Review: The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (as an audiobook)

The Word is Murder
by Anthony Horowitz [Compact Disc Horowitz]

While trying to decide what books to use for upcoming meetings of the libraries’ Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, I kept looking at The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (creator of Foyle’s War). Ultimately, there weren’t enough copies of The Word is Murder floating around the library system to make it a good Just Desserts selection, but the description sounded fascinating, and the Book-on-CD version was read of British actor Rory Kinnear — it was also only 7 discs, while many modern mysteries on CD can be 9 to 13 discs long. So…I decided to give it a try. And, boy, am I glad I did!

The Word is Murder is extremely “meta” — it is told from the point-of-view of mystery writer Anthony Horowitz himself. In the context of this story, Horowitz states that a British ex-cop, Daniel Hawthorne, who served as a technical consultant on a TV series he created (Injustice, which actually did air in 2011) contacts Horowitz and asks him to take on a job — following Horowitz as he consults on a bizarre murder case that he is consulting on for the police, and writing a novel out of the experience. Hawthorne, a brusque, unlikable man is still a brilliant sleuth, and the case he’s working on intrigues Horowitz — a woman goes to a funeral parlor to arrange her funeral in meticulous detail, only to wind up murdered in her home just six hours later.

With serious misgivings, Horowitz agrees to Hawthorne’s request, despite the fact that the detective won’t reveal more than minor details about his own life or his sleuthing methodology. This mystery is really the story of an inexperience “Watson”, forced to follow and chronicle the exploits of an uncooperative “Holmes”. But the way Horowitz tells the story, and the life he breathes into all the characters, made for a compelling tale.

I’ll admit that the solution to the main mystery wasn’t all that complicated — for the most part, enough clues are scattered throughout the scenes to piece it all together, even if a few “reveals” are saved for near the end of the book. But…this isn’t necessarily to be read/listened-to for the mystery — it’s more a character study. And an excellent one at that.

A fun read, and Rory Kinnear does a terrific job doing the voices of numerous different characters. His gruff, growly voice for Hawthorne was perfect. Strongly recommended!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try anything else by Horowitz, particularly The Magpie Murders, which also plays around with the conventions of the traditional mystery story. Though in that case, it is more a tribute to the old Agatha Christie style, where The Word is Murder is contemporary.]

[ official The Word is Murder page on the official Anthony Horowitz web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!