Review: The Sentence is Death by Anthonty Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz's The Magpie Murders was an impulse purchase that put him on my author watch list. His next book, The Word is Murder, made me a devoted fan of of his crime novels. The Sentence is Death is the second in his Daniel Hawthorne & Anthony Horowitz crime novels and the sequel to The Word is Murder.

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A prominent London divorce lawyer, Richard Pryce, has been messily murdered, bludgeoned and stabbed. Former detective Daniel Hawthorne is brought in to investigate. His first step is to let his reluctant biographer Anthony Horowitz,  know that they have a new case. With Anthony in tow, Hawthorne begins the investigation but this time he has competition, a female police detective who is determined to solve the case before Hawthorne. The only evidence they have to go on is the unknown person who rang the doorbell while the victim was on the phone and the mysterious three digit number painted on a wall at the crime scene. Could Richard's husband, with a sketchy alibi,  be involved. Or perhaps someone who thought they were wronged in one of his divorce proceedings. Or is there a connection with something what occurred years earlier in the North.

These books are so much fun to read that I don't wait for the US publication but order them from Amazon UK as soon as they appear.

Since this is a sequel you obviously need to read The Word is Murder if you haven't already done so. If you are new to this series here are some non-spoilery details. Anthony Horowitz is a character in his own book and details about his life and career are integrated into the story. Daniel Hawthorne was a police detective until he was fired after a paedofile "accidentally" fell down the stairs. However, he is such a good detective that the police hire him as a consultant to conduct an independent investigation for especially tricky cases. Afterworking with Horowitz as a consultant on a film, Hawthorne decided that he needed a biographer and selected Horowitz for that role.

More so than in The Word is Murder, you'll see parallels with Sherlock Holmes stories with Horowitz the Watson to Hawthorne's Holmes beginning with a nod to A Study in Scarlet. Not to mention that Hawthorne is essentially a consulting detective. This is a fun approach to the story when you consider that Horowitz has written two novels based on Sherlock Holmes. As in the Holmes stories, Horowitz as a Watson sees but doesn't observe which he finds frustrating because he often can't see where Hawthorne is going with his line of inquiry. There is a scene in the book that reminds me of something that happens in the first chapter of The Hound of the Baskervilles. It wouldn't be a spoiler exactly but you might want to wait until you finish this book before looking up that passage.

The competing detective, Cara Grunshaw and her asistant Darren are hostile and obstructive and make for fun counterpoints to Hawthorne and Horowitz. They also complicate things for Horowitz though Hawthorne seems more amused by them than threatened.

There is also the continuing mystery surrounding Hawthorne himself to which Horowitz is determined to get to the bottom. Hawhthorne continues to be abnormally reluctant to to discuss anything about his own past. If Howowitz's fictional three book publishing deal in these books carries over into real life then all should be revealed in the next book in the series. I'd be interested to know if you agree with my comparison.

The Sentence is Death is a clever and well constructed mystery with pleanty of false leads and an intriguing yet enigmatic detective with humor directed at the author himself. I love these books and can hardly wait to see what happens next. Highly recommended.