I enjoyed The Word is Murder, not only because it was a mystery that kept me guessing, but because of the narration style, the whole premise and because it made me start Googling Anthony Horowitz to find out what was true and what was just in the book. When I saw The Sentence is Death available, I jumped at the chance.

It did not disappoint: it was just as entertaining as the first.

It has the most unique narration I’ve ever come across. The author is the narrator/main character, but as himself. There’s enough that you know is true – Foyle’s War, a constant running gag of no one getting the name right for the Alex Rider books – that it makes the rest of it believable. I’ve read many books where I’ve been drawn in, but this style literally leaves me feeling like it actually happened.

Personally, I think this is partly because I know the locations. Being at King’s Cross Station, going to Farringdon – these are all parts of my daily commute and it’s the first time I’ve recognised road names and can actually place myself physically where the action is happening. This takes places in places I walk past every day.

The mystery itself is as good as the first – a classic ‘who-dun-it’ scenario. Having been completely caught off guard with the first book, I figured this time it wasn’t who I would expect. I knew it would be someone overlooked…but that didn’t mean I figured out who it was, or how the characters would unravel the mystery.

It’s tricky talking about the characters when you know one of them is real – and some of the information in the book is accurate. But I thoroughly enjoy how the characters are presented: Horowitz doesn’t make himself a genius at solving mysterious, or someone who doesn’t have doubts and insecurities. He makes himself average – not a genius, but not stupid either – which must actually be pretty hard to write.

I warmed to Hawthorne the first time – you can’t have such a main character (even if they are presented as dislikeable) and not warm to them as they, ultimately, save the day (and your favourite author!). You get more of a glimpse into his personal life this time, but just enough to tease – you still don’t truly know him and the snippets you get just make you more intrigued.

The secondary characters were fantastic. From the bullying detectives and their slimy assistants, to dramatic writers and privileged guys with a massive wine collection. Every character have their flaws – any of them would be capable of the murder and there’s no way of figuring it out.

The pace is steady, with enough dramatic moments scattered throughout that it keeps the tension strong. You get swept up in the mystery along with the characters and I really wanted to know who was guilty.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s a fairly easy read and it’s nice having a murder mystery without anything graphic. Definitely recommended!

I absolutely loved The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death didn't disappoint. I liked everything - the writing, the plot, the characters.. I even laughed out loud at one point (the scene in the lift). I think the concept is very clever and it's killing me because I am dying to know what is real and what is fiction. Anthony Horowitz is a master storyteller and I just cannot wait for the third book.

In the first book in this series, 'The Word Is Murder', Horowitz took the unusual step of placing himself in the book as the narrator, melding his real life with this fictional life as a writer engaged to write about PI Daniel Hawthorne's cases. This made for delightful and amusing reading as Horowitz stumbles through the case in the wake of Hawthorne's somewhat more astute detective work. I wasn't sure how well this would work in a second episode but am happy to report that if anything it worked even better the second time around.

The case this time involves a high profile divorce lawyer, Richard Pryce, a teetotaler bashed with an expensive bottle of wine and then stabbed to death with broken glass from the bottle. On the wall above the body the killer painted the number 182 in green paint. At the time Pryce had been involved in a major case involving a celebrity writer, Akira Anno, who immediately becomes their main suspect, as she was recently witnessed pouring a glass of wine over Pryce's head in a popular restaurant and then threatening to hit him with the bottle. Or could that just be what the police are meant to think? Baffled they call in ex-detective, PI Hawthorne and his biographical sidekick Horowitz to investigate.

Hawthorne is filling out more as a character in this second outing. Horowitz is still trying to fathom him out and find out more about his secretive past and current life but Hawthorne remains antisocial and unforthcoming. His investigative style reminds me a little of the 1970s TV detective Columbo - a bumbling, grumpy sort of character, giving little away but thinking deeply and two steps ahead of everyone else, particularly Horowitz who frequently upsets Hawthorne by putting his foot in at the wrong time in Hawthorne's interviews. As before Horowitz weaves into the story his real life activities, writing episodes for 'Foyle's War' with Hawthorne blustering onto the set with little regard for the film crew. Horowitz also loves to poke fun at himself, depicting himself as hopeless at detective work. What results is a clever, gentle murder mystery reminiscent of the golden age of crime writing. As Horowitz has been contracted (fictionally) to write three books covering Hawthorne's cases, I look forward with eager anticipation to the next episode.

