Anthony Horowitz: The Sentence is Death, Cornerstone, Random House UK,

9781780897097, hardback,

 

Anthony Horowitz is such a very clever writer! What distinguishes this mystery from many others is the special tongue in cheek approach the author came up with blending his real life persona into a murder mystery. Like himself in real life, Anthony is a screenplay writer for the film industry having written the screenplay for “Foyle’s War” and successful teenage fiction, just as his alter ego in the book. “The Sentence is Death” is the second book in the series, “The word is murder” the first, became an instant bestseller.

Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his side kick, a writer named Anthony, are called in by the police to assist in the investigation of the murder of Richard Pryce, a successful divorce lawyer of the rich and famous, who has been bludgeoned to death by a 2000 $ bottle of red wine which is especially puzzling since he never drink. Equally puzzling are the 3 numbers painted on his living room wall which the killer left? When they interview his husband who was away on the day of the murder, they discover that their last conversation was interrupted by a doorbell ringing and Pryce saying “You shouldn’t be here, it is too late” indicating that he must have known his murderer.

I will not go deeper into this excellent, very clever mystery with plenty of twists and turns, one being a second mysterious death which Anthony and Daniel Hawthorne believe is connected to Richard Pryce. “The Sentence is Death” will not let you down, an ace murder mystery!

For German readers: the first book in the series is called “Ein perfider Plan” with a publication date of March 2019 by Insel Verlag. Obviously the pub date of the second book which I just read is even further away.