coolreads# A Line to Kill @definitelybooks

A Line to Kill
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Publisher: Century
ISBN: 9781529124316

British author Anthony Horowitz’s latest offering, A Line to Kill, is a sequel to The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death. This third entry in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series follows narrator Anthony Horowitz as he accompanies former Detective Daniel Hawthorne to a literary festival.

Horowitz has expressed no desire to accompany Hawthorne anywhere, so when he agrees to write one more book about the detective, his publisher asks him to spend quality time with his subject and gather material at the same time.

The fact is, Horowitz doesn’t like Hawthorne as a person. He finds the detective too pedestrian, and too dull. He doesn’t have a graceful way of talking to people the way the author does. And the destination of the book festival is hardly appealing. The Channel Island of Alderney measures a mere three square miles. Its population hardly merits a literary festival. The narrator is so unenthusiastic that he retreats to his room at the Braye Beach Hotel, leaving Hawthorne to make friends with the other participants.

Horowitz naps through the festival’s opening talk, but he does attend the reception offered by the festival’s patron, Charles le Mesurier. A gracious host, but due to his aspirations for the island’s potential pipeline, Charles has made many enemies.  Horowitz realises that Hawthorne also has a sworn enemy of his own on the island. Once, while Derek Abbott was being questioned for wrongdoing at the police station, it appeared that Hawthorne accidentally pushed him down the stairs. Now that Abbott is out of jail, Hawthorne's visit to the island is timed so that he can track Abbott down.

The grandiose reception is a departure from a normal literary festival when the host is found dead and tied to a chair.

Now that there has been a murder, the island becomes a version of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians. The murderer is among them so none of the festival participants are allowed to leave. And each author is ready to accuse the next.

Local authority Deputy Chief Jonathan Torode steps in to conduct his investigation, but since there have never been any murders on Alderney, it becomes a challenge for him and his men. Hawthorne is then roped in to help conduct the investigation.

Meanwhile, Hawthorne would be conducting his own investigation on the sly. And  our narrator tags along, riding on his coattails.

But not all the islanders are happy to have Hawthorne’s help. Horowitz agrees with the islander’s assessment, but unfortunately, he’s a captive too - both of the island and Hawthorne’s allure.

And during the investigation, Hawthorne is always a step ahead of Horowitz, as they close in on the murderer. The antics of the odd couple add up to a romp around an island where even the taxi driver seems a likely suspect.

As we dive more deeply into the story, we find that none of the characters has a simple history. They’ve known one another for a lifetime, so they all have ties and alliances to one another. And also secrets.

For the reader, unfolding the mystery is like unwrapping a present that has been concealed in multiple layers. We’re on a pleasant ride throughout Alderney until we slide into the final solution at the end. 

Like any good mystery, Anthony Horowitz's A Line to Kill has a gripping story, quirky characters, a twisty plot, an enigmatic detective and a memorable setting. But it also has something else - sly humour.