From the Publisher
This humorous homage to golden age closed-circle mysteries is not to be missed.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Playful ... An efficiently old-fashioned whodunit with all the surprises you'd expect.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Excellent . . . . Readers of character-driven novels will love the twists and turns of this Agatha Christie–style mystery that leads to an unexpected reveal. Perfect for fans of G. M. Malliet, Elly Griffiths, and Richard Osman.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“Horowitz continues to delight in mixing real life (e.g., Horowitz's play Mindgame was staged in London) and fiction, as well as in juxtaposing Horowitz (the character) as nebbish against the always-three-stepsahead Hawthorne. Not to worry, their relationship isn't over quite yet. There's much more to discover, and readers will be waiting eagerly for more from one of the best mystery writers around.” — Booklist (starred review)
“ Gleefully witty.” — Tom Nolan for The Wall Street Journal
“The thing I most like about the mysteries of Anthony Horowitz — besides their smooth writing, skillful plotting and delightful sense of humor — is this: Horowitz gives you clues. He lays them all out there, and if you are sharp and paying attention, you can solve them. I assume. I never have.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“An adventure that will enchant mystery lovers, Anglophiles and theater buffs.” — Washington Post
"The Twist of a Knife is consistently, delightfully entertaining, with Horowitz’s own theatrical experience providing just the right amount of bittersweet bite." — Air Mail
“Fall is the time to read a mystery novel, and Anthony Horowitz consistently delivers a great whodunnit.” — Town & Country
Library Journal
★ 09/01/2022
The fourth installment of this excellent series finds protagonist Anthony Horowitz accused of a crime he didn't commit. After writing three books and solving several murders, he has just ended his partnership with ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne so that he can focus on his play Mindgame, which is making its West End debut. On opening night, Mindgame receives a malice-filled review from Sunday Times critic Harriet Throsby. Early the next morning, Horowitz is awakened by the London police, seeking to question him in the murder of Throsby, who has just been stabbed to death in her home. Horowitz soon finds himself under arrest and in need of help from his now ex-partner Hawthorne. The duo team up once again to solve the case. VERDICT Readers of character-driven novels will love the twists and turns of this Agatha Christie-style mystery that leads to an unexpected reveal. Perfect for fans of G. M. Malliet, Elly Griffiths, and Richard Osman.—Bill Anderson
NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Rory Kinnear delivers an engaging and well-paced performance of Anthony Horowitz’s third mystery featuring PI Hawthorne and Horowitz himself as a character. The amusing, sometimes befuddling, conceit mingles a fictional plot with facts from Horowitz’s actual life. This time, the murder of a critic who panned Horowitz’s London play implicates the playwright. Kinnear’s chesty-sounding Hawthorne is engaging, intransigent, and offhand; his accent is cleverly hard to place on the social register. His higher-pitched Horowitz is hapless and comically whiny as a disbelieving victim. Most of the action involves Hawthorne conducting interviews in order to unmask the true killer, but Kinnear doesn’t let things drag and offers distinctive and droll character interpretations that maintain our interest through to the surprise conclusion. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-08-13
What’s worse than having an influential London critic skewer your latest play? Getting arrested for her murder, that’s what.
Novelist/playwright Anthony Horowitz, who’s awfully hard to tell apart from his author, right down to the playful acknowledgments, is determined not to renew his collaboration with detective Daniel Hawthorne, who’s repeatedly upstaged him in their past investigations. Instead, he has high hopes for Mindgame, his latest theatrical thriller, which has consistently entertained audiences in the provinces. When the play opens in the West End, Sunday Times reviewer Harriet Throsby brings him crashing back to Earth by panning the play and everyone associated with it at length. The next day, the police are at Horowitz’s door to take him in for stabbing Throsby to death that morning. It’s true that all three performers in Mindgame—Lakota star Jordan Williams, rising Welsh hopeful Tirian Kirke, and punk ingenue Sky Palmer—had ample motive to kill Throsby. So did producer Ahmet Yurdakul and director Ewan Lloyd. But they didn’t leave behind the fingerprints or DNA that make Horowitz the obvious suspect, though he insists, “It’s critics who kill writers: never the other way round.” In order to beat the rap, he’ll require timely assistance from Kevin Chakraborty, the hacker downstairs, and of course from Hawthorne himself, who clearly revels in Horowitz’s dependence on him as he immerses his clinging, unwilling client in a deep dive into Throsby’s earlier writings, which provide even more motives for her murder. The real-life author, mostly eschewing the floridly inventive meta fireworks of his earlier tales, sticks more closely to his golden age models this time, producing an efficiently old-fashioned whodunit with all the surprises you'd expect.
An expertly conventional puzzle.
