“Riverside Close is a
picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked
far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy
beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong and tranquility from behind the security
of a locked gate.
It is the perfect idyll until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four
giant, gas-guzzling cars, a gaggle of shrieking children and plans for a garish
swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong
in Riverside Close, and they quickly offend every last one of their neighbours.
When Giles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt
sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator that
can be called on to solve the case.
Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?”
As the series title “Hawthorne & Horowitz” suggests,
these books follow the life of the best-selling author of murder mystery
fiction Anthony Horowitz. Of course, this is a fictionalised version of himself
and in this fifth novel “Close To Death,” he has been told by his
literary agent that he needs to have his latest “Hawthorne” novel finished
ready for the Christmas market. This puts Horowitz in a dilemma, as there
haven’t been any new murders to write about recently, and he hasn’t spoken to
Hawthorne for several months.
Horowitz decides he will look at former Detective Inspector
Daniel Hawthorne’s cold cases, and finds one in particular strikes a chord with
him. He thinks this case will be a great
basis for his new book, and he might be able to uncover a few things about
Hawthorne’s private life whilst he’s at it.
Although this book doesn’t have Horowitz in his normal role as bumbling sidekick, and it isn’t strictly necessary to have read the previous four books, I do think it enhances the reading experience to know what happens in the previous novels. The first book is in part an introduction into how the former inspector asked Horowitz to write a book about him. Horowitz, out of his depth when trying to piece together the murder scenes, became reliant on Hawthorne’s vast experience to help him write the book.
The characters have an intriguing love/hate relationship
and you can feel the disparity between the characters. Hawthorne is intelligent,
yet secretive and often leaves “Tony” out in the cold trying to fathom things
out for himself. The fact he knows that Horowitz hates being called Tony and
continues to call him that, shows what type of man we’re dealing with. The
earlier books cement the connections between the characters and their
experiences, making it much easier to understand and enjoy the goings on in
this novel.
Horowitz needs inspiration for his latest book, so he is reliant
on various case notes, old recorded interviews and conversations with Hawthorne.
Horowitz can’t help but think Hawthorne is being deliberatively vague and
keeping a few things secret from him, which if you’ve read the earlier books is
nothing new.
If you wish to solve the unsolvable, you need Hawthorne on
the case as Horowitz is undoubtedly lagging several steps behind him. But could
we be in for a surprise with this book? This might be a closed case, but might
Horowitz spot something in the files that Hawthorne is trying to keep from him.
Even if he doesn’t, we might learn something new about Hawthorne, the dour, secretive
sourpuss!
Upon reading the case files, Horowitz is intrigued by the
previous detective partnership of Daniel Hawthorne and John Dudley and does
some digging of his own into Hawthorne’s personal life. The narrative therefore
switches between past and present timelines as the current book is being
written, and the investigation papers from five years ago are reviewed.
The original crime took place at the peaceful and
harmonious gated community of Riverview Close, which comprises of six houses. Peaceful
that is until Giles Kentworthy and his family from hell move in. The family has
no respect for the rest of the residents, they park their cars where they like,
their children tear through flowerbeds like rampaging bulls, and they’ve obtained
planning permission to build an outdoor pool where they can have loud parties.
When Kentworthy is found on his doorstep murdered by a
crossbow, it’s unsurprising that none of the residents were particularly upset
by his death and showed little remorse when the police came asking questions.
Baffled by the complexities of the case, Detective Superintendent Tariq Khan
has no choice but to recruit ex-Detective Inspector Hawthorne to investigate.
Hawthorne’s personal reputation with the force is poor, but his intellect
cannot be questioned and he might be the only person able to piece together
what happened at Riverside Close.
As soon as Hawthorne arrived on the scene, he and his
partner John Dudley, quickly noticed things that had escaped Khan’s observation.
No-one on Riverside Close seems to be telling the truth and there are a number
of unexplained coincidental attacks which need closer investigation.
This take on a locked-room mystery has each of the
residents of Riverside Close as potential suspects. All of these quirky and
eccentric characters appear to have motive for killing Kentworthy and their
suspicious behaviour creates numerous red herrings skilfully woven into the
plot by the real Anthony Horowitz!
Despite the slight change of angle in the partnership for
this book, I still enjoyed this book within a book. It was a clever tale,
although I did miss the level of humour we’ve come to expect when Hawthorne and
Horowitz are trying to solve an ongoing murder case.
It was interesting to have the main plot and sub-plot (the
cold case and Hawthorne’s personal life) skilfully laced together. It was cleverly
written to give the reader the opportunity to see Hawthorne’s interaction with
his previous partner John Dudley without interfering with the main plot of the
book. It also allowed for the development of Hawthorne’s character, because
there has to be a reason why he is so boorish.
I found the previous book an interesting take on the
partnership of H&H, as it had Horowitz being thrown in jail by the lovely
DI Cara Grunshaw and being reliant on Hawthorne to get him out. In ‘Close to
Death’ the partnership is again different and keeps that aspect of the
novel fresh. The real-life Horowitz has scattered breadcrumbs throughout this
entire novel to solve the mystery, but they aren’t easily perceived or self-evident,
so whilst the ending came as a surprise, it did make sense.
I can’t wait to see what happens to this delightful duo in
their next outing.
Genre: Mystery, Crime, Fiction,
Murder Mystery, Detective
Release Date: 11th April
2024
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Listening Time: 9h
11m
“Disclosure: If you buy books linked to this
site, I may earn a small commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support
independent bookshops, at no extra cost to you.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.