Book Review: The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the first book in the series of Detective Inspector Hawthorne's investigations. Author is narrating the story first hand as he too plays a part in the story. Author has signed up to write about a murder investigation that inspector Hawthorne has been working on.

The story begins with the a middle aged woman going to an funeral parlor to arrange for her funeral proceeds. A few hours after her meeting with the undertaker she is found strangled at her residence. Some items are missing to give an impression of burglary being the intent behind the murder. In the past (10 yrs ago) a child was killed in a road accident and the driver in the car was the same middle aged woman who is murdered. The lady's son is a famous actor in Hollywood and he flies down to London to attend his mother's funeral. On the day of the funeral the actor son also gets murdered in the most gruesome manner.

Metropolitan police hires consultant detective inspector Hawthorne to investigate this murder.

Inspector Hawthorne contacts the author to write a book about this investigation as it unfolds. The risk was that if someone else from Met solves the case before Hawthorne does then there will not be any point in writing a book. Author accompanies Hawthorne as he interviews all suspects. Eventually Hawthorne solves the mystery. This approach to writing is reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson where Dr Watson writes about Holmes' investigations.

Overall the story is fast paced and not too long so it does well in retaining reader's attention. Looking forward to the second book in the series - the sentence is death - which is due for release in June 2019 in US.

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