Dangerous Relations

"This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace!"

"Dead Parrot"  (Monty Python sketch)

This is probably the most 'recent' English-language novel I've ever read for the blog, as in closest to the original year of release...

Anthony Horowitz is the writer of the succesful YA novel series Alex Rider and screenwriter for television dramas like Foyle's War and Agatha Christie's Poirot, but this time, Anthony is working on something new. He has a contract to write three books based on the real cases of Daniel Hawthorne, a private investigator who is also occasionally hired by the authorities when the case seems too difficult for the 'normal' detectives. The idea is that Anthony sticks with Hawthorne as he investigates a case and then writes a novel based on what happened. But Anthony's already having regrets after their first case together. Hawthorne is indeed a very talented investigator, but he also happens to be absolutely insuffurable, rude and manipulative. But Anthony's already signed for three cases, so he could hardly say no when Hawthorne told Anthony he was now working on a new case and that he should come along. This time Hawthorne and Anthony are after the murderer of Richard Pryce, a famed divorce lawyer who was found dead in his home, his head bashed in with a wine bottle and his neck stabbed with the shards of said wine bottle. And to finish it off, the number 182 was painted on the wall besides the body. The main suspect is the poet/writer Akira Anno, who was the counter-party in Pryce's most recent divorce case: making death threats with a wine bottle in a restaurant a week before the man is actually killed by a wine bottle is of course a valid reason to be suspected. But as Hawthorne and Anthony poke around, they find that more people may have wanted Richard Pryce out of the way in Anthony Horowitz' The Sentence is Death (2018).

In case you're confused: Anthony Horowitz is indeed using himself as the narrator/Watson in the Daniel Hawthorne series, and it is filled with semi-autobiographical elements. This book for example opens with Horowitz on a location shooting for Foyle's War and talking about all the things that could go wrong (and do go wrong) when writing scenes to shoot and how hard it is to get anything filmed in London. I guess your mileage may vary on this plot device. I myself don't know Horowitz' work very well (just from his screenplays for Agatha Christie's Poirot), but I guess that for fans it's interesting to see the autobiographical elements weaven into the story, while others might be bothered by this writer who keeps going on about himself and all the books he has written and all the success he has garnered. Thinking about it, I don't think I have read many mystery stories that involve the actual writer. Writers like Ellery Queen, Arisugawa Alice and Norizuki Rintarou do use characters with the same name, but they are not really the same people as the actual authors. I remember Ayatsuji Yukito's short story collection Dondonbashi ga Ochita had segments connecting the various stories about Ayatsuji being visited and challenged by a younger self (including references to Ayatsuji's career until then), but those segments were just there to act as a bridge.

The Sentence is Death is the second novel in the Daniel Hawthorne series, after The Word is Murder. And for some reason, I started with The Sentence is Death first, even though I actually have The Word is Murder lying around. I always seem to be reading series out of order. Anyway, I found The Sentence is Death to be a mystery novel that is pleasant to read, even if the core mystery plot is a tad simpler than I personally had wanted to see. In that sense, I think it does feel like a story that'd work better for a television drama episode, which has a more limited runtime and where it's usually harder to involve a really complex plot. The build-up of the story is basically The Standard Mystery Formula: everyone Hawthorne and Anthony meet will have some suspicious points to them, and when they dig around a bit the two find out everyone had a motive for wanting the victim out of the way and ultimately the least suspicious person (but not really) turns out to be the surprising murderer. I may sound quite negative here, but what I want to say is that The Sentence is Death will certainly not surprise you in general with what happens, but that the writing style (the narration of Anthony) is definitely pleasant enough to never make it feel like a chore. Scenes follow each other in rapid succession, and while you can tell ahead that you'll be going through everyone's secrets which ultimately will have absolutely nothing to do with the case, it's at least pleasant to read through. It could've been a much more tedious-feeling novel very easily.

Once you cut through the smokescreen, the core mystery plot of The Sentence is Death is fairly lean, even if it has a few fun surprises. There are a couple of false solutions that may surprise the uninitated reader, though I think more experienced readers will quickly realize how weak the foundations for those false solutions are. The clewing that points to the true murderer is okay-ish, I guess? I have never been a fan of the type of clue that shows you something, and then at the conclusion say ''well, it was obvious that X was actually Y and that of course points to character Z." In this case, the sighting of a person with a torch near the crime site functions as such a clue among aothers, and the story then basically tells you "well, anyone would've guessed that the person with a torch was actually OOO", but no, that's not what truly good clewing is, even if OOO is mentioned. There are some other clues I liked a lot better, like something mentioned in a stream-of-thought piece of dialogue that turns out to widen the number of suspects who could've committed the murder. Also the true meaning of the number 182 on the wall for example is ridiculous, and not even in a good way. It feels like nothing but a decorative plot point, which ultimately has no good in-universe reason to exist, just a clue that sounds and looks good because it's a murder case and everything, but it doesn't really add to the core plot and doesn't feel natural at all.

Over the course of the novel, Anthony will also try to learn more about Hawthorne and his private life. I guess this is the overall storyline of the series and that more will be revealed in the third/probably final book of the series, but it wasn't really a plotpoint that really interested me. Perhaps if I had read things in order first, but Hawthorne himself isn't really a character interesting enough to make me want to know more about him, and this hinting at 'there's more to him than meets the eye' still doesn't do much for me.

In general, I found The Sentence is Death to be harmless, if I had to choose a word. It is a pleasant read, but the general going-ons will feel very familiar in and despite some neat clues here and there, I found the core mystery plot to be competent, but nothing particularly outstanding or memorable. Mind you, I don't think The Sentence is Death to be a bad mystery novel by any means. I have seen a lot of very positive review of the book that make it a point that this is a classic puzzle plot mystery. It is, and it's a competently written one, but as you may have noticed, puzzle plot mysteries are basically all I read here, and within that context, The Sentence is Death is simply not a novel that manages to stand out in terms of the core plot. I do have The Word is Murder still lying around here, so I'll read that one too at some time.