The Twist of a Knife

That...is not how I want to end a book feeling. The victim was so incredibly malicious to every person she ever encountered. You'd think that would make the death satisfying or at least less upsetting for the reader, but when you spend so much time hearing about how nasty she was, it's just dispiriting. The murderer was someone who survived an unjustly harsh prison sentence, got their life together and saw it threatened to disintegrate again, and then it DID. The ‘Native American' characterization (by a white author) made me uncomfortable (the audiobook narrator didn't help); I have no idea what Indigenous readers might think of it. He's had a tough upbringing but he's doing well, except he's fighting with his wife and he's spontaneously angry enough to be thoughtlessly violent? If he wasn't just another murder suspect, maybe it would feel like a fully fleshed out flawed human being instead of a suspect detail or two mixed in with something socially conscious. Maybe Horowitz was trying to be compassionate or just diverse in characters, but I'm not sure it landed? Having the protagonist in the hot seat as the suspect is NOT why I read this series. The crumb of further reveal about Hawthorne's backstory was not worth sitting through so much of this. Cara Grunshaw and lackey are unrelentingly unpleasant people that I wish we didn't keep coming back to; having Hawthorne best them in the end is not a satisfying enough reason to hear from and about them throughout the book. I just spent way too much of this book not having a good time. I think the next book is the final test for me: if there's a bit more about Hawthorne, if Anthony can get back to his regular Watsonian position, if we can take another break from Grunshaw,  if at least some ‘guest stars' can be something other than off-putting, I'll continue in the series. I started these books not really knowing why I was continuing, a definite maybe, but I'm getting closer to a firm ‘no'.

En Anthony Horowitz doet het weer!
Ik hou van hoe zelfbewust en meta dit boek (en gans deze serie) is. De kleine zijsprong over “cancel culture” en “culture appropriation” beschreef uitstekend en scherp mijn exacte gevoelens hierover.

Een geweldig gezellig mysterie, onderhoudend en grappig, goed geschreven met gelaagde karakters en een bevredigende conclusie! Breng me meer! (Mag ik hopen dat er nog 3 volgen???)

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a Quick Takes Catch-up post, emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.

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Until I heard Horowitz on a podcast talking about this book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to bother with the book—but he piqued my interest. I’m glad he did—he’s really good at keeping this series from falling into a formula, and bringing Hawthorne into this case to get Horowitz out of trouble was a nice twist (but something he can’t repeat).

I didn’t buy—at all—the way Horowitz didn’t involve his wife in his situation—or how she reacted. The way the other detectives focused on Horowitz and didn’t really listen to him seemed less-than-credible, too—but not as much.

Still, this was a fun listen—Kinnear’s a great narrator—and this mystery was clever. It was a good time—I know you’ll find more enthusiastic recommendations from several other people, and you should probably take their advice. The best I can do is that this book probably led me to get the next one.

I'm done reading this series and author. Don't continue to read if you don't want any spoilers for the book.
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SPOILERS
Why was it necessary for the author's fake persona to insist that he has every right to write about other people's lived experiences, especially those of minorities? One of the biggest lessons we ALL should have learned from everything that's happened since 2020 is that we should be listening to OWN VOICES, and when a Native American character is insisting that you don't have their permission to tell their story, you should respect that. Not have your white, upperclass male author lecture (***read throw a tantrum) about why he's entitled to write about whoever he wants.

It was incredibly frustrating to have the main character agreeing with the elitist views of the lawyer whose wealthy family shifted the blame of a crime from their rich, privileged son onto a blue collar kid with a troubled family life.

One of the biggest re-occurring issues I've had with Anthony Horowitz is the homophobia he writes into the books, and here we are yet again with that being an element of one of the characters. It's not necessary.

Your ability to write a good mystery does not exempt you THE AUTHOR from being socially conscious or writing characters that can grow and change based on new information.