Successful celebrity-divorce lawyer Richard Price is found dead in his home, smashed around the head with an expensive bottle of wine. The Sentence is Death sees the return of Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his writer assistant, Anthony Horowitz. As the investigation unfolds and Anthony’s other projects are put in jeopardy, he finds himself questioning his decision to write another book about Hawthorne. However, the desire to be the one to solve the murder is simply too strong to resist.

This book is another great crime novel from Anthony Horowitz and an excellent follow-up to The Word is Murder. The main characters are already firmly established (I wouldn’t recommend reading this without having read book #1 first), and the partnership of this crime-solving duo really works. Hawthorne is as rude and grumpy as ever, while Anthony is timid but determined to make a contribution in solving the murder.

Considering that these characters and their relationship have already been introduced, there is surprisingly little character development: we learn very little more about Hawthorne. He’s still a strong character, as is Anthony himself, but we are given only a very small amount of new information about either of them. I still find it fascinating that Horowitz has turned himself into the main character of his book, as well as being the narrator. With all the little real-life details in the book, the story feels 100% real and genuine. I think it’s fiction, but it’s honestly difficult to say. The way the book is written, it could easily be based on truth.

The plot is detailed and unexpected. It’s a fun read and very well executed.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Introduced to us in The Word is Murder this is the second Daniel Hawthorne mystery which features the author, Horowitz as a character in his own novel. It sounds bizarre and complicated but it does work really well. There are moments when you think that perhaps you are reading a true crime novel or an autobiography but no this is a very clever piece of fiction.

Richard Pryce is bludgeoned to death by a very expensive bottle of wine.

But he never drank.

His last words were "you shouldn't be here. It's too late"

What do those words really mean and who was there?

And why was the number 182 painted on the wall?

All rather strange unconnected clues that Daniel Hawthorne is confronted with when he is called to help the police. No longer a detective but called in when it becomes all too baffling.

In tow, comes Horowitz who is writing about Hawthorne and whilst we see something more of his hidden character and background, Horowitz is just as fascinated with the Hawthorne as he is about the death of Richard Pryce.

The question is who will get to the truth first, the police, Hawthorne or Horowitz?

This book is full of twists, red herrings and glimpses of Foyle's War being recorded which add to the many layers of the novel. The pace of the plot keeps you reading as you discover more about the victim, the detective, the author and of course eventually the killer.

A well written murder mystery novel that has that other element, that of the author being a character in the book, that gives it that edge above many other formulaic books out there that may well fit into the genre.

When a high profile divorce lawyer is found murdered there are a lot of suspects. The police decide to bring in ex-copper Hawthorne who works as a consultant on complex cases. Hawthorne is paired with famous children's writer Anthony Horowitz who is writing a series of books about murder. As the list of suspects grows, Horowitz thinks he has solved the crime, but has he?
This is the second outing for Anthony Horowitz the reluctant investigator and I finally got the joke! The first book I found a little self-indulgent, although entertaining the motif of author fictionalising himself I found odd. Here it makes sense. The whole book is an homage to Conan Doyle and there are plenty of hints in the plot and the characters. The plot is lively and not too obvious (but guessed early by this reader) and there is a broad streak of self-deprecating humour throughout.

I enjoyed this story, once I worked out what was real and what was not - I think :D
I've not read a story set out like this before. The narrator is a real person and the story had elements of real life, but (I assume) Daniel Hawthorne, PI extraodinaire, is not.
This was a murder mystery, very much in Holmes / Watson nature and it was a very good read.

