The Twist of a Knife

I love this author’s adult work, especially his Atticus Pünd mysteries, in which he inserts a book within a book. The Twist of a Knife is a good old-fashioned crime/detective mystery in which the main character is a semi-fictionalized version of the author who teams up with an enigmatic detective to solve crimes in London.

Not only are many of the settings familiar to me, but Horowitz also loves wordplay and puns, and often anagrams provide clues to unravel the mystery.

It is the fourth in a series and I am excited to learn that a new one is on… show more.

A long-time fan of brilliant television scripts by Anthony Horowitz—Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, etc.—I became besotted with his mystery novels on first reading Magpie Murders. Thus, the moment my favorite mystery bookshop notified me that Horowitz’s latest whodunit was available for pre-order, I reserved my copy! 

The Twist of a Knife is the fourth in a series featuring Daniel Hawthorne as the astute private detective and Anthony Horowitz, himself, narrating as the hapless sidekick and chronicler of their crime-solving escapades. Last fall, while awaiting the new book’s arrival, I re-read the earlier books full of witty… show more.

Leave it to Horowitz to come up with a brilliantly new approach to a mystery plot. I thought his Magpie Murders would be the limit, I was wrong. Here he is again. 

This time the crime is the murder of a literary critic who wrote a review that would make any author cry with shame, anger, and rage. But, the catch is that it was a review of a play by the author himself, that is, Horowitz. Yes, the urge that an author might have of wanting to wring the neck of a critic is actually lived out in this… show more.

Horowitz knows how to write a mystery. The fun twist he includes in these books is that he’s the sidekick in each mystery.

This is a fast-paced read with interesting characters and lots of Agatha Christie vibes. The author himself is the lead suspect in the murder. Always an engaging read from Horowitz.

This one takes place in London, a city I love and have visited many times, but there’s a bigger reason I enjoy this mystery so much.

Horowitz tackles the writing world as only he can do, with himself as the protagonist, addressing aspects big and small that every writer today will find familiar. And when the murder occurs—well, all I can say is you’ll have to read it.

He calls in his own character Daniel Hawthorne to help. As a mystery writer, I find that so appealing!

In the fourth book in A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery, Horowitz himself becomes the suspect. How has an author not thought of this before? Horowitz masterfully ties together other stories from the series and throws the reader into the path of red herrings, twists and turns as they experience a true whodunnit mystery. I highly recommend you read this book, but do so after you devour the first three. The Twist of a Knife is a magnificent novel that fans of true mystery novels will love.