The Sentence Is Death (Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery #2) by Anthony Horowitz #BookReview #MysteryThriller #CrimeThriller #Detective #Series — Rain’n’books

My Rating

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Book Review

Anthony Horowitz writes with a peculiar charm, wherein I feel that sometimes it is easy not be taken in by his storytelling but other times makes me feel all the high you get reading an Agatha Christie or Sherlock Homes novel.

Hawthorne and Horowitz’s series is a set of books wherein the author is himself a narrator and part of the murder mystery, a la Watson to Holmes. He accompanies ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne to his cases and turns them into a kind of true-crime story. Horowitz has this self-deprecating humor he has mastered excellently. More often than not, one can see how he talks about being seen by the world as an author of children’s books rather than an author who writes excellent mystery thrillers too.

The Sentence Is Death has the author crafting another convoluted and confounding murder mystery and just like our good old Mr. Poirot’s Hastings offering up theories to solve the crime, the reader along with Horowitz can try solving this mystery after all the leading players are in and the clues are visible and we all have some modicum of intelligence isn’t it?? Honestly, I had such fun doing the same as Horowitz in the story trying out the different scenarios and motives that can be worked out to crack the puzzle but Hawthorne of course justifies why he is called a special consultant for a case that makes no sense whatsoever.

If you are a fan of mysteries, wherein you are happy with Poirot or Hawthorne here coming in at the culmination scene and explaining the tiny details that we all fail to catch, wherein you enjoy sitting back and allowing the author to take us for a spin, then A Sentence To Death is the one for you. This is not a high-octane action-packed thriller, there is subtle humor lightening up the story in many places, and having the author himself a character in the story means the reader is made aware of his day-to-day activities, giving us glimpses of behind the scenes of a shoot taking place, the production predicaments and all the hullabaloo that surrounds the creation of a historical setting, then, of course, the main character Hawthorne who has begun to grow on me. In the first book, I was at a loss to understand him, and not that much is explained here too, but a little more background has opened about Hawthorne, and like the story Horowitz wanting to know every bit of his backstory, the author Horowitz has clearly maintained this enigmatic mysterious persona for Hawthorne which is fantastic making the readers crave for more.

Go ahead and pick this one up and solve the murder of Richard Pryce!

The Sentence Is Death is book #2 in the Hawthorne and Horowitz mystery series perfectly good to be read as a stand alone.

Book Blurb

“You shouldn’t be here. It’s too late…”

These, heard over the phone, were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer. Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death in his bachelor pad with a bottle of wine — a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth £3,000, to be precise.

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?

Baffled, the police are forced to bring in Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne >and his sidekick, the author Anthony, who’s really getting rather good at this murder investigation business.

But as Hawthorne takes on the case with characteristic relish, it becomes clear that he, too, has secrets to hide. As our reluctant narrator becomes ever more embroiled in the case, he realises that these secrets must be exposed — even at the risk of death…

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Originally published at https://rainnbooks.com on April 7, 2023.