You’re reading a book. You know it's a novel. But then the author—the actual guy whose name is on the cover—starts talking to you. He’s complaining about his mortgage. He’s mentioning a meeting he had with Steven Spielberg. Suddenly, you aren’t just reading a mystery; you’re a fly on the wall of a mid-life crisis.
The Word is Murder isn't your standard "whodunnit." It’s a weird, meta-fictional experiment that somehow became a bestseller. Anthony Horowitz, the man behind Alex Rider and Foyle’s War, basically cast himself as the bumbling Dr. Watson to a modern-day Sherlock Holmes who might actually be a jerk.
The Hook: A Funeral Planned Too Early
The premise is killer. Honestly.
Diana Cowper, a wealthy woman in London, walks into a funeral parlor. She’s healthy. She’s fine. She spends the morning meticulously planning her own service, picking out the hymns, and paying the bill. Six hours later, she’s found strangled in her own home with a curtain cord.
Did she know she was going to die? Was it a suicide? Nope. It was murder.
Enter Daniel Hawthorne. He’s a disgraced ex-detective who the police still call when they’re stumped because he’s brilliant, even if he is socially radioactive. Hawthorne approaches the real-life Anthony Horowitz with a business deal: "I’ll let you follow me around while I solve this case. You write the book. We split the money 50/50."
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Horowitz (the character) says no. He’s a successful screenwriter. He doesn't need this. But the mystery of the funeral planning is too juicy to ignore. He gets sucked in, and we get sucked in with him.
Is Daniel Hawthorne Actually Real?
This is the question everyone Googles about thirty pages in.
The short answer: No. Hawthorne is fictional.
But the long answer is more fun. Horowitz builds the lie so well you’ll swear you can find Hawthorne’s LinkedIn profile. He peppers the book with 100% true facts about his own career. He talks about being on the set of Injustice (a real show he wrote). He mentions real actors like Charlie Creed-Miles and James Purefoy. Because the "Anthony Horowitz" in the book is doing exactly what the real Anthony Horowitz does, the brain just assumes Hawthorne must be real too.
It’s a clever trick. It makes the stakes feel higher because you feel like you're reading a true-crime memoir instead of a plot hatched in a writer’s room.
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Why People Love (and Hate) This Book
If you like your detectives to be charming, you’re going to have a bad time. Hawthorne is abrasive. He’s secretive. He's also—and this is a big sticking point for some readers—homophobic and occasionally racist.
Horowitz doesn't shy away from this. In fact, he uses the "Horowitz" character to call it out. There’s a scene where they argue about it, and it makes the relationship between the two men feel genuinely uncomfortable. It’s not a "buddy cop" dynamic where they end up hugging at the end. It’s a business arrangement between two people who barely tolerate each other.
The Meta Factor
- The Author is the Narrator: You get a behind-the-scenes look at how books are made.
- The Blurring of Lines: Real celebrities make cameos.
- Self-Deprecation: Horowitz makes himself look pretty stupid compared to Hawthorne. It's funny, actually.
The Mystery Mechanics
Beyond the "meta" gimmicks, The Word is Murder is a rock-solid procedural. You’ve got a ten-year-old hit-and-run accident involving two young boys that may or may not be the motive. You’ve got a famous actor son who’s hiding secrets in Hollywood.
The clues are all there. Hawthorne sees them; Horowitz misses them. Because Horowitz is the narrator, we miss them too.
It’s a fair-play mystery, meaning the author doesn't cheat. He doesn't pull a random twin out of a hat in the last chapter. If you’re smart enough (I wasn't), you can solve it before the big reveal.
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How to Read the Series
If you finish this and want more, you're in luck. There’s a whole "Hawthorne and Horowitz" series now.
- The Word is Murder: The one that started the madness.
- The Sentence is Death: A divorce lawyer gets whacked with a $3,000 bottle of wine.
- A Line to Kill: Set on the island of Alderney during a literary festival.
- The Twist of a Knife: This one is wild because Horowitz himself becomes the prime suspect.
- Close to Death: A "closed-circle" mystery in a gated community.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re looking for a mystery that feels fresh, go buy The Word is Murder. Don't Google the ending. Just let the weirdness wash over you.
Pay attention to the small details Hawthorne points out. He’s obsessed with things like the "word" used in the funeral arrangements or the way a person stands. It’s these tiny, seemingly boring facts that eventually blow the case wide open.
Also, watch for the "Easter eggs." If you know Horowitz’s other work, like Midsomer Murders, you’ll find plenty of nods to his real-life career. It’s a masterclass in how to reinvent a genre that’s been around since Edgar Allan Poe.
Grab a copy, keep an open mind about the unlikable detective, and see if you can outsmart the author at his own game.