Title: |
The Word is Murder |
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Author: |
Anthony Horowitz |
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Category: |
Mystery / Thriller |
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Rating: |
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Date Reviewed: |
November 26, 2024 |
In this tale, Horowitz is hosting a book signing event when a woman asks him "Why is it that you always write fantasy? Why don't you write anything real?" Horowitz is defensive, he explains that his scripts for "Foyle's War" are based upon true stories, but the woman is unimpressed. This irritates Horowitz, and so when an ex-police detective named Hawthorne asks Horowitz to join him on an investigation into a mysterious murder case, Horowitz agrees. The baffling murder case involves Diana Cowper - she walked into a London funeral home and planned her own funeral, she had every detail already worked out. Once the arrangements were made, Diana Cowper went home - and six hours later she was strangled by someone who entered her home and strangled her with a curtain cord. If Cowper knew that she was going to be killed, why didn't she call the police? Cowper managed to send a cryptic text: "I have seen the boy who was lacerated and I'm afraid" just before she was killed. It turns out that Diana Cowper once was involved in a tragic auto accident. While at a seaside town, she forgot to wear her glasses, yet tried to drive home and ran over two young boys who excitedly run out into the street because they saw an ice cream shop. One boy was killed, the other boy suffered lifelong injuries, including a lacerated skull. Could her murder be related to that accident, which occurred almost exactly ten years ago? After the accident, Diana Cowper callously drove off, though she turned herself into the police a couple of hours later. She explained that her initial thought was that she had to protect the career of her son, Damian Cowper, who is a rising star in Hollywood and becoming famous. The way that Horowitz inserts real life persona as a character into this fiction story is clever. It reminded me of how William Goldman tells (the entirely fictional) story of how his grandfather read him the Good Parts Version of The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern. Horowitz includes plenty of real life details, such as his writing the Sherlock Holmes novel House of Silk or working in Hollywood on a TV series called "Foyle's War" (but did he really meet Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson?) and weaves in fictional characters that tie this invented story to actual events. You may be tempted to do an internet search to see if there was a murder victim named Cowper with a son who was an upcoming actor (there was no such person, I checked already!) Horowitz follows Hawthorne around, listening to him interview suspects and witnesses. But Hawthorne does not reveal what he is thinking, so Horowitz is left to speculate on how the investigation is unfolding. Several times, Horowitz will explain to the reader what a dilemma it is to write this book - should he include the actual characteristics of these "true life" characters? During the book, Horowitz discovers that Hawthorne is anti-gay. He wrestles with the problem of revealing that the book's hero is not actually a likeable guy. Scenes like that make it seem that Horowitz is reporting events as they actually happened, as opposed to his novels, like the Alex Rider series where he gets to make the whole thing up. In the end, the murderer is revealed and the motive unveiled. The clues Horowitz included explain who did what, and why. It all seems so elementary once Hawthorne explains it in the end. I see that there are four more books in the Hawthorne & Horowitz series. I should get the next one, The Sentence is Death. |
