With every installment in this series, we get to learn more about Daniel Hawthorne’s life from before his collaboration with Horowitz in bits and pieces. He doesn’t reveal much about himself to Horowitz, who is often baffled and annoyed with his tight-lipped partner. In this story, we are finally introduced to certain facets of Hawthorne’s personality we had not seen before and given insight into the details about Hawthorne’s dismissal from his former position as DI. The author is very fair about sprinkling clues throughout the narrative, but I didn't guess the identity of the killer.....so well done Anthony Horowitz. The literary festival is described in loving detail in the book. “I love literary festivals. They are the one thing I have missed the most during the time of COVID-19. There is something wonderful about people coming together for the love of reading and books. The Jaipur Literature Festival is one of my favourites. I was amazed that thousands of people come to this city out of love for literature and books. There is something wonderfully civilised about it. In a world where there is so much discord, concern, worry and fear, and where politics seem to be out of control, it is heartening that there are people who want to come together to talk about stories. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Let Off by the Detective: Defied. Anne Cleary appeals to Hawthorne for this but he bluntly refuses.

The two are invited to be the featured guests at a literary festival on the island of Alderney, off the coast of England. Horowitz’s biggest worry is how the eccentric, unpredictable Hawthorne will act when they take the stage to discuss his latest book. But that is the least of his worries once the host of the festival is found murdered. Hawthorne is asked to help with the investigation, and Horowitz tags along to take notes. What makes this series so fun to read is because it’s fun to play along. The mystery itself feels very accessible to the reader, allowing you to make guesses and have your own suspicions throughout the story. Never feel too confident with your accusations though, as it’s always a shifting climate. Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world." — Booklist The series is good for 10 books, Horowitz says. “At the end of the tenth book, we find out what makes Hawthorne such a difficult and contrary human being. We find out what happened to him as a boy that changed his life.”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. The beginning of the novel, when Bond is captured and Mr Big’s henchman, Teehee, breaks Bond’s finger, makes me sweat when I read it. There are, however, parts of the book which I would not write myself, which we would feel uncomfortable reading.” Horowitz says he sees no need to prune out the uncomfortable bits from the legacy sequel as it is not the way he thinks. There was no danger that the book would come out like an ego trip, says Horowitz. “At the end of the day, I’m only the narrator, not the main character. You do not learn a great deal about me in the book. The book is about Hawthorne, and me writing about Hawthorne. What it does allow me to do as a writer, is to write about the nature of a whodunit.”

It's a tiny island, just three miles long and a mile and a half wide. The perfect location for a brand-new literary festival. Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne has been invited to talk about his new book. The writer, Anthony Horowitz, travels with him. and the next morning someone is found dead in a 'snug' at the edge of le Mesurier's property - a cozy studio the entrepreneur uses to conduct his adulterous affairs. Some of the funniest moments occurred when Horowitz deliberately downplayed his success as an author, and the dismissive irrelevant way he was often treated by other characters. Horowitz may be the narrator but Hawthorne remained the definite star of the show. That Horowitz is out manipulated, out maneuvered, and outshone by his own creation is a running joke. Horowitz also sets his sights on other tropes of the modern writer: publishers, agents, editors, literary festivals. He is an insider's insider. More importantly, he manages to make the reader care for Hawthorne, who is neither cuddly nor entirely admirable, but seems to live by his own code--a code which neither Horowitz nor the reader to this point have entirely apprehended.It may seem strange to pair the term ‘charming’ with ‘murder,’ but this mystery is an utter delight. I have come to expect as much from Anthony Horowitz. While this is the third book in a series that teams the author himself with the brilliantly observant, frustratingly reticent former detective Hawthorne in a fictional twist on true crime and ghostwriting, it can be enjoyed on its own. A literary festival in Alderney, the northernmost Channel Island, lands the two in the midst of a community at odds over the building of an electric power line through the middle of the island. A murder and a figure from Hawthorne’s past launch the not-so-dynamic duo into yet another crime solving adventure. Insisting he loves all his writing, Horowitz admits a partiality for the Alex Rider books, which has helped a whole generation find literature, books and reading. The most richly accomplished of the brothers’ pairings to date—and given Connelly’s high standards, that’s saying a lot. I loved this smartly written whodunit, but it's the characters of Hawthorne and Horowitz that have completely won me over.' Realising all these permutations had been done, Horowitz began to wonder what would make his series different.

The second in the series, ‘The Sentence is Death’, became a little more plot heavy and less about the tensions between author and his secretive hero. Buxom Beauty Standard: Helen le Mesurier may be bitchy, but Anthony still can't help but notice her party dress that "covered very little", comparing her to Marilyn Monroe while noting "the generous curves of her body."

Neither easy nor difficult

Hate Sink: Both Charles le Mesurier, a man so deeply unpleasant that everyone on the island had reason to want him dead, and Derek Abbott, a child pornographer described by Horowitz as the most loathsome man he has ever met. Lampshaded in the latter case, as Horowitz dreads the idea of Abbott being guilty because he's so hateful that he doubts any of his readers will care if he did it. Chekhov's Gun: A couple of references are made to Kathryn Harris's over-large glasses. They're part of a disguise to mask her resemblance to Anne Cleary, who is her mother. As his regular readers will know, however, Horowitz has none of Christie’s flaws as an author and there are no cardboard cut-out characters, wildly improbable murder methods, or cosy camouflaging of harsh realities of crime and harm here. Alderney does not have a standing police service and although officers from neighbouring Guernsey are flown in, they have little experience with violent crime themselves and it is only natural that they take advantage of Hawthorne’s extensive expertise by recruiting him as an unpaid consultant. This is a worthy addition to this highly addictive series, and I can't wait to begin the next installment.' Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world." - Booklist

Maissa Lamar – A French performance poet. (The ‘i’ in her Christian name actually has two dots above it, but I have no idea how to type that?!) Exact Words: Anne Cleary says that her son William killed himself when he was away at school and he was "an addict." She does not explain that he was a gambling addict, which turns out to be key to the solution. Author Anthony Horowitz and former detective, Daniel Hawthorne are invited to a Literary Festival on Alderney (one of the Channel Islands) to promote their first collaborative dectective story – The Word is Murder. My first thought was, is the detective British or from another country, man or woman? What is the ethnicity, sexuality, marital status? Does he have problems? Does she want to be something different? Is she a robot, vampire, spaceman or ghost?” From many anglesWhen I recognised the Christie-style set-up, I immediately wondered if this was a step too far for Horowitz. The Susan Ryeland series is already an ingenious and compelling homage to the world’s most successful author of fiction and I wondered if A Line to Kill would blur the boundaries between the two series. It does not and each in is, in its own unique way, providing contemporary crime fiction with a much-needed revitalisation.