorne.

It was trippy enough when Anthony begins talking about his past works and careers, even having a cameo of Peter Jackson and Stephen Spielberg, with whom he the author really did almost collaborate with on the script of Tintin 2, a movie that never got made in the end. The result is that the story almost felt like an autobiography, and lends it a really weird non-fictional air. It blurred the line between fantasy and real life. Horowitz really dialed the trippiness up to eleven, even in his Acknowledgements at the end of the book, where he thanked certain people at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for their assistance in his research, but also spoke about how they were also linked to the fictional character in the story who also attended RADA.

One contentious point in his book, though, is positioning Hawthorne, as the central detective, as being somewhat intensely homophobic. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't fly with a lot of readers, and it was also fairly obvious that Horowitz is using this potentially triggering plot point as a launchpad from which he can contrast and air his own liberal views. Yet, at the same time, it also feels like he's subscribing to these liberal views because that's just where the wind is blowing at the time, without really understanding why homophobia can be triggering to audiences - if that makes sense. It left a bad taste in one's mouth and I can't really feel any kind of empathy for Hawthorne after that, although I must confess I'm a little curious to know how Horowitz intends to somehow explain this incongruous homophobia away in later books. I'm of the belief, though, that the first book should at least contain enough teasers of what might come in later books to keep people reading, and not trust to blind curiosity alone, and this book didn't give me enough meat to keep me hoping that Hawthorne would be in any way “redeemed” in the future books. It also doesn't help that even if we disregarded the homophobia, Hawthorne is still a pretty intensely rude and unpleasant character. He's clearly based off of Sherlock Holmes, who has always had a reputation for being prickly, but while Holmes still manages to retain some endearing and intriguing quality to him amongst readers, Hawthorne is almost completely repulsive and... just not someone I'd ever like to meet.

Nevertheless though, there's still enough of Horowitz in here to dilute the Hawthorne unpleasantness, and the murder mystery was definitely well written. There was a huge red herring but it sort of made sense and I didn't feel cheated out of it at the end when we finally realise how big a red herring it was. There was also just enough clues scattered throughout the story for the resolution to feel satisfying and like we maybe could've solved it all along if we had been paying attention, a classic hallmark of the cozy mystery.

I'll definitely try out the next installment of the series.

This is such an entertaining book, largely because the author is so clever. Horowitz incorporates himself into the book as a character, a bold move, because he has to walk a tightrope all though the book as he mixes real people and events into his fictional stew. Highly recommended.

This is an odd book - the author is a main character and there are several real people in it. I'm not sure what is accomplished by this. The mystery is OK but nothing spectacular.

Another nice twist to the genre. I might need to read Paul Auster's New York trilogy but there are few whodunnits that so actively blend the author into the tale. Very well executed, blending of fact and fiction.

Nadat ik vorig jaar [b:Magpie Murders 32075854 Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland, #1) Anthony Horowitz https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504599398l/32075854.SY75.jpg 3829748] ontdekte en er helemaal weg van was, dook ik wat dieper in de bibliografie van Anthony Horrowitz en ontdekte dat hij tegelijkertijd met nog een detective serie bezig is, eentje waarvan het idee bij de auteur ontsproot bij het schrijven van Magpie Murders.In dit boek verkent de auteur niet het idee van een boek in een boek, maar zoekt hij de grenzen op tussen feit en fictie, door zichzelf als personage in een boek te schrijven. Hij wordt, in eerste instantie met tegenzin, de assistent van een detective die wil dat Horowitz een boek over hem schrijft. Hierdoor wordt hij betrokken in een mysterieuze moordzaak en kan de auteur het niet nalaten om zijn innerlijke speurneus boven te halen, want hij schreef per slot van rekening al veel whodunnit verhalen, zowel voor zijn boeken als voor tv.Het resultaat is een zeer vermakelijk moord-mysterie met een onverwachte ontknoping, waarbij ik constant geneigd was op te zoeken welke zaken en personages echt waar waren en welke verzonnen werden voor het boek.

dnf

this book doesn't deserve a 1 star because it's not bad, i just didn't like it. i'm putting it down at 43% simply because i really don't care about any of the characters and the detective dude is just an annoying jerk... blah. also, i really don't care about the mystery that they're trying to solve and i'm not curious about who the murderer is.

There are some books that I don't want to talk about as I don't want to give any of it away. This is one of those books. Horowitz grabbed my attention from the start and I was anxious to walk through this investigation to learn the truth. The main characters are quite memorable and make the story come alive. The narrator of the audio was a brilliant reader, giving voice to each character without being outlandish or silly about it. 

I don't love that I'll find my way back to this one, but I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. 

I listened to the Audiobook.
While it is an intriguing premise, trying to mimic a real-life Sherlock and Watson, I feel I did not enjoy it because of how the audio book was read. It was monotonous. It was hard to concentrate on what was being said, and I had to rewind the book multiple times to listen to parts where I started to zone out. It was hard to get into. The book picked up the last 1/4, which made me feel like it might be worth reading more books in the series. But I think I will stay away from the audiobooks and stick to the physical copy if I ever get the urge.

When I compare it to other mystery audiobooks I have listed and enjoyed before, I realize the difference that could have caused me to feel it was monotonous was due to the lack of relationships in the book. The web of relationships is quite simple, even for the first book in a series. There is a lack of information about both Hawthorne and Horowitz, Which makes it hard to connect with the characters.

Horowitz kept me guessing till the very end of the book! Looking forward to the next in the series.

I enjoyed the story and I appreciate Horowitz's meta approach but just because you're talking about the tropes you're engaging in (curmudgeonly male detective who just happens to be brilliant) doesn't absolve you from engaging in them. And to see this will be a series ... meh. I dunno, man. You say “if I were writing it I'd have chosen a different character.” You did write it. Why didn't you?

This review is spoiler-free
Read on In The Sheets

The Word is Murder is the first book in a new murder mystery series staring Anthony Horowitz as himself alongside Detective Hawthorne who has tasked “Tony” with writing a true crime detective series about his case(s). 

It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it does and it's awesome. After reading Magpie Murders which was another really meta take on murder mystery (as it's a book within a book that references the other book as well as itself) I didn't expect anything less than brilliance and ordered this the day it was released in the UK.

Horowitz writes and organizes the book in such a way that his real characters and events combine effortlessly with his fictional characters and events to make the story seem that much more real and compelling.  You know you're reading fiction, but the fictional characters seem so real and developed that you often find yourself questioning whether or not they exist and if the events actually happened. For example, there's an actor who appears throughout the novel whose IMDB page I looked for on more than one occasion. It doesn't exist. I saved you a Google search.

I can't stress enough how good this book is. Anthony's work on the Sherlock Holmes series and Trigger Mortis were good, but his original murder mysteries and characters are some next level shit, for lack of a better term.

I was elated when I got to the back of the book and realized this was the start of a series and there was more to come. I was then immediately depressed because I likely have to wait a year for more.

For the record, while I loved this book immensely, I'm still not a fan of the detective as a human being (at least what I know about him which, oddly, isn't a lot), but he's a phenomenal detective which just speaks volumes to Anthony's writing

Buy the book, ‘nuff said.

I need to just admit that I don't enjoy detective mysteries. I try one or two every year, and they always end up being a slog. I'm sure it's well-written. Just not for me.

So wonderfully meta.

This is the second book I read from Anthony Horowitz and I'm officially addicted. The guy can write! He has such clear and compelling prose and a very ironic and grippy way of mixing different storylines, reality and fiction that, in my mind, he is the Kurt Vonnegut of British Murder Mysteries.