The Word is Murder

Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders was a fantastic read and I anticipated I'd be in for a great ride with this title, and I wasn't disappointed.

It has a unique structure in which Horowitz himself is the first person narrator. Not only is he involved in investigation of a crime, he also shares aspects of his life as a scriptwriter and author, with references to his books, television series and real individuals. There are even cameos from film directors, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. All this could seem like self-aggrandisement in less capable hands, but it is woven so well within the story that there is no possibility of getting the reader off-side (leastwise not any reader who can appreciate the subtle tongue-in-cheek tone).

All of this begins when a sixty-something woman, Diana Cowper, visits a funeral parlour to organise her own funeral in advance and then is murdered only a few hours later. Enter the abrasive and somewhat mysterious Hawthorne, an ex-copper whom Horowitz has known previously when he helped out as a murder consultant on the TV series Injustice.

Hawthorne wants Horowitz to write a book about him (perhaps called "Hawthorne Investigates") and in order to learn about what he does, asks him to accompany him into the murder he is currently investigating, i.e. that of Diana Cowper. There are shades here of Sherlock and Watson, in which Horowitz feels like he's the bumbling amateur next to the crafty professional but endeavours to hold his own. When a second murder takes place, all the evidence seems to point to a hit-and-run case that happened ten years earlier in which Diana was the guilty party. Or is this a whole school of red herrings and the truth is quite different?

The narrative flows brilliantly, the plotting is fantastic and as a page-turner it can't be faulted. I did not anticipate the ending although as Horowitz himself points out at the end, all the murder clues were there in the words, hence the title.

Another five stars from one of the best writers in the business.

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