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hired to write the script for a follow-up film based on the Belgian comic The Adventures of Tintin, so has the Passion, deception, an unexplained death and a detective with quite a lot to hide lie at the heart of Anthony Horowitz's brilliant murder mystery, the second in the bestselling series starring Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. No-one has ever proven with numbers that killing murderers stops other people committing similar crimes Anthony, the narrator, is once again approached by ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and asked to write about him and a case he is working on, despite the fact that their first collaboration has not been published yet. Although Anthony is not too keen on Hawthorne, the details of the case pique him and he reluctantly agrees to document the case.
Metafiction: The concept of the whole Hawthorne series, as Anthony Horowitz's Author Avatar "Anthony Horowitz" is The Watson in a book which is presented as a true crime story. "Horowitz" observes that he likes to create his own stories and be in control of his characters, when of course in Real Life he is.The device allows the author to conduct a running commentary on the process of writing the story, while poking fun at himself. Horowitz is perhaps best known as the creator of the Alex Rider children’s books, yet, in a running gag, no one can remember his hero’s name. He also takes aim at the world of literary fiction. One of the suspects is a pretentious Japanese author who pens worthy, prize-winning novels and accuses our author hero of being the worst thing imaginable — “a commercial writer”. Richard Pryce is an elegant, smooth-tongued lawyer who has made a fortune out of celebrity divorces - and a lot of enemies in the process. Unmarried himself, he lives in a handsome bachelor pad on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Odd, considering he didn’t drink. Why this bottle? And why those words? And why was a three-digit number painted on the wall by the killer? And, most importantly, which of the man’s many, many enemies did the deed? countries which permit the death penalty only for serious crimes in exceptional circumstances, such as those committed during times of war
Real Person Cameo: Anthony Horowitz's wife Jill and agent Hilda Starke pop up again as characters; neither of them like Anthony writing Hawthorne books. Dave Gallivan of the Cave Rescue Organization, who in-story led the search and rescue after the fatal Long Hole Cave incident in 2007, is also a real guy.
So given I'm averse to reading this type of book, why do I continue with the series? Because they are easy to read, enjoyable, and have genuinely intriguing mysteries. There's a reason Horowitz either wrote or conceived a large number of the TV murder mysteries on British TV in the last 20 years or so - he can think up a great plot and execute it well. Like all crime of this genre (so called 'cosy' crime as opposed to the grittier, more realist stuff) it can be far fetched, but you happily accept that in return for a good read. This one was at the more plausible end of the spectrum. As always, Hawthorne doggedly solves the crime whilst Anthony stumbles along, misconstruing the clues, interrupting at unfortunate times, and generally making a hash of things. Which is quite ironic when you remember that in reality the whole thing has been made up by Horowitz start to finish. Author Avatar: Anthony Horowitz once again, appearing in the story as The Watson, chronicling the exploits of Daniel Hawthorne. Chekhov's Gunman: Colin, Davina Richardson's pimply 15-year-old son, seen a couple of times when Hawthorne and Anthony come over to grill his mother, a suspect in the Pryce killing. Colin is the killer, having gone over to Pryce's home and killed him after overhearing Greg Taylor admit to Davina that he and Richard abandoned Charlie in the cave to drown.
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