A Line to Kill (A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery)

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Having loved the first two books in this series, "The Word is Murder," and "The Sentence is Death," I was thrilled, not only to read the third, but to hear in the interview at the end of this that Anthony Horowitz is planning further mysteries featuring Hawthorne. The setting is the quiet channel island of Alderney, where a literary convention is being held. Horowitz feels he must attend to publicize his next book about Hawthorne's cases, although it isn't yet finished. We meet some of the residents of this remote, historic island, some eccentric, some menacing and almost all burdened with secrets. The literary guests who have agreed to attend are a mixed lot. There is a blind psychic who talks to the dead, an author of children's books, a TV chef and cookbook writer, a war historian, and an idiosyncratic French poet, also Hawthorne and Horowitz. However, the author feels the guests will mostly ignore his books and his writing. Instead, those attending his lecture will be more interested in discussing Hawthorne's famous solutions to the crimes he solved.

The writers being featured at the event are a motley bunch that includes: a blind woman who can communicate with spirits; I couldn't see the sea from my bedroom but I could hear the waves breaking in the distance. They reminded me that I was on a tiny island. And I was trapped. ' This is the 3rd installment in the Horowitz/ Hawthorne series, featuring my favorite duo. This can work as a standalone, but for insight into the characters I recommend reading the previous two books first (plus they are really good!). Horowitz is both author and a character in his own novel, as a bumbling ‘Watson’ to retired Detective Hawthorne’s ‘Holmes’. They are an unlikely pair that get along as well as oil and water. Their relationship adds much to the charm and humor in this story, with Horowitz’s cluelessness adding to the fun. As the story opens Horowitz and Hawthorne are meeting with Horowitz's publishers to discuss a publicity campaign for their first collaborative book.Insisting he loves all his writing, Horowitz admits a partiality for the Alex Rider books, which has helped a whole generation find literature, books and reading. As the inexperienced cops bumble around, Hawthorne does the real investigating, his faithful scribe Anthony Horowitz tagging along. Anthony eventually finds out that Hawthorne had his own motive for going to Alderney, relating to Derek Abbott, a pedophile and child pornographer who got a light sentence after Hawthorne couldn't make the case, and who is now living on Alderney and worked for le Mesurier. True to Horowitz form, there is a murder right as the festival begins. A gentleman, who owns an online gambling company is found dead, stabbed to death. What is unusual, is he taped to a chair with his right hand free. The island has no residing police force, so Hawthorne decides to take the lead on the murder. Of course, a second murder complicates the investigations. Furthermore, the men discover that a controversial power line is planned to be developed on the island adding fodder for motive. Plagiarism in Fiction: Anthony realizes that Maissa Lamar the poet stole the haiku she reads at her public reading from Akira Anno, the feminist poet from The Sentence Is Death. Subverted when it turns out that Lamar isn't a poet at all, she's an undercover cop. The island's inhabitants are divided about a power plant to be built with a power line running through Alderney. Some believe it will bring economic advantages to the island, but others fear the beauty of their island will be diminished, and property values decrease. This division has brought out rivalries and hatred among the people of Alderney. However, this project is being pushed by a wealthy businessman and islander.

When I recognised the Christie-style set-up, I immediately wondered if this was a step too far for Horowitz. The Susan Ryeland series is already an ingenious and compelling homage to the world’s most successful author of fiction and I wondered if A Line to Kill would blur the boundaries between the two series. It does not and each in is, in its own unique way, providing contemporary crime fiction with a much-needed revitalisation. Where to begin: first, there is always a clever, layered, intelligent mystery with a resolution that I never see coming, but even more delicious are Horowitz's clever inside jokes about writers, the publishing industry, current events, and, even himself. As the character author Anthony Horowitz, he has been cajoled into writing a series of books about Hawthorne, a mysterious and irascible former detective who has become a consultant to solve murders that have stumped traditional law enforcement. Life-or-Death Question: Le Mesurier is given the choice of calling a coin toss to save his life. But not really, because the killers admitted they were going to murder him regardless. The cast of suspects/characters from the literary world is colorful and quirky, and I loved the witty satire, with the author poking fun at the literary world, and himself. Not every attendee is who they say they are and there are plenty of suspects and secrets to uncover. “There are an awful lot more than six people who wanted him dead… It’s a line to kill if ever I saw one.”

