Anthony Horowitz the character returns in Anthony Horowitz the author's captivating third mystery (after The Word Is Murder and The Sentence Is Death), featuring himself as the Watson-like sidekick to Holmesian detective Daniel Hawthorne. As A Line to Kill begins, the writer is tired of being second banana to Hawthorne on murder cases, so Horowitz agrees to attend a literary festival on Alderney, one of the Channel Islands. In the publishing world, Horowitz believes he'd have the upper hand over Hawthorne.
This turns out to be untrue. During Horowitz and Hawthorne's joint interview at the festival, the audience and moderator mostly ignore the author, as they're more fascinated by the detective and his methodology and motivations. When a murder occurs and the local police are hopelessly out of their depths--since murders never happen on Alderney--Horowitz once again finds himself playing second fiddle to Hawthorne as the detective takes charge of the investigation.
One of the joys in this series comes from Horowitz subjecting his fictional self to repeated indignities. He's told by festival organizers that he was only invited after A-list authors like Val McDermid and Philip Pullman had declined invitations to appear. When he's finally asked a question during his interview with Hawthorne, Horowitz is rudely cut off. But in real life, the author, whose oeuvre includes Sherlock Holmes and James Bond novels and scripts for TV shows such as Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War, is a master at holding his audience with his entertaining mysteries combining comedy and crime. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd