Fired Scotland Yard detective Daniel Hawthorne bursts onto the scene of his unwilling collaborator and amanuensis, screenwriter/novelist Anthony, who seems to share all Horowitz’s ( Forever and a Day, 2018, etc.) credentials, to tell him that the game’s afoot again. Horowitz’s unfortunate portrayals do distract from the overall story, which is a shame because in and of itself the core mystery of “The Sentence is Death” is truly entertaining. There are a few holes — for example, why do they bring in Hawthorne immediately when the culprit initially seems obvious? — but overall, the ending is surprising without feeling forced. The biggest letdown is that the mystery of Hawthorne’s past, which Horowitz is constantly fretting about and trying to discover, is no closer to being solved by the end of this second installment.

But then this mystery solver is a bit of a mystery himself. We don’t know an awful lot about him, other than he left his job as a police detective under a cloud, has an unpleasant tendency towards homophobia, and enjoys making model airplanes in his spare time. countries which permit the death penalty only for serious crimes in exceptional circumstances, such as those committed during times of war

Title Drop: Akira Anno wrote a haiku with the last like "The sentence is death." Anthony considers this damning evidence since it was poem 182 in her book of haikus, and someone painted "182" at the scene of the crime. You shouldn’t be here. It’s too late…” were Pryce’s last recorded words but what exactly do they mean? What does it mean? And who was at his front door just minutes before he died and while he was still talking on the phone? When he is found murdered, the police confront the most baffling of mysteries: who was the visitor who came to Pryce's house moments before he died, arriving while he was still talking on the phone?

A man stepped out of the taxi, seemingly unconcerned by the crowd of people around him, many of whom where in period dress. So given I'm averse to reading this type of book, why do I continue with the series? Because they are easy to read, enjoyable, and have genuinely intriguing mysteries. There's a reason Horowitz either wrote or conceived a large number of the TV murder mysteries on British TV in the last 20 years or so - he can think up a great plot and execute it well. Like all crime of this genre (so called 'cosy' crime as opposed to the grittier, more realist stuff) it can be far fetched, but you happily accept that in return for a good read. This one was at the more plausible end of the spectrum. As always, Hawthorne doggedly solves the crime whilst Anthony stumbles along, misconstruing the clues, interrupting at unfortunate times, and generally making a hash of things. Which is quite ironic when you remember that in reality the whole thing has been made up by Horowitz start to finish.on earth have you been doing?” his wife asks him at the end of The Word is Murder. “You could have been Politically Incorrect Hero: Hawthorne again, as his homophobia from the first book gets an additional dose of bigotry when he refers to Stephen Spencer's Iranian boyfriend as "Ali Baba". Once again this nearly causes Anthony to abandon the book project.

The narrator explained that he met former Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne when the detective was hired as a consultant for a television series he was writing. Daniel Hawthorne had once worked for Scotland Yard, but he was let go when a suspect in a child pornography case fell down a flight of concrete stairs. The detective had been standing behind the suspect at the time.

The police are forced to hand the case to Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne, who takes it on with characteristic relish.

If someone murders someone else, they have given up their human rights, including the one to stay alive themselvesDialogue is always very natural and flows in a realistic way with interruptions, pauses and misunderstandings.