A Line to Kill
Ratings34
Average rating3.8
The New York Times bestselling author of the brilliantly inventive The Word Is Murder and The Sentence Is Death returns with his third literary whodunit featuring intrepid detectives Hawthorne and Horowitz.
"Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world." —Booklist
When Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England, they don’t expect to find themselves in the middle of murder investigation—or to be trapped with a cold-blooded killer in a remote place with a murky, haunted past.
Arriving on Alderney, Hawthorne and Horowitz soon meet the festival’s other guests—an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children’s author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic, and a war historian—along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line.
When a local grandee is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Hawthorne and Horowitz become embroiled in the case. The island is locked down, no one is allowed on or off, and it soon becomes horribly clear that a murderer lurks in their midst. But who?
Both a brilliant satire on the world of books and writers and an immensely enjoyable locked-room mystery, A Line to Kill is a triumph—a riddle of a story full of brilliant misdirection, beautifully set-out clues, and diabolically clever denouements.
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5 primary booksHawthorne & Horowitz
Hawthorne & Horowitz is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 1919 with contributions by Anthony Horowitz and Энтони Горовиц.
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These are strange books - the author is a character, lots of current references and always a feeling that I'm missing something. The ending is satisfying.
Gelezen als audioboek via Storytel
Boek drie in deze serie, waarin de auteur zichzelf een rol geeft als assistent van de detective van dienst, en opnieuw een heel gezellig, goed doordacht mysterie met een sluitende en bevredigende oplossing.
De cast aan personages is heerlijk divers en over-the-top, met naar mijn gevoel wat knipoogjes naar Agatha Christie.
De Sherlock en Watson dynamiek tussen Hawthorn en Horowitz zorgden voor een bijkomende luchtige noot, waarbij de schrijver zelfspot hoog in de vaandel draagt.
Hawthorn blijft de klassieke, norse detective met een schijnbaar onbegrip voor gewone menselijke interacties. Ik kijk uit om nog meer over zijn achtergrond te leren, waar het volgde deel over zal gaan zoals gealludeerd in het laatste hoofdstuk van dit boek.
I'm torn for a different reasons on this entry in the series. The protagonists were, in themselves and in their interactions, less exasperating than the last two books, but by the same token there was even less development between them, less reveals about their character or backstory. I appreciate the ending suggesting the possibility of a significant revelation in the next book, but there just wasn't much here.The author may have ‘hung a lantern' on the fact that nobody wants to read about a sexual predator being involved in a murder mystery, but that doesn't change the experience. It's also ‘becoming a thing' that the reader is left to ponder the justice of the dispatch of a ‘bad guy' by people who have had their lives ruined. I remain happy that the former detective is not letting things slide, but the framing might be a bit too ambiguous for my preference for clear cut murder mysteries. Of course, this series already breaks my rules, because Hawthorne doesn't quite fit in my line of liking ‘good guy' detectives. And yet, here I am, planning to read the next book in the series. 🤷🏼♂️
⚠️racism, xenophobia, fatphobia, sexual harrassment, mention of paedophilia
P.S I do get a little tired of seemingly every single depiction of open marriage in fiction being either unsuccessful/ending in heartbreak or associated with people who have shoddy morals/dirty dealings. Murder mysteries do love a scandal and puritanical or antiquated views make that easier to achieve. 🙄
