The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz (Book)

The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz. Raise your hand if you are that dear friend who gifted me this book :) being my secret Santa this year :). My second Anthony Horowitz in last few months and I must say it was quite entertaining. Also, its been a while that I read a Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie which are always super fun to read. No comparisons, he isn't a quarter as classy as the masters but from what I have read of the current generation of detective story writers, Tony definitely stands out in giving a book which was almost 80% fun, he went overboard in the ending, over-stretch in my opinion and definitely shot down an additional star in rating for his own book. What I loved about the book is its first person narrative where the author decides or rather forced (in a very charming and convincing way) to write a book on a jobless detective who happens to be an ex cop from Metropolitan Police in London. It was a breeze to read (with 400 pages) and his love and respect for Doyle and Christie was totally evident by the way he gushes over their works and proudly states that Doyle's estate has actually approached him to write a few Sherlock Holmes stories. I will be looking forward to Tony's story once I am done with a collection of Doyle very shortly. Also, it was super fun to read his ramblings on some of the terrific movie makers who adapted some of the fantastic works from the acclaimed literary works and end up making some amazing movies of our times. Imagine Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson making a guest appearance in the story :) it doubles up the already going fun. Anthony Horowitz is totally in awe of Shakespeare and the entire story revolves around his books and stories. I sincerely wished I had read some of them before reading this, it would have made so much more fun. Daniel Hawthorne is a recluse, out of job private detective, an ex cop who has solved a number of crime cases in the past and have helped the police department on and off. He has his own style of dealing with the crime scenes as well his counterparts from the departments and criminals too (once he solves the investigation). He makes an offer to write a book on one of his on going cases to Anthony Horowitz, who he refers to as Tony in his own sweet way. Anthony's dislike towards Hawthorne from the very start works like a charm right from the very start and as they develop a little of much awaited repo in their own sweet time is the best part of the book. Why Tony is forced to write the book and how the plot develops and heads for the (derailed) finale, although the ending didn't impressed me much after a superb start of the story of a woman who plans her own funeral and unfortunately gets killed the same day, exactly 6 hours after she finalizes her own funeral plan. She has a background too where she is involved in an accident some 10 year ago where she had hit a set of kids, where one dies and the other is crippled for life. Separated from her own husband, her son is a film star in Hollywood who has his own agenda. Other than Hawthorne's character and Author's, it was Damien the son shines in the story big time. The character is written in such an amazing way that I actually had to Google to find out if it was based on a real person. The doubt falls on so many people who may have killed her, from her husband to the bereaved parents to the surviving kid who is now an adult yet dependent on a full time maid. On top of all that Hawthorne is chasing the criminal in his own way while Tony has to shadow him to keep collecting the data for his book which he totally doesn't like the way he gets no help from the sleuth in the first place. The way author does his own research on the mad-man, reason why he does that plus how his agent and wife are responding to his current situation, it all keeps getting better by the chapter. Characters keep making an entry at a superb pace and the list keeps growing for the reader on who we have the doubt to be the killer and the reason behind. A big positive for me for this or Tony's previous book which I loved and his future ones that I now look forward would be his ramblings and non-stop commentary. I totally loved the way he not only convinces himself that he is doing the things right way but also keeps the reader hooked and convinced (by having our assurance in his own way) that he actually made me like the final outcome of Hawthorne's character. This is one of those very few books which did not work for me in totality but it did gave me an amazing character(s) to look forward to in his future works. Have you read "The Word is Murder"? Do let me know how you like it if you have and if you haven't, do tell me which is your favorite Anthony Horowitz book, I would love to give it a read.