The Word Is Murder

She planned her own funeral. But did she arrange her own murder? Buried secrets, murder and a trail of bloody clues lie at the heart of Anthony Horowitz's page-turning Hawthorne and Horowitz detective series. 'Easily the greatest of our crime writers' Sunday Times ‘An absolutely wonderful writer’ Richard Osman ____________ A woman is strangled six hours after organising her own funeral. Did she know she was going to die? Did she recognise her killer? Enter Daniel Hawthorne, a detective with a genius for solving crimes and an ability to hold secrets very close. With him is his writing partner, Anthony Horowitz. Together they will set out to solve his most puzzling of mysteries. What neither of them know is that they are about to embark on a dark and dangerous journey whether the twists and turns are as unexpected as they are bloody. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, A Deadly Episode is an intriguing page-turner that once again demonstrates why Anthony Horowitz is the reigning king of the modern whodunit. ____________ Praise for The Word is Murder: 'Raises the game-playing to Olympic level' Guardian Books of the Year ' Thoroughly entertaining, witty , and a skilfully constructed murder mystery' 5-star reader review 'A real page-turner. I loved it!' Aled Jones 'Horowitz blurs the line between fact and fiction' Financial Times 'Splendidly entertaining, absorbing and difficult to put down. Hawthorne is an intriguing character' Daily Express 'So engrossing and fantastic !' 5-star reader review 'Deduction and wit are well-balanced, and fans of Peter Lovesey and other modern channelers of the spirit of the golden age of detection will clamor for more' Publishers Weekly

She planned her own funeral. But did she arrange her own murder? Buried secrets, murder and a trail of bloody clues lie at the heart of Anthony Horowitz's page-turning Hawthorne and Horowitz detective series. 'Easily the greatest of our crime writers' Sunday Times ‘An absolutely wonderful writer’ Richard Osman ____________ A woman is strangled six hours after organising her own funeral. Did she know she was going to die? Did she recognise her killer? Enter Daniel Hawthorne, a detective with a genius for solving crimes and an ability to hold secrets very close. With him is his writing partner, Anthony Horowitz. Together they will set out to solve his most puzzling of mysteries. What neither of them know is that they are about to embark on a dark and dangerous journey whether the twists and turns are as unexpected as they are bloody. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, A Deadly Episode is an intriguing page-turner that once again demonstrates why Anthony Horowitz is the reigning king of the modern whodunit. ____________ Praise for The Word is Murder: 'Raises the game-playing to Olympic level' Guardian Books of the Year ' Thoroughly entertaining, witty , and a skilfully constructed murder mystery' 5-star reader review 'A real page-turner. I loved it!' Aled Jones 'Horowitz blurs the line between fact and fiction' Financial Times 'Splendidly entertaining, absorbing and difficult to put down. Hawthorne is an intriguing character' Daily Express 'So engrossing and fantastic !' 5-star reader review 'Deduction and wit are well-balanced, and fans of Peter Lovesey and other modern channelers of the spirit of the golden age of detection will clamor for more' Publishers Weekly

"One of the most entertaining mysteries of the year. It's also one of the most stimulating, as it ponders such questions as: Which is of greater interest to the reader, the crime or the detective? And: Is the pencil truly mightier than the butcher knife?" -- Wall Street Journal New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty , Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes. A woman crosses a London street. It is just after 11 a.m. on a bright spring morning, and she is going into a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later the woman is dead, strangled with a crimson curtain cord in her own home. Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric man as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. And Hawthorne has a partner, the celebrated novelist Anthony Horowitz, curious about the case and looking for new material. As brusque, impatient, and annoying as Hawthorne can be, Horowitz--a seasoned hand when it comes to crime stories--suspects the detective may be on to something, and is irresistibly drawn into the mystery. But as the case unfolds, Horowitz realizes that he's at the center of a story he can't control, and his brilliant partner may be hiding dark and mysterious secrets of his own.