Although I’ve read many of his children’s stories, this is my first Anthony Horowitz adult fiction title. Once I strarted reading I really didn’t want to put it down. I think I fell for every twist and turn, but that was fine as the journey was so enjoyable. Looking forward to his next one!

Anthony Horowitz is one of my favourite crime fiction authors so I was very excited to read The Sentence is Death, the follow-up novel to 2017's The Word is Murder, which introduced us to ex-policeman turned private investigator, Daniel Hawthorne.

A notable feature of this series of murder mysteries is that the author himself, Anthony Horowitz (or 'Tony', as Hawthorne calls him) is a character in the book, narrating the story and playing the Watson to Hawthorne's Sherlock. The conversational narration and references to what we know to be true of Horowitz's life (his work as screenwriter on the tv series Foyle's War, for example) has the reader wondering how much of the story is truly fiction. There's even a detailed Acknowledgement section at the back, which mentions and thanks both fictional and non-fictional people.

In The Word is Murder, Hawthorne asked Tony to be his biographer - to follow his investigation into the murder of a woman and turn the story into a novel. The Sentence is Death begins with Hawthorne interrupting Tony on the set of Foyle's War and inviting him to document his investigation of the murder of Richard Pryce, a divorce lawyer who has been battered to death with a wine bottle in his Hampstead home. Tony reluctantly agrees, lamenting how writing about Hawthorne means he can't begin chapters with a surprising turn of events because he has to "stick to the facts as they happened", which is one of many ironies in this metafiction, also because the (real) Horowitz has many surprising events in store.

Clues are cleverly placed throughout the story leading to the identity of Pryce's murder and giving the astute reader the opportunity to solve the mystery. The initial list of suspects include a feminist author who publicly threatened Pryce after losing a divorce battle, her ex-husband and Pryce's boyfriend. When Hawthorne and Tony uncover a link to a fatal caving accident involving Pryce, the scope of suspects widens to include two widows. Meanwhile, Detective Cara Grunshaw is blackmailing Tony for information on the case, desperate to beat Hawthorne in the race to uncover the murderer.

Running parallel to the murder mystery, and just as interesting, is the relationship between Hawthorne and Tony. Tony tells the reader he struggles with the private and abstruse Hawthorne as a main character, finding him unlikeable and unpleasant (he's homophobic and prone to casual racism), yet he begins to warm to him, describing the man with the perfectly assembled Airfix kits with "the sense of a child playing at being an adult".
Horowitz doesn't shy away from the comparisons to Sherlock and Watson (having penned some Holmes novels himself) as Hawthorne is very much like Holmes, noticing those odd little details that others don't, while Tony plays the bumbling Watson, thinking he's got it all figured out, when he's really been thwarted by Hawthorne's line of seemingly innocuous questions. The novel also pays homage to a few plot points in Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet.

Horowitz relishes the opportunity to poke fun at himself, at literary devices and at crime fiction tropes. Hawthorne describes Tony as "a bit like a travel writer who doesn't know quite where he is", characters confuse Horowitz's best selling spy-kid Alex Rider series, instead calling it Alec Rider and Eric Rider, and possibly my favourite - the playful use of the pathetic fallacy at the very end of the novel. Very clever!

The Sentence is Death is everything I love about crime fiction - a carefully crafted mystery with a flawless solution, and an interesting cast of suspects each with plausible motives for the crime (and some with a few naughty secrets), as well as a sense of fun, loads of witty moments and some lovely descriptions of London.

'Tony' is tied to his three-book deal with Hawthorne, so we can expect a third instalment with a similarly clever title coming soon. I'd also love to see a television adaptation - would Anthony Horowitz play himself playing himself?

An exellent read, unusual, engaging, intriguing and genuinely funny. I love this series and will continue to read it

Having read and enjoyed the previous outing of Daniel Hawthorne I thought I was prepared for the sequel. NO. The twists and turns were unpredictable and the outcome, yet again, cleverly plotted. It still feels a little strange to be reading about the author as a real person in a fictional book but I think it is more my problem than that of the book.
Recommended yet again.

