Book Review: The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

The Word is Murder

by

Anthony Horowitz 

The Word is Murder was a Christmas present from my brother and my sister in law Tom & Charlotte so a massive thanks to them for the gift. This was the second book that I have read by Anthony Horowitz after reading his James Bond novel Trigger Mortis, which I really enjoyed. My wife has read a couple of his books as well and also loved them, so I was really looking forward to reading this one.

"A delightful read, which was well written and the start of what I believe to be a fantastic series of books"

Precis (taken from the cover):

A wealthy woman strangled six hours after she’s arranged her own funeral.

A very private detective uncovering secrets but hiding his own.

A reluctant author drawn into a story he can’t control.

What do they have in common?

Unexpected death, an unsolved mystery and a trail of bloody clues lie at the heart of Anthony Horowitz's page-turning new thriller.

SPREAD THE WORD. THE WORD IS MURDER.

Review:

Where do I start on how to describe this book? Well... It's a fictional book, staring the author himself and a former police detective. The great thing about it is that there are parts of the book that are real life as Anthony describes what he was doing for real, but with the twist of a fictional murder in between. If that makes sense at all? haha...  The now private detective has been brought in as a consultant to help the police solve a strange murder, but wants Anthony to write a book about him and the murder. However Anthony does not really want to write the book, but is drawn to it even if he thinks it won't work...

I really loved the whole story which I found so fun to read. Not only was this so original, but the murder mystery itself was greatly written which had you guessing all through the book as to who had done it. It was very Agatha Christie ish you could say. What I also loved about this book was the characters, especially the detective Daniel Hawthorne. He was fun to follow. A former disgraced police detective who did what he wanted, whether it was legal or not. He was a very private person and never let Anthony know anything about him which was a struggle through out the book, and one of the reasons Anthony thought the book would not work.. Although the funny thing is, it did. 

Set in London, one of my favourite cities in the world, the story takes you from west to east and then out to the Kent coastline as the story unfolds. I do love reading books which are set in cities I have been to, as a lot of places you have been to in real life helps set the scene.

The ending was not what I was expecting at all and once again I was fooled as to who did the murder. There was twist after twist and the last 100 pages flew by as I changed between characters and ideas as what was going to happen. 

Was there anything I did not like about the book? Nope.. not for me. I read this book in just over a week which is quick for me and yesterday (Saturday) I actually got up early to carry on reading from the night before.

I scored this book a 5 out of 5. I thought it was brilliant and a really enjoyable and fun read. Even better I have heard that this is the start of a series of books by Anthony Horowitz which means I get to read further mysteries from these two. If you love murder mysteries like me or thrillers then I would fully recommend reading this. On Good Reads it has a overall rating of over 4 which means there are a lot of other people enjoying it.

Have you read this book? What do you think? do you agree with me or not? I would love to know so comment below what you think..

Speak soon,

CBailey31