The Word Is Murder Lib/E
Description
SHE PLANNED HER OWN FUNERAL. BUT DID SHE ARRANGE HER OWN MURDER?
New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes.
One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper - the wealthy mother of a famous actor - enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service.
Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home.
Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who's as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz.
Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself a the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying but even so his latest case with its many twists and turns proves irresistible. The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.
A masterful and tricky mystery that springs many surprises, The Word is Murder is Anthony Horowitz at his very best.
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About the Author
ANTHONY HOROWITZ is the author of the US bestselling Magpie Murders and The Word is Murder, and one of the most prolific and successful writers in the English language; he may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author. His novel Trigger Mortis features original material from Ian Fleming. His most recent Sherlock Holmes novel, Moriarty, is a reader favorite; and his bestselling Alex Rider series for young adults has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. As a TV screenwriter, he created both Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle's War on PBS. Horowitz regularly contributes to a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines, and in January 2014 was awarded an OBE.
Rory Kinnear, an Earphones Award-winning narrator and a renowned theater actor, won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for his performances as Angelo in Measure for Measure and the title role in Hamlet, and he gained an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of Mode. His TV credits include Count Arthur Strong, Lucan, Women in Love, and Black Mirror, and he played Bill Tanner in the Bond films Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.
Reviews
Rory Kinnear flawlessly performs this entertaining metafiction...This is mad fun, especially if you are a fan of Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, or other of Horowitz's work...Kinnear is so good you forget he's there; instead you feel as if you've seen this as a movie on some screen in your intercranial theater.
-- "AudioFile"An ingenious fun-house mirror of a novel sets a vintage 'cozy' mystery inside a modern frame.
-- "Wall Street Journal"The beguiling whodunit plot is dispatched with characteristic elan as Horowitz blurs the line between fact and fiction.
-- "Financial Times (London)"Full of surprises and suspense...hugely entertaining.
-- "Washington Book Review"Horowitz succeeds with The Word Is Murder by simultaneously adhering to and defying the rules of a traditional mystery.
-- "Christian Science Monitor"Inventive, clever, and brilliantly written...Hawthorne and Horowitz are vibrant as a modern-day Holmes-Watson duo and their partnership is as credible as it is entertaining. Readers will delight in this wonderful modern-day twist of the classic who-done-it mystery.
-- "RT Book Reviews (4 1/2 stars, Top Pick!)"Spectacular...Deduction and wit are well-balanced, and fans of Peter Lovesey and other modern channelers of the spirit of the golden age of detection will clamor for more.
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Actually, the word is not murder, it's ingenious. Horowitz, who out-Christied Christie in Magpie Murders, now out-Doyles Doyle by inserting himself (his actual self) into the story as the Watson-like narrator of a murder investigation he is drawn into by a brilliant and eccentric detective, Daniel Hawthorne.
-- "Booklist (starred review)"Sharp-witted readers who think they've solved the puzzle early on can rest assured that they've opened only one of many dazzling Christmas packages Horowitz has left beautifully wrapped under the tree.
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"A classic whodunit with a metatwist, this mystery opens the door to the world of publishing, theater, and television.
-- "Library Journal"
