Cover image of "The Word is Murder," a novel about odd couple detectives

Anthony Horowitz possesses one of the crime genre’s most original minds. He’s proved it over and over again in scores of novels and several long-running television series. But nowhere is his cunning intelligence more in evidence than in The Word is Murder. It’s the first of what are to date six mystery novels about the odd couple of Hawthorne and Horowitz. Yes, that’s Anthony Horowitz, the author himself, who writes in the first person. But he doesn’t describe himself as a clever amateur sleuth. He’s just the same novelist and screenwriter we know from his record as an award-winning writer. And he’s clueless as an investigator. His role, at least in The Word is Murder, is simply to act as a reluctant foil for the diabolically ingenious detective, Daniel Hawthorne.

A startling and original opening

A 60-something widow named Diana Cowper walks into a London mortuary. She tells the undertaker that she’s come to arrange a funeral. Her own. And she’s arrived prepared to lay out the most minute details about the ceremony and to select the casket. That’s all odd, of course. But what’s really strange is that six hours later her part-time maid discovers Diana has been strangled. She lies dead on the floor of her home. Did she know her death was imminent?

The Word is Murder: A Mindbending Metafictional Murder Mystery (Hawthorne and Horowitz #1) by Anthony Horowitz (2018) 271 pages ★★★★★

Photo of expensive homes in London like the one owned by the victim in this novel about odd couple detectives
Diana Cowper might have lived in a home like one of these in this exclusive London neighborhood. Image: A Lady in London

A bizarre case, a disagreeable detective, and a famous Hollywood actor

Scotland Yard can’t crack the case. It’s just too bizarre, and there appear to be no clues. So some senior official there hires Daniel Hawthorne as a consultant. It’s not the first time the Yard has turned to him. Because he’s brilliant. But Hawthorne is a piece of work, secretive and disagreeable, with only rough edges showing. He was himself a detective at the Yard but lost the job years ago under murky circumstances.

As Hawthorne’s investigation begins, he approaches Horowitz with a strange proposal. For Horowitz is to shadow him and write a book about how he solves the case. But the writer is extremely reluctant. Hawthorne is prickly and demanding. At length, though, Horowitz agrees. Their uneasy partnership is born.

Unfortunately, the press gets wind of the case, and it soon starts hitting the front pages. Because Diana’s son is Damian Cowper, an A-list actor who’s living and working in Hollywood. And there will surely be a massive crush by reporters and fans when he shows up for the funeral.

Photo of fans crowding hearses at a celebrity funeral in London like the one for the victim in this novel about odd couple detectives
A crush of fans at a celebrity funeral in London. Perhaps a scene like this took place when Diana Cowper’s famous actor son turned up at her funeral. Image: Yahoo

Complications galore, and a clueless author who gets everything wrong

Hawthorne works methodically, chasing clues through the hidden corners of his suspects’ lives. The father of the boy Diana killed. Her own son. The maid who discovered the body. Even the undertaker. And everywhere he uncovers family secrets, buried guilt, and abiding grievances,

Meanwhile, Horowitz knows he can’t write about Hawthorne unless he knows at least a little about him. But the detective is a closed book. He doggedly refuses to disclose anything about his past, least of all how and why he lost his job at the Yard. For the author, it’s intensely frustrating. And he’s under pressure from his agent and his publisher to deliver on other books he’s got under contract. Somehow, though, he can’t drop the investigation. It’s gotten under his skin.

The Word is Murder is an intriguing blend of fact with fiction. As he follows the unfolding of this whodunit, Horowitz writes about real people and genuine details from his own life. And he ends the book with a supremely satisfying twist.

About the author

Photo of Anthony Horowitz, author of this novel about odd couple detectives
Anthony Horowitz. Image: IMdB

English novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz has written 50 mysteries for children and 16 for adults as well as numerous collections of short stories and other works of fiction. He was also the screenwriter for 14 television series, including Foyle’s War, Magpie Murders, and Midsomer Murders. To date, there are six novels in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series. He has won numerous awards for his writing and was knighted with an OBE.

Horowitz was born in Middlesex, England, in 1955. He graduated from the University of York with a degree in English literature and art history. He’s married and the father of two sons. Horowitz lives with his wife in London.

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