The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz

Rating: ✫✫✫✫

Having read 'Magpie Murders' by Anthony Horowitz previously (and loved it), I was really excited to start reading 'The Word is Murder'. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. Although I will say that I found the whole thing a bit bizarre, and I had to wrap my head around the whole premise behind the plot before I could really allow myself to get engrossed by it.

Introduction

Diana Cowper walks into a funeral parlour one day and arranges her own funeral. Only a few hours later, she is found murdered in her own home, begging the question: are the two incidents related?

Aiding the police in their enquiries is Hawthorne, an ex-detective who left the police amidst mysterious circumstances. He approaches author Anthony Horowitz, who agrees to follow the case and write a book on the resulting investigation. But as the case unravels, more murders follow, Hawthorne and Horowitz clash, and a decade old accident comes back to haunt all involved.

If you open this book expecting just your average murder mystery, you'd be in for a surprise. Horowitz inserts himself as a character in his own book, blurring the lines between fiction and reality, and making for a unique investigation.

*spoilers ahead*

Plot and Structure

Well. This is such an interesting idea that Horowitz had. It's not every author who could insert themselves as a character in their own book, and succeed in maintaining the fluidity of a successful mystery. I loved the premise, although it did take me a while to get my head around what possible impact this may have on the plot. It's difficult to be as forgiving to a character's potential flaws when you know that they are a real person.

That being said, although it's a very unusual concept to get to grips with (especially when Horowitz makes repeated references to reality), it's written in such a way that it isn't actually complicated at all. The plot is very well set up from the very beginning, and it soon feels very natural that Horowitz stars as a main character.

It helps that this whole premise is established beautifully in the initial chapters.  The first few pages seem like just another murder mystery, and it isn't until you've finished reading this first chapter that you realise that in your hands is the very book that Horowitz has been asked to write by the character of Hawthorne. This fact is amusingly referenced soon after, when Hawthorne criticizes the first chapter that Horowitz has written for their book; the chapter that we, as the readers, realise we have just read. I do feel that this trick really helped to engage the reader in the story, and the beginning of the book wouldn't have been as successful without it.

If there was one detail about this unusual idea that I disliked, it was the sections of the story where Horowitz discussed the book with his 'real-life' literary agent (for want of a better phrase). I do understand that Horowitz was finding different ways of reinforcing the blur between reality and fiction, as well as making the narrative as believable as possible, but this felt a little forced, and I don't really believe it was needed.

✼

It is, of course, also important to consider this book on the merit of it's plot, and not just for the unusual nature of Horowitz' story. In my opinion, the plot was very clever, carefully considered, and well paced, and this made for an easy to read and engaging story. I loved the connection that Horowitz made between the murder of Diana Cowper and the traffic accident almost a decade before. It was well set up so that there was never any confusion over the essential plot points, or why they were important. It's so difficult to keep so many characters in check, not to mention all the details of the investigation, and Horowitz maintains a good balance throughout the entire book so that the reader never feels lost.

There wasn't a moment in the entire book when I felt bored, or felt that the plot needed anything extra. When I reached the turning point where it was revealed that Alan Godwin and Mary O'Brien had been having an affair, I realised it was the perfect timing for such major plot advancement. If the book had gone on for much longer with Hawthorne keeping schtum and Horowitz grasping at straws, I may have started to find my interest waning. Yet Horowitz knew exactly how long to keep the reader in the dark, and when it was time to send the story in the direction of his action-packed ending. Once you saw that the traffic accident wasn't quite as it had been portrayed by all of the characters, it really opened up the field for a shocking reveal. I also really appreciated the little hints that led up to that moment. The mysterious man at the chemist, the burst pipe at the ice-cream parlour, and one of the twins calling out 'Daddy' from the road - all were put there for the reader to take notice of, but it wasn't until Hawthorne presented the theory in that scene that the significance of all was really realised. That's the beauty of a great murder mystery, and Horowitz nailed it.

That moment was a clear catalyst for the story, and the finale comes very quickly after that. I read a lot of murder mysteries, so I'm very naturally suspicious of every character put down on paper. But I'm happy to admit that I didn't see this solution coming. No tricks were used against the reader, no clues were distorted, and all was there for us to see. Yet I'd be surprised if anybody guessed the murderer and their motive. Yes, the ending was a bit extravagant, and a little cliché, but I for one enjoyed it. And I loved the little nod from Horowitz' editor in the book, who confessed that it would make an impressive ending for a novel...