I love the way this is written, the fiction mixed with fact, it’s just so original and entertaining.

Anthony Horowitz is an author, who works alongside the investigator Daniel Hawthorne, an ex-police officer, because he is in a 3 Book contract to document the crimes and investigations he is looking into.

He’s not sure if he likes Daniel, due to his manner, casual homophobia and racism, but he is an excellent investigator and they get mixed up in all sorts of scrapes, with Anthony usually coming off worse.

There are mentions of Horowitz real life work, on tv series such as Midsomer Murder and Foyles War and his books like the Alex Rider series, which all lend such a feeling of reality you forget this is fiction.

The characters are all so believable, I really want to know more about Hawthorne and his background as I’m sure there’s more to come. The story itself is fast paced and with its touches of humour is totally engaging and has the great twists and turns of a classic whodunnit. I can thoroughly recommend it.

I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review

#TheSentenceIsDeath #NetGalley

Not my usual genre but this book had me gripped throughout. Will be looking out for more of the same!

This is the 2nd novel in the Daniel Hawthorne, Private Investigator series by Anthony Horowitz.
I have not read the 1st book 'The Word is Murder' nor in fact any other books by this author but quickly realised once I started this novel that times were going to change. I was so impressed and enjoyed reading this book that I had already purchased a couple of the authors other books before finishing it.
For me the book had a feel of an older style on detective novel, maybe an Agatha Christie or more likely Arthur Conan Doyle. Witty, well plotted and some excellent characters. I found the book a light read but intriguing and very enjoyable.
The setting of the novel is a little bit unusual with the author being one of the main characters. In the novel Anthony Horowitz is invited to write about the retired detective Daniel Hawthorne who still helps the Police solve difficult cases. Anthony tags along Hawthorne in much the same way that Hastings followed Poirot or Watson, Holmes, aiding and abetting along the way. The plot in this novel surrounds a divorce lawyer who has been murdered using an expensive bottle of wine and Hawthorne is invited in to assist.
This is an intriguing read that is a refreshing change from some of the darker novels I also enjoy.
I would like to thank Net Galley and Random House for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Author Anthony Horowitz is in a spot of bother – filming of the latest scene of Foyle’s War isn’t going to plan and he’s running behind on his novel detailing the first case he investigated with Daniel Hawthorne (as detailed in The Word Is Murder). He soon finds those issues paling into insignificance when Hawthorne enlists his help in a new case.

Lawyer Richard Pryce has been found bludgeoned to death. Oddly, as Pryce was a teetotaller, the murder weapon was a bottle of wine. A bottle of wine worth £3,000 to be precise. What was the meaning of Pryce’s last words? And why did someone paint a 3-digit number in green paint on the wall next to his body?


Now, I liked the preceding title The Word Is Murder a lot but I preferred Horowitz’s Magpie Murders. I thought the killer in the first Hawthorne book was a bit too guessable and some of the clueing a little tangential. But the desire to put a fresh spin on the classic mystery shone through and as such, I was very much looking forward to the second title. Unfortunately, I’ve been a bit distracted with my Countdown to 1000 to look at anything new, so this has been sitting, glaring at me from my Kindle. But was it worth the wait?

The negatives, first of all. I didn’t like the police characters in this one – they seemed a bit stereotyped and could have done with some depth. Of course, that’s quite common in classic fiction, so maybe Horowitz is choosing to embrace the trope.

Sorry, I misspoke. I should have said “negative”, not “negatives”.

I’ve been carrying this around with me on my Kindle over the last day or so – sorry to Frances Brody who I promised Review 1001 to, but I’m so busy at the moment that it’s much easier to read ebooks, but A Snapshot Of Murder is coming very soon – grabbing a chapter when I can. I can’t actually remember the last time I was reading a book this enthusiastically. Possibly The Hollow Man, but I knew what happened in that one as I’d read it before, which diluted the effect for me. Probably Puzzle For Wantons, a similarly layered plot.

