The Sentence is Death: A mind-bending murder mystery from the bestselling author of THE WORD IS MURDER

Reviews

Cathy

So, reluctantly, Horowitz is once again cast as Hastings to Hawthorne’s less than charming Poirot. Horowitz was doing his best to discover more about Hawthorne during the times they spend in each other’s company, but Hawthorne still refuses to be drawn out.

It was just that offensive was his default mode. It wasn’t even a black cab, which might have been adjusted, along with the bus, using CGI. A very engaging, entertaining and enjoyable read with a well constructed plot.

We follow Horowitz’s reasoning to his own conclusions as Hawthorne keeps his own thoughts and observations very much to himself. 'A well known divorce lawyer, Richard Pryce has been murdered and Hawthorne has been asked to look into the case. He’s very uncommunicative about anything personal or his private life, although intriguingly at least one person they come into contact with seems to know him quite well.

'And then, out of nowhere, a vehicle appeared, a modern, twenty-first century taxi. Hawthorne wanted his biography written and persuaded Horowitz to shadow him while working on cases.

There are several suspects, each with the motive and opportunity to commit the murder. We first meet them in The Word is Murder when ex Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne (who still works as a consultant for the police on occasion, helping with difficult cases) approached Anthony Horowitz. Hawthorne and Horowitz, both very well drawn, are complete opposites. Only that he seems to have no idea of appropriate responses or reactions.

The Sentence is Death is the second book featuring Hawthorne and Horowitz. 'He wasn’t being deliberately offensive. A refreshingly different angle in a book, but it works.

'The Sentence is Death is narrated in the first person by Anthony Horowitz as himself…the character in the story. He decides it’ll make the perfect second book for Horowitz to write. Their methods of crime solving give the story a ‘classic crime’ feel, with several clues, dead ends, unexpected twists, and a very satisfactory conclusion. Having committed to a three book deal, Horowitz is less than pleased when Hawthorne shows up on set, disrupting the production crew shooting an episode of Foyle’s War without a second thought for the inconvenience he caused.