A wealthy English woman walks into a funeral parlour one day and arranges her own funeral. Six hours later she is strangled to death in her home. Ex policeman Daniel Hawthorne is acting as a consultant on the case and approaches the author Anthony Horowitz to write a book about his work. Horowitz doesn’t much like Hawthorne, but can’t resist the puzzle of Mrs Cowper’s murder and the chance to observe a real life criminal investigation. He’s been writing fictional crime for years but never come close to the real thing, so he agrees. The Word is Murder is a fun read, like a mixture of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, but with the added twist of the main character being a real person who narrates the book. Where the line between fact and fiction lies is part of the puzzle. I liked all the stuff about the business of writing - dealing with agents, watching your stories being adapted for TV or the big screen, the pressure of deadlines etc. There’s a hilarious scene in which Hawthorne interrupts and ruins a meeting Horowitz is having with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson about his script for the forthcoming Tintin movie.
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook