THE SENTENCE IS DEATH

5 stars out of 5

Jolly good fun!


The more books I read by this author, the more of them I want to read. No matter who's involved - Sherlock Holmes, James Bond or, in this instance, the author himself - they're clever, witty and thoroughly engrossing. Throw in a little murder, and it  just doesn't get better than that. 

This one is the second in what I presume will be an ongoing series featuring rather obnoxious private detective Daniel Hawthorne. Horowitz, known as "Tony" to Hawthorne, is the writer of a popular TV series titled "Foyle's War" (one of his real-life accomplishments, by the way) and somewhat reluctantly teams up with the fictional Hawthorne when the latter is called in by the police to help solve a crime. He's also writing a three-book series about Hawthorne, for which he's got a contract even though the first one has yet to be published. Now, Anthony is working on the second - so he's taking copious notes about what happens here - starting with the murder of well-known London divorce attorney Richard Pryce.

It isn't a pretty murder; Pryce was smacked in the head numerous times with an unopened bottle of very expensive wine (and then stabbed with the broken bottle). The only clue is the number 182 that's been left on the wall with green paint from an ongoing refurbishing project. But wait, there's more: Pryce recently represented the now ex-husband of a famous writer, who wasn't happy with the outcome and threatened to hit him with a bottle of wine the last time she saw him in a local restaurant. 

For all intents and purposes, that would put her at the top of the suspect list. Hawthorne, though, isn't convinced. He's eager to start investigating, with Anthony's help, of course - but the local police, led by irascible Detective Investigator Cara Grunshaw, are determined to get the credit for solving the crime and insist that the "outsiders" keep them informed and stay out of their way.

Shortly thereafter, another man dies as a result of falling in front of an oncoming train - possibly an accident, possibly a suicide and possibly a murder. After a bit of sleuthing, a connection between him and the wine bottle victim turns up - together with the death of a third man some years earlier. But does that connection have any real meaning, or is it just happenstance? At that point I had no idea, but fittingly, one of my favorite quotes from one of the late Ian Fleming's Goldfinger popped into my head: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times it's enemy action."

Now that I do know, of course, I'm not saying anything except that I really, really enjoyed this book. Hearty thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz (Harper, May 2019); 384 pp.