On this occasion, the premise is that Horowitz has been invited to attend a literary fesitval on Alderney – the baby brother island to Guernsey and Jersey, measuring barely 5km long and 2.5 km wide, home to a shade over 2000 souls, according to Wikipedia. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by The clearer focus: the previous two novels – if I remember rightly – have both twisted towards the thriller genre by the conclusion as Horowitz blunders into the path of dangerous people and is nearly killed. This novel kept itself within detective conventions more. The novel brings together a small cast of writers with their own secrets and histories, including a blind psychic, an unhealthy chef, a children’s author, a local war historian and a French performance poet. A somewhat eclectic mix and Horowitz places this motley crew in an isolated location which is itself riven with political tension as a plan to run an electrical power line through the island to connect France and England. The sponsor of the festival – spinthewheel.com, an online casino – is owned by Charles le Mesurier one of whose employees is one Derek Abbott, the alleged paedophile who Hawthorne allegedly threw down a flight of stairs, an action which led to his leaving the police.

Speaking to Anthony Horowitz invariably involves looking ahead. Last time when we spoke for Moonflower Murders , we were also speaking of the third book in his Daniel Hawthorne series. And now as we talk of the third book, A Line to Kill (Penguin Random House) we are also talking about the third James Bond novel Horowitz has been commissioned to write by the Ian Fleming estate. 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. 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 This is a worthy addition to this highly addictive series, and I can't wait to begin the next installment.' Realising all these permutations had been done, Horowitz began to wonder what would make his series different.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. The setting on the island of Alderney – although it could, perhaps, have been a little more intense, a little more claustrophobic….

A Line to Kill,” Anthony Horowitz’s third murder mystery pairing a stand-in for himself (a veteran English novelist and screenwriter) with ex-police detective Daniel Hawthorne, takes place mostly at a literary festival on tiny Alderney, one of the Channel Islands. “There’s never been a murder on Alderney,” more than one resident tells Hawthorne and Horowitz. But that’s about to change. The snippets of life in the publishing world, even if the meeting at the “surprisingly shabby and unattractive” offices of Penguin Random House didn’t have the glamour of the meeting with Spielberg in an earlier novel! I did love Horowitz’ own puzzlement – which mirrored my own – at the possibility of coming up with a series of titles combining grammar and death! What might be next? The Verb Is Finite? The Modifier Is Dangling? And A Line to Kill– the third installment of the Hawthorne and Horowitz series – is just that: all the joy and entertainment of a Sunday night cosy detective show. 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.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 angles Except for the atrocities of World War II, there hasn’t been a murder on the Channel Island of Alderney from time immemorial. The staging of the Alderney Lit Fest brings that streak to a decided end. Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and the writer Anthony Horowitz have been invited to a literary festival on the island of Alderney to talk about their new book . . . A Line to Kill was a very clever, suspenseful and compelling murder mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed '

The sequence at the end of Live and Let Die (1954) when Bond is dragged over the coral reef is brilliant, says Horowitz. 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. I’ve really enjoyed Horowitz’ crime capers in the past as he has played with the form: the Susan Ryeland series ( Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders) which interpose Atticus Pund’s fiction-within-a-fiction detective story within Ryeland’s own investigations; and the Hawthorne and Horowitz Mysteries ( The Word is Murderand The Sentence is Death) where our author guest stars as himself tagging along with the erstwhile Detective Daniel Hawthorne. Let’s be honest, these are not series which are going to win literary prizes, but they are well crafted and fun who-dunnits which also offer a sneak into the literary and publishing world. Very soon they discover that not all is as it should be. Alderney is in turmoil over a planned power line that will cut through it, desecrating a war cemetery and turning neighbour against neighbour.

Alex Rider is now in its second season based on Eagle Strike adapted by Guy Burt with Otto Farrant returning to play the titular character. There is also Toby Stevens playing the chief antagonist. “I know the first season was popular in India.” Forever Bond Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.