This is a fantastic mystery, cleverly clued with so many clues hidden in plain sight that you won’t spot and a well-hidden villain. I felt I should have spotted it as it had an echo of a book that I’d read a while ago (only a faint echo) but still missed it completely. Suspicions ricochet around for the reader as well as for Horowitz (the character, not the writer) and Horowitz’s determination to be the one who deduces the killer first gives a nice motivation to his Watson-like role. The suspects are nicely varied and distinctive bunch, with clearly defined motives – some open, some discovered as the plot progresses – and the conclusion is, I thought, extremely satisfying.

One sort-of disappointment is the plot thread of the boy living upstairs from Hawthorne. I presume this will be continued in the next title. It’s not as if I need any more convincing after such a great read to come back for more. Horowitz keeps referring to a three book deal with Hawthorne in the story, so fingers crossed for another one. In the meantime, do check this out – the perfect Christmas present for the mystery lover in your family. Highly Recommended.

The Sentence Is Death was released on 1st November 2018 from the Century imprint of Cornerstone (which is part of Penguin Random House.) Many thanks for the review e-copy.

Last year when I read The Word is Murder I thought it was a very clever and different type of murder mystery. It features Daniel Hawthorne, an ex-policeman, now a private investigator, who the police call in to help when they have a case they call a ‘sticker’. What I found particularly interesting was the way that Anthony Horowitz inserted himself into the fiction, recruited by Hawthorne to write a book about him and the cases he investigates.

In The Sentence is Death, Anthony appears again as a character, reluctantly, as he had agreed to a three-book contract with Hawthorne. At the start of the book Anthony, who wrote the script for the TV series of Foyles War, is on the set as the opening scenes in the seventh series were being shot. The rehearsal was disastrous, but it came to an abrupt end when Hawthorne interrupted the scenes by driving straight into the middle of the set to tell Anthony there had been another murder and that the police had asked for his help.

Divorce lawyer Richard Pryce was found dead in his home, having been hit on the head by a wine bottle, a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth £3,000, and then stabbed to death with the broken bottle. There are several clues – there’s the number 182 written in green paint on the wall, the incredibly expensive bottle of wine when Pryce was a teetotaller, a public threat from a well known feminist writer, an unknown visitor the evening he was killed and plenty of other enemies as suspects. There’s no doubt that Daniel is a brilliant detective, but Anthony finds him trying as he’s uncommunicative, keeping Anthony in the dark most of the time, he swears and he calls him ‘Tony’.

I found it all most entertaining and perplexing, completely foxed by all the red herrings and twists and turns in the plot. But, mainly because I’d read the first book, I loved the interaction between Anthony and Daniel and had no difficulty with the mix of fact and fiction, enjoying the details about Anthony’s life as a scriptwriter as much as the mystery about the murder. I don’t think, however that you need to read The Word is Murder first because as a murder mystery The Sentence is Death works well as a standalone. But to see how their relationship began and develops it would help to read the books in order.

I loved this book as much or maybe even more than the first one and am delighted that I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

#TheSentenceIsDeath #NetGalley A very different type of detective story with the author actually appearing in the book and possibly, although not entirely sure, this is a true story. The second in the Hawthorne series but that didn't seem to matter as it was perfectly readable as a standalone. On the whole an interesting tale although a little bit slow paced for my liking with all the real deductions happening in the last few chapters. Also, it seemed a bit unrealistic that the detectives investigating the murder allowed an ex-detective and a writer to follow, and in some cases precede, them around interviewing witnesses and suspects. I didn't fully understand why Hawthorne was involved and who he was reporting to. Easy to read with some interesting parts but not my favourite type of writing I'm afraid.

Didn't find this quite as engaging as the first one but it was still a romping good read. Another good, old fashioned who dun it and more learnt about the enigmatic Hawthorne.
This series is incredibly popular with my students who love the fact they can continue reading Mr Horowitz after Alex Rider.