A Line to Kill

In any event, le Mesurier and his beautiful wife hold a soiree for festival attendees and residents of Alderney..... Self-Deprecation: As usual, Horowitz's version of himself misses almost every clue and screws up Hawthorne's investigation by Saying Too Much. It's also repeatedly established that almost nobody at the literary festival has heard of him or thinks his books are any good, with the only apparent exception being the child pornographer Derek Abbott who Horowitz is annoyed to realize has a copy of one of his books in his house. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Welcome to they world of mystery and suspense in the new book, A Line To A Kill by a favorite author of mine, Anthony Horowitz. Inserting himself into story line and teaming up once again with a somewhat nemesis, Hawthorne, this third installment offers lots for those is us who love mystery novels.

Horowitz and I came up with the same possible theory regarding the killer’s identity, and we both thought our solution was a pretty clever one, until the real murderer was revealed, and it was a million times more original. This isn’t a spoiler because Horowitz doesn’t narrate his theory until post-murder reveal, and out of embarrassment, thankfully never voices his thoughts aloud to Hawthorne. Even though Anne showed Horowitz and Hawthorne a letter stating that she was dying of heart disease and she claimed Kathryn had little to do with the murders, Hawthorne still insisted that they turn themselves in to the police. In A Line To Kill the pair end up together at a literary festival on Alderney promoting their last book. Horowitz worries that Hawthorne will find himself out of his depth, and Hawthorne of course produces a whole new side to his character and puts Horowitz in the shade. They really do not get along well but both are prepared to put up with that for the sake of the books and the money. When a murder occurs on the island Horowitz realises he may be about to find material for book three.The third instalment seeks to refresh the formula by having Hawthorne attend a book fair to publicise the first novel on a tiny island off the coast of the UK. A group of writers attending the festival are invited to a reception party at the palatial home of their wealthy host, a lecherous and loathsome playboy. The ending reveals that Kathryn Harris put on a French maid costume for the party and lured Charles away with the promise of sex, only to kill him.

The sleuth and the scribbler are there to promote the first of their three proposed Inspector Hawthorne novels. Horowitz sums up the rest of the event’s participants: “an unhealthy chef, a blind psychic, a war historian, a children’s author, a French performance poet. . . . Not quite the magnificent seven.” Then there’s Charles le Mesurier, the online-gaming entrepreneur bankrolling the event, a wealthy and boorish figure who patronizes or taunts most of the men he meets and, though married, puts the moves on every pretty woman. 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 Sidenote: When I was halfway through this book, a colleague leaned over to make small talk before a meeting and asked what I had been reading lately, and I started gushing about Anthony Horowitz books. I saw their eyes glaze over and could tell they weren't mystery readers. Because I'm physically incapable of stopping a book-gush once I've started, I kept plowing on, raving about how clever his novels are, and by the time the meeting started they seemed intrigued enough to write down the names of some of my favorite Horowitz mysteries. Never underestimate the power of a passionate book rave!Let Off by the Detective: Defied. Anne Cleary appeals to Hawthorne for this but he bluntly refuses. Hawthorne and Horowitz arrive at an island for a writers’ conference invited by Charles leMesurier, a rich man, who is pushing for an electrical line running through the island he and his wife reside on. Needless to say, there are many residents of the island opposing this idea and the list of possible suspects increase as said rich man is found murdered. On the television front Horowitz says, Magpie Murders has been adapted into a six-episode series with Lesley Manville as the editor Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan as Atticus Pünd, the detective in the book within the book. The Full Monty director, Peter Cattaneo, helms the show. One of the members of the literary group is travelling along with her accomplice under a false identity. Alex Rider is now in its second season based on Eagle Strike adapted by Guy Burt with Otto Farrant returning to play the titular character. There is also Toby Stevens playing the chief antagonist. “I know the first season was popular in India.” Forever Bond