A bit disappointed in this book. I read Magpie Murders and loved it’s British charm, but this mystery was just bland. The character started off as rich and interesting, but I slowly began to care less and less about their stories and motivations. The Derek Abbott character was unnecessary (although I suppose it adds to the backstory of the mysterious Detective Hawthorne). I didn’t quite understand Hawthorne as he was both standoffish but also charismatic? The last 20 pages of the final reveal were the best part of the book, but not enough to make up for the several hundred pages already read.

Anthony Horowitz is the author of a popular teen spy series, adult mysteries, and a number of beloved TV series. In his Hawthorne and Horowitz series, the author inserts himself, as himself, as a character into the stories, which is kind of bizarre but also fun. The fictional Anthony Horwitz comes off as a bit of a clueless dolt. He was approached in the first book by a disgraced detective hoping to get some money by contributing to a nonfiction crime series written by the fictional Anthony Horowitz.

Got that? It’s a bit of a mind twister, but as I already mentioned, a lot of fun. The series is a love letter to classic murder mysteries and detective stories. Hawthorne is clearly the brains of the pair, but also deeply mysterious and often unlikable. Still, he has the charisma, and the author gets ignored when Hawthorne is present. This causes a strain between the duo, even while fictional Horowitz admires Hawthorne’s detecting skills.

The plot of A Line to Kill gives us a chance to meet a bunch of quirky writers at a small literary festival. I had to wonder as a reader if any of them are based on writers Horowitz knows. He also pokes fun at himself and his own reputation as a writer, and he seems to be having a joyful time doing it. The author drops clues right and left, leaving the reader to wonder – is that important? Is that a red herring? And Hawthorne slowly puts it all together as the rest of us scratch our heads.

I love Horowitz’s subtle humor and phrasing, as in this passage when a séance takes place: “So at ten o’clock, I made my way down to the hotel’s screening room, which was certainly not the sort of place Noel Coward would have chosen to set a séance.” (ch. 20 of the advance reader copy) Also this passage, when a body is discovered at the seaside: “Even before we got out of the car, we could tell something was wrong. A small crowd had gathered on the very edge of the grass, all of them looking out to sea, and there was something about their body language, the way they stood, that warned us that although they might be birdwatchers, they were not now watching birds.” (ch. 22)

If you like very English detective bromances where the bros don’t really seem to like each other, and detective stories that overwhelm you with characters and plot devices, you might enjoy this series.

I read an advance reader copy of A Line to Kill from Netgalley.

1/27/22 note: I just listened to the truly excellent audiobook narrated by Rory Kinnear. Now that Simon Prebble has apparently stopped recording audiobooks, I hope to hear more from Rory Kinnear.

The big problem with this series is that neither of the main characters are likeable or particularly interesting. It’s all very meta and clever but not gripping. Not a patch on ‘House of Silk’ or ‘Moonflower Murders’ which are both minor masterpieces. It feels like the author writes the Hawthorne series for his own amusement.

A page-turner, as expected, but temporary abandonment of known tracking and detection is needed to relish the discovery, so a small island with close to no violence otherwise must be the setting.