Anthony Horowitz: The Sentence is Death, Cornerstone, Random House UK, 9781780897097

Anthony Horowitz is such a very clever writer! What distinguishes this mystery from many others is the special tongue in cheek approach the author came up with blending his real life persona into a murder mystery. Like himself in real life, Anthony is a screenplay writer for the film industry having written the screenplay for “Foyle’s War” and successful teenage fiction, just as his alter ego in the book. “The Sentence is Death” is the second book in the series, “The word is murder” the first, became an instant bestseller.
Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his side kick, a writer named Anthony, are called in by the police to assist in the investigation of the murder of Richard Pryce, a successful divorce lawyer of the rich and famous, who has been bludgeoned to death by a 2000 $ bottle of red wine which is especially puzzling since he never drink. Equally puzzling are the 3 numbers painted on his living room wall which the killer left? When they interview his husband who was away on the day of the murder, they discover that their last conversation was interrupted by a doorbell ringing and Pryce saying “You shouldn’t be here, it is too late” indicating that he must have known his murderer.
I will not go deeper into this excellent, very clever mystery with plenty of twists and turns, one being a second mysterious death which Anthony and Daniel Hawthorne believe is connected to Richard Pryce. “The Sentence is Death” will not let you down, an ace murder mystery!
For German readers: the first book in the series is called “Ein perfider Plan” with a publication date of March 2019 by Insel Verlag. Obviously the pub date of the second book which I just read is even further away.

The Sentence is Death is the second in Anthony Horowitz’s mysteries starring himself and detective Daniel Hawthorne. I liked its predecessor, The Word is Murder, but Sentence sees the series really hit its stride.

We start strongly, on a Foyle’s War location shoot. I think this is clever, as it sets Horowitz’s persona up in an extremely accessible way. All too often a crime novel has a slow, scene-setting start. This one doesn’t do anything other than to set up our relationship with the story-teller. By the time Hawthorne arrives, with a mystery to solve, we are happily settled down with the narrator. Horowitz will later, in one of myriad asides to the reader, point out that you ‘cannot have a central character who is…by his very nature, unpleasant.’ Horowitz is supposedly referring to Hawthorne, who is prone to homophobic remarks, but he knows full well that as the narrator he’s the central character. He breaks the fourth wall all the time, to give us the inside insight into his writing process, to muse about the nature of crime fiction, or just to insult a certain kind of writer. He is happy to be playful, with the sort of phrases (my favourite: referring to Ravilious and Gill as ’a collection of Erics’) that a third person narrative just can’t get away with. And he is confident enough to include a rather wonderful running joke involving Michael Kitchen, which is genuinely funny, affectionate enough to delight the Foyle fandom and straightforward enough for the general reader. The result is a form of story-telling which is amusing, engaging and provides a fine frame on which to hang the tale. Yes, we know that Horowitz will fail when he sets off to solve the crime himself. It doesn’t matter in the least.

I thought the mystery was excellent, too. The main plot involves a divorce lawyer and the usual cast of people any of whom could have dunit. But the issue is blown open by a death at King’s Cross station that takes Horowitz and Hawthorne up to Yorkshire to investigate an old caving tragedy. The use of a subplot that involves the menace of the elements contrasts very nicely with tales of the upper middle class folk of Highgate. And the psychological scarring caused by what happens in the Long Way Hole can be compared against the blunt but effective bullying by Met dimwits Grunshaw and Mills (I loved that Grunshaw references Horowitz’s writing for young people and not, say, Foyle or Midsomer Murders), and the low-level power struggle that takes place between Horowitz and Hawthorne; and, indeed, the general sense of injustice (think of Lenny Pinkerman and the admittedly hilarious set-to at Daunt’s).

What next? We’ve had ‘Word’ and ‘Sentence’ so in what I hope will be called The Paragraph is Fatality we can expect some more revelations about Hawthorne and his methods, perhaps involving Pinkerman and Kenneth Brannigan. Perhaps Horowitz will avoid being stabbed next time. But in the meantime I recommend this quirky and enjoyable take on the detective novel.

Thanks to Century for the review copy.