Anthony Horowitz, the successful British mystery writer, turns himself into a fictional character in his popular Daniel Hawthorne series of novels. The third book in the series, “A Line to Kill” (2021), proves as pleasing as the others.

Hawthorne is a former police investigator who lost his job after being suspected of pushing a crime suspect down a flight of stairs. Yet because he is such a better detective than those on the force, he is called in to assist with tough cases. Horowitz plays the role of Hawthorne's bumbling Watson who tags along to observe and eventually write about the investigator's brilliance.

This time the pair are invited to a book festival on the island of Alderney, where residents brag there has never been a murder. Yet there are two puzzling murders during the few days they are on the island. Why anyone would commit a murder while a famous detective is on the scene is one mystery that remains unsolved in this novel.

The guests at this festival become suspects after a wealthy party host is found stabbed to death. Later the body of his wife is found. Yet the main suspect appears to be a man named Derek Abbott, the very man, a suspected dealer in kiddie porn, whom Hawthorne supposedly pushed down those stairs. Yet this seems too easy, both for the reader and for Horowitz, who wonders if he can even turn this case into a book.

The final solution, of course, proves more interesting and more satisfying, thanks to Hawthorne's brilliance as a detective and Horowitz's brilliance as a writer. ( )

I'd ay it's a bit weaker than previous books, but still deliciously good :) ( )

Another pure mystery, though that doesn't become apparent until nearly a quarter or the way through. I enjoyed more personal revelations from the detective, though the author continues to be bumbling. ( )

Just like the previous books, The Word Is Murder and The Sentence Is Death, this is a modern version of a classic detective story. I went in knowing what to expect, got exactly what I expected :)... and flew through the book in one day. "A Line to Kill" felt (imho) like a darker tale - less postmodernism and more wickedness than other books in the series.
I enjoyed watching this unlikely pair of sleuths, Hawthorne and Horowitz, making their way through yet another investigation. There are still mysteries concerning Hawthorne that have not been resolved, are they being saved for the fourth book? ( )

A bit too meta for me…
Anthony Horowitz crafts a closed room mystery set on an island (one that sounds rather charming and makes me want to visit) involving a book festival, plots for financial windfalls, and gambling, but it isn’t persuasive. He is writing as himself, the writer, working with a fictional detective to solve the mystery. There are almost too many reasons for the victims to be murdered and the red herrings are literally flying, but the final resolution is unsatisfying. I don’t understand the detective’s nature- he’s mysterious and cranky and unlikeable, doing a lot of the detective stuff in the background despite a lack of support for same. It just seems too self-referential, too. Makes me dislike the author.
The writing is, of course, excellent, and the story flows along, just as you’d expect from this best-selling author, but the characters are weak and too easy to figure out. And I think it is a mistake to put himself into the story- it’s cheesy and a bit lazy.
Horowitz is known for his unusual mysteries (Magpie murders, for ex) and I was fully hoping to enjoy this one, but for me it’s more like a standard cozy. All that’s missing is the cat to solve things. ( )