Anthony Horowitz has written over 50 books and 22 scripts for Foley’s War. I’m a fan of Horowitz’s Young Adult spy novel series featuring teenager Alex Rider. I’ve had The Word is Murder on my shelves since 2017 and I finally got around to reading it.

Early in the book, Horowitz (who makes himself the narrator) mentions he just wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, The House of Silk. This is a hint that the lead character in The Word is Murder–a crusty, cantankerous ex-police detective named Daniel Hawthorne–is really Sherlock Holmes in disguise. Hawthorne rubs everyone the wrong way, but he has Holmes-level observation skills and a canny sense of detection.

The Word is Murder starts out with a wealthy woman–Diana Cowper–who plans her own funeral in London and is found strangled in her home just six hours later. Acting as Watson to Hawthorne’s Holmes, Horowitz follows Hawthorne around the crime scenes with the intention to write up the murder as a True Crime book while Hawthorne pursues clues as a Police Consultant.

The Word is Murder is perfect Summer Reading. The plot is clever with plenty of twists. Horowitz and Hawthorne clash throughout the novel, but it takes both of them to solve this crime. I can’t wait to read the other mysteries in this series! GRADE: A

Hawthorne and Horowitz Mysteries:

1 The Word is Murder (2017)
2 The Sentence is Death (2018)
3 A Line to Kill (2021)
4 The Twist of a Knife (2022)
5 Close to Death (2024)
6 A Deadly Episode (2026)