A Line To Kill by Anthony Horrowitz

 

368 Pages

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• The Blurb...

Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and the writer Anthony Horowitz have been invited to a literary festival on the island of Alderney to talk about their new book . . .

Very soon they discover that dark forces are at work.

Alderney is in turmoil over a planned power line that will cut through it, desecrating a war cemetery and turning neighbour against neighbour.

And the visiting authors seem to be harbouring any number of unpleasant secrets.

When the festival's wealthy sponsor is found brutally murdered, Alderney goes into lockdown and Hawthorne knows he doesn't have to look too far for suspects. There's no escape. The killer is still on the island.

And there's about to be a second death . . .

• My Review...

This is the third book in the Hawthorne investigates series (book 4  A Twist of The Knife is out this August) Having written some Sherlock Holmes novels, the author has updated the format. There is still a "consulting detective" who is frustratingly idiosyncratic but with a forensic eye for detail.  (As an aside Hawthorne is played in my head by Phillip Glenister and has been in the first two books as well 🤷) The semi-bumbling sidekick now though is no longer an ex army doctor. The sidekick is an author, actually it's the author! The prose is therefore in the first person. I must say I really enjoy the format. It may be heresy to say so, but I like them better than the original Sherlock Holmes tales, which can be a bit odd ( I'm looking at you A Study in Scarlet!)

As well as solving whatever is the current murder, our protagonist author slowly uncovers more of Hawthorne's past in each book. So both our main characters are working on mysteries. This book is no exception, we find snippets of our hero's dark past, with the promise of more to come in the next book.

I chose this book to get me out of reading slump (see Here to read about my slump and how I got out of it.) Why? because of the standard of quality that the author consistently produces. A Horrowitz book is like a Marks & Spencers pair of pants, they'll never let you down.

The plot centres around a Literary Festival on the island of Alderney. The author believes he us on home ground at a literary event and Hawthorne will lean to him for guidance. How wrong he was!

Numerous characters have motives for the murder. The characters never jumble themselves up in my head reading a Horrowitz book. We pick through each suspect in turn. Yet again I failed to get the whodunnit. He is very good at hiding the wrong uns.

Another quality murder mystery from one of the big guns.

• Selected Quotes

"I’m afraid they’ll look for someone else who will.’ ‘They can’t do that, can they?’ ‘You don’t own Hawthorne, Anthony. If anything, he owns you."

"I’ve described many deaths in the course of my work, in books and on TV, but I’m not sure I’ve ever managed to capture the absolute horror of the real thing. It’s the smell that hits you first, sickening and unmistakable. Dead actors look nothing like dead people. Once the blood has settled and life has drained away, the human body doesn’t look remotely human."

"Hawthorne was far from straightforward, but he was always honest."

"The next thing I knew, it was morning and I was aware that I was no longer alone in the room. Someone had woken me up. I opened my eyes and then closed them again. Hawthorne was standing at the end of my bed. I couldn’t believe he was there. How had he even got into the room? ‘Hawthorne…’ I muttered. It was outrageous. I was asleep, unshaven, in my undershorts, in bed. ‘Tony, mate, get up and get dressed,’ Hawthorne said. ‘There’s been a murder.’"

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The List by Graham H Miller... (click Here for our review.)

The Nesting Place by Jacqueline Harret (click Here for our review.)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

• About The Author...

Anthony Horowitz is one of the most prolific and successful writers working in the  UK and is unique for working across so many media. Anthony is a born polymath; juggling writing books, TV series, films, plays and journalism.

Anthony has written over 40 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, which he adapted into a movie that was released worldwide in 2006. The Alex Rider series is estimated to have sold 19 million copies worldwide. His highly anticipated novel, Oblivion, the epic conclusion to the Power of Five series, was published in October 2012. Anthony is also an acclaimed writer for adults and was commissioned by the Conan Doyle Estate and Orion Books to write two new Sherlock Holmes novels. The House of Silk was published in November 2011 and was internationally lauded as the top title of the autumn. The sequel, Moriarty, was published in October 2014 with similar success. Most recently he was commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate to write the James Bond novel Trigger Mortis, which was published on 8th September 2015.

Anthony is responsible for creating and writing some of the UK’s most beloved and successful television series, producing the first seven episodes (and the title) of Midsomer Murders. He is the writer and creator of award-winning drama series Foyle’s War, which was the Winner of the Lew Grade Audience award for BAFTA. DCS Foyle was voted the nation’s favourite detective in 2011. Anthony has also written other original complex dramas for ITV, particularly thrillers. Collision, a major five part “state of the nation” piece was transmitted on ITV1 in November 2009 to seven million viewers a night. He followed this with the equally successful legal thriller Injustice, also for ITV 1 - transmitted in June 2011. Foyle’s War returned in March 2013 as a Cold War thriller and was greeted with such critical acclaim and demands for more that he wrote one final series, bringing the show to an end in January 2015. Anthony's latest show New Blood will premiere on BBC iPlayer later this year.

Anthony is on the board of the Old Vic Theatre. He regularly contributes to a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines on subjects ranging from politics to education and currently has a travel column in The Telegraph. He has been a patron to East Anglia Children’s Hospices and the anti-bullying charity, Kidscape, since 2008.

In 2019 Anthony became a Patron to Home-Start in Suffolk, a small local family support charity working with families across the Suffolk county, as they navigate through challenging circumstances such as mental health issues, bereavement, long term or terminal illness, isolation, domestic abuse, poverty and so much more. The valuable work the organisation does right in the heart of the community – bringing together trained volunteers into families lives to support them both practically and emotionally, helping them to grow in confidence and empowering them with the skills to raise their children to flourish – is why Anthony chose to support this dedicated and hardworking charity. And in Anthony’s own word – “For me, charity begins at Home-Start.”

Anthony was awarded an OBE for his services to literature in January 2014.