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A Line to Kill

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

The New York Times bestselling author of the brilliantly inventive The Word Is Murder and The Sentence Is Death returns with his third literary whodunit featuring intrepid detectives Hawthorne and Horowitz.

"Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world." —Booklist

When Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England, they don't expect to find themselves in the middle of murder investigation—or to be trapped with a cold-blooded killer in a remote place with a murky, haunted past.

Arriving on Alderney, Hawthorne and Horowitz soon meet the festival's other guests—an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children's author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic, and a war historian—along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line.

When a local grandee is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Hawthorne and Horowitz become embroiled in the case. The island is locked down, no one is allowed on or off, and it soon becomes horribly clear that a murderer lurks in their midst. But who?

Both a brilliant satire on the world of books and writers and an immensely enjoyable locked-room mystery, A Line to Kill is a triumph—a riddle of a story full of brilliant misdirection, beautifully set-out clues, and diabolically clever denouements.

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    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2021

      It's not all fun and games when former detective inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his trusty sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, attend an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, a blissful, salt-swept island off England's south coast. The oddball guests range from a French poet to a blind psychic to a war historian, and the suspicious death of high-up local puts the island in lockdown. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      July 15, 2021
      Except for the atrocities of World War II, there hasn't been a murder on the Channel Island of Alderney from time immemorial. The staging of the Alderney Lit Fest brings that streak to a decided end. The powers that be at Penguin Random House want to send retired DI Daniel Hawthorne and Anthony Horowitz, the writer who fictionalizes the mysteries Hawthorne's solved, to Alderney. Anthony, always grousing at being treated like a second-class collaborator, is willing to go, and so, surprisingly, is the reclusive Hawthorne. The other luminaries invited to the tiny island include blind psychic Elizabeth Lovell, TV chef Marc Bellamy, war historian George Elkin, children's franchiser Anne Cleary, and French performance poet Ma�ssa Lamar. No sooner have the festivities begun than Charles le Mesurier, whose online gambling company is sponsoring them, is taped to a chair, with only his right hand left free, and stabbed to death. The limited resources and competence of the local police make the case a natural for Hawthorne, who obligingly circulates among his counterparts long enough to rattle every one of the many skeletons in their closets. But he faces a serious setback when a second murder spurs Deputy Chief Officer Jonathan Torode of Guernsey Crime Services to identify a culprit Hawthorne agrees is highly plausible. How will the great detective cope with being beaten to the punch? Fans of the author's formidable brain teasers, certain that the devil is in the details, will be a lot more confident than he is. The most conventional of Horowitz's mysteries to date still reads like a golden-age whodunit on steroids.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 2, 2021
      Bestseller Horowitz’s superior third mystery features former detective inspector Daniel Hawthorne and a fictionalized Horowitz (after 2019’s The Sentence Is Death)in an effortless blend of humor and fair play. At a literary festival on the English island of Alderney, the pair plan to promote the series of books Horowitz has been writing about Hawthorne’s homicide investigations. On Alderney, they become acquainted with the five other festival guests: “an unhealthy chef, a blind psychic, a war historian, a children’s author, a French performance poet.” One night, they all attend a party hosted by wealthy Charles le Mesurier, who gained his fortune from internet gambling and is the prime advocate for a controversial proposal to route a new electric power line linking the U.K. and France through the island. When a partygoer is found stabbed to death the next morning in an outbuilding near le Mesurier’s main house, Hawthorne helps the sparse local police force investigate. The often prickly relationship between the Watson-like Horowitz and the Holmes-like Hawthorne complements the intricate detective work worthy of a classic golden age whodunit. The author’s fans will hope this series has a long run. Agent: Jonathan Lloyd, Curtis Brown (U.K.).

    • Booklist

      September 1, 2021
      Great Agatha Christie's ghost! PI Hawthorne and novelist Horowitz (the fictional version) are trapped on an island with an eccentric group of writers. The oddly dynamic duo return for their third adventure (after The Sentence Is Death, 2019), and this time they travel together to Alderney, in the Channel Islands, for what is billed as an exclusive literary festival. Turns out, not all that exclusive. A popular blind psychic, a TV chef, an aging children's author, a somewhat tedious historian, and a suspiciously behaved (and plagiaristic) poet round out the talent, along with Horowitz and PI Hawthorne, about whom Horowitz is writing a true-crime book. They find a grim welcome from a place riddled with reminders of its WWII occupation by the Nazis, and also in turmoil over a hotly contested power line that will boost the island's economy but ruin the landscape. The man behind the development is the "uniquely offensive" Charles le Mesurier. When he turns up dead, no one is surprised. Or sorry. Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world. The versatile Horowitz (the real-life version) has produced more than 45 novels, and his fans await each new arrival with bated breath.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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