The Twist of a Knife

​This is the fourth outing in the criminal investigation adventures of the author and his friend, the somewhat enigmatic Hawthorne, ex-cop and private investigator of sorts. (It is recommended one reads these in order to get the best value out of the series.)

As usual, Anthony Horowitz plays himself and includes real places, events and people connected to his life as a popular author and, as with the previous titles, there’s a vague crossover between fact and fiction, but his style is always tight and easy to read with rarely the need to go back and figure out who-is-who or scramble the timeline of events.

This time, Horowitz himself is arrested. It seems the police have strong evidence linking him to the stabbing murder of Harriet Throsby, the vicious Sunday Times theatre critic who has trashed his latest play, Mindgame. The most damning evidence is a souvenir dagger with his prints on it.

Although the friends had been estranged, finally Hawthorne comes to the rescue but even he is unsure of Horowitz’s innocence as they start to untangle the lives and secrets of other likely suspects, including the actors and others connected with the play – all of whom hated Harriet for their own reasons. It is only when someone is linked to a book written by her years before that it appears the motive might be very different from one of theatrical revenge.

I’m a big fan of Anthony Horowitz; not only of his novels but also his television or movie scripts so I always look forward to his next story and he rarely disappoints. In this case, I did guess the real killer early on who, of course, is finally revealed in an Agatha Christie type group gathering. So, while I’m chuffed to have done so, it also means Horowitz hasn’t been quite as artful as he usually is in throwing the reader completely off-course! Still, another exciting and entertaining read from the master.

(With many thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.)
 
Four stars
 

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