The Characters

I mentioned in my last review that there weren't enough characters to really constitute a good murder mystery. This definitely wasn't the case with 'The Word is Murder'. On the contrary, I found that Horowitz chose a great selection of characters to put into his story. It is so easy to throw too many characters at a mystery in the name of a red herring, but Horowitz kept a good balance. This had just the right amount of contenders, and a great range of personalities for the reader to consider. From the undertakers at the funeral parlour to the fractured Godwin family; from the dramatic Damien and Grace, to the difficult to make out character of the original victim Diana Cowper. I must say Damien Cowper and Grace Lovell were, in my opinion, particularly well constructed. They just are, in essence, two people putting on a performance for Hawthorne. You got the measure of them immediately without being able to give any specific reason why. (It's definitely worth adding that I felt a little stab of victory when the arrogant Damien Cowper was eliminated.)

On that front, I thought the characterisation was great. You were never lost or confused with this cast. The real problem I had through a lot of the book was the main characters of Hawthorne and Horowitz. I appreciated immediately that these were two characters with the potential to make great leads. What I mean is that I often found it quite difficult to like them. 

Horowitz relates very early in the book that it is the details of a detective that really allow the reader to connect with them. For example, knowing the background, hobbies, or struggles of a detective make them more real, and more endearing to a reader. I have never felt this to be the case more keenly than in this book. The character of Hawthorne was so disconnected from the entire plot that it was difficult to engage with him for a lot of the book. I would understand it if this forced anonymity led to an enormous character development where Hawthorne reveals a great deal of endearing qualities later on. I was actually waiting for this to happen, but I was to be disappointed. We never seem to find out anything about Hawthorne except that he is in a book club (for which the details remain a mystery), and that he lives in an apartment that isn't even his. How appropriate. 

Let's also take a second to talk about the blatant homophobia that Hawthorne projects. Again, I was expecting for this detail to lead somewhere, and have some significance somewhere down the line. Apparently not. Apparently Hawthorne is just homophobic. Not the most endearing quality to give your main character; incidentally, a main character who has very few endearing qualities as it is. Don't get me wrong, there was a part of me that really appreciated Hawthorne as a character. The strong and silent type who is reluctant to get into personal details and lives for his career. The problem is that there comes a point when this just gets boring. I really wish the author had given him a little more character development so that I wouldn't have needed to feel so disappointed.

I also had a tendency to get slightly irritated by the character of Horowitz himself. There are not many writers who could place themselves in such a dynamic story and not make themselves a hero. For that, he is to be commended, for he allows himself to be two paces behind Hawthorne for the entire plot. Yet I found that the character of Horowitz was often quite difficult to relate to. There was such an awful lot of push and pull by Horowitz on whether or not he would continue to work with Hawthorne. He went back and forth so often that after the first couple of these occasions, it started to be just quite annoying. It was only right at the very end of the story that the two main characters seemed to click. That's a lot of plot to go through with two characters who were outwardly hostile towards each other.

The Verdict

My overall verdict on 'The Word is Murder' is very positive. Anthony Horowitz is such a clever writer that you know you're in for a treat when you pick up one of his books. I did enjoy 'The Magpie Murders' more, but I do also think that a lot of that is down to my personal taste rather than because the essential points of the book weren't as good. Horowitz does something different every time, and, as a whole, this was a very successful book in my eyes.

The plot was clearly very well thought out, and I do think the wide range of well-written characters helped to balance the story out as a whole. Fast-paced and with every slight detail given just the right amount of emphasis, this really was an enjoyable journey for the reader. When each key part of the solution was revealed, it really did feel like a little lightbulb being lit above my head as I realised what I had overlooked. 

I did find it difficult, on occasion, to connect with the main characters. It seemed like there could have been so much more character development that would have resulted in much more engaging protagonists. I understand that Horowitz is intending this to be the first in a series of books starring Hawthorne, so I am optimistic that we will see this character development in future books. Knowing the care with which Horowitz puts into writing his books, I find it hard to believe that this isn't the case. I can well imagine that he is holding back crucial details for a later date; details which will make it all so much clearer why Hawthorne is so difficult to relate to on this initial occasion.

I am keen to reserve judgement until I have read more in this series (if it does become a series), but at the moment I do think that perhaps the book would be better as a standalone novel. The long drawn out friction between Hawthorne and Horowitz could have done with being eased much earlier on in this initial outing. I find it difficult to imagine a series where these two characters hold it together for long enough to solve more cases without me getting irritated by them.

Overall, in this venture alone, there were areas that I feel could have been improved. Yet the overwhelming merits of the novel, especially the carefully detailed plot and narrative, overshadow these flaws and make it a book that I would eagerly recommend.