Book: A Line to Kill
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Pages: 384
Read on: Kindle
Read in: ~4 hours
Plot Summary: When Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England, they don’t expect to find themselves in the middle of murder investigation—or to be trapped with a cold-blooded killer in a remote place with a murky, haunted past.
Arriving on Alderney, Hawthorne and Horowitz soon meet the festival’s other guests—an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children’s author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic, and a war historian—along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line.
When a local grandee is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Hawthorne and Horowitz become embroiled in the case. The island is locked down, no one is allowed on or off, and it soon becomes horribly clear that a murderer lurks in their midst. But who?
General Thoughts: This is the third book in the Hawthorne and Horowitz (yes, you read that right) series, where the author (the fictitious version of him) gets involved in crime-solving with ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and then writes about it. The other two books in the series have been reviewed here- The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death. The former was really nicely done where the latter was not at all good! So, it was with mixed feelings that I picked up this particular book, hoping that it would be akin to The Word is Murder and not like Horowitz's sophomore outing in this series!
Things I Liked:
1. The setting of this book was really enjoyable! The book was set in a small island- one of the Channel Islands- during its very first Literature Festival! Is that not so much fun!? As avid readers, I am sure, we will enjoy a setting like that! Full of readings, events, book signings and the like. A little throwback to the "old normal" if you will. So, it is against this backdrop, that a pretty vile man is found murdered and Hawthorne and Horowitz, who are there to do a reading and Q&A for their very first book, help the local police in solving this case.
2. The cast of characters in this book is also very interesting. We have a total of 10 very well sketched characters. The seven authors, who are attending the festival, are each unique and mysterious in their own way. The locals, who are in the midst of a civil disobedience movement of sorts to prevent an ecologically devastating electricity project, have their own motives to want this man dead. Each of these locals are also well sketched out and we feel like we know enough about each of these characters to understand what would drive them to commit murder.
3. The crime itself is ingenious and nicely done. The man was murdered in the middle of a loud party in his own home with potentially tens of witnesses. It was a closed room type of a mystery, except that the room in question happened to be a tiny island.
4. Several good red herrings were at play. Multiple islanders and even some of the authors had reasons to murder the rich guy (he was no prince!), so it could be anyone. Always nice when that happens in a murder mystery book!
Things I Didn't Like:
1. Like I had mentioned in the review of The Sentence is Death, Anthony Horowitz- the character- has been crafted in the likeness of Watson or Captain Hastings. So, he is not the solver of crimes and is crafted as a bit of silly goose. However, Hawthorne constantly humiliating 'Tony' and annoying him was getting on my nerves and was a bit much! It wasn't as awful as The Sentence is Death but it was bad enough! Also, it somehow doesn't sit well that a best-selling author, who writes detective fiction (as the character in the book also does) would be such a dunce! Caused quite a bit of cognitive dissonance for me!
2. The killer was sort of guess-able just because that is the last person you'd think the killer would be and everyone else was too obvious! :) However, the motive was not very guess-able, so that's a win!
3. I did not warm up to Hawthorne even in this book. He is not charmingly outspoken as Sherlock or even ever-suffering-but-still-kind like Poirot. He is just obnoxious and annoying! That is, in my opinion, the greatest failing of this series! The author has centred this series around a very unlikeable protagonist, which does take away from the reading experience.
Rating: 3.5/ 5
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