Book cover of The Word is Murder

Book description

'EASILY THE GREATEST OF OUR CRIME WRITERS' Sunday Times

Chosen as one of Crime Time's books of the year! If you enjoyed BBC's Sherlock, you'll LOVE The Word is Murder.
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Buried secrets, murder and a trail of bloody clues lie at the heart of Anthony Horowitz's page-turning new detective…

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Why read it?

3 authors picked The Word is Murder as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I read a lot of these kinds of books and this was the best of its kind this year. I loved the twists and also the characters.

Aside from this being a fun little, twisty murder, what drew me to this book is the clever way Horowitz presents it.

Horowitz narrates it using his real-life background, so the plot feels like non-fiction: this story of a writer getting sucked into a murder by way of documenting the investigator, Hawthorne. It’s a brilliant way of telling a story, and I love (or maybe hate) the other protagonist, Hawthorne. The battle of wits between the protagonists is almost as fun (honestly, maybe more so) as their race to solve the mystery.

I picked up this book based on a…

Another writer-hero, Anthony Horowitz writes as himself in this page-turning whodunit. Well-known for his television work on Midsomer Murders, Poirot, and Foyle’s War, Horowitz knows how to craft a mystery. When ex-cop turned private investigator Nathaniel Hawthorne approaches Horowitz about ghostwriting a book about his cases, Horowitz isn’t interested. Annoying and eccentric, Hawthorne isn’t someone Horowitz wants to be around, let alone write about. But when a famous actor’s wealthy mother is murdered six hours after planning her own funeral, Horowitz gets pulled into the investigation anyway. Though very much a Sherlock Holmes and Watson relationship, Hawthorne…

From Jessica's list on mystery featuring everyday heroes.

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Murder on Book Row by Joseph D'Agnese,

She sells books, eats well, and has a very large brain. Criminals fear her.

Meet Beatrice Valentine, a larger-than-life bookshop owner with a penchant for three things in abundance—delicious Italian food, vino, and murder. For decades, she has sold used and rare books from her stylish-but-cluttered domain on New York…

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