Close to Death
A Novel
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4.3 • 53 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fifth literary whodunnit in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound.
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, 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 quickly offend every last one of the neighbors.
When Giles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator they can call to solve the case.
Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the intriguing if uneven fifth installment of Horowitz's Hawthorne and Horowitz series (after The Twist of a Knife), the author again blends mystery and metafiction to examine a murder in an exclusive London cul-de-sac. After the obnoxious Giles Kenworthy is slain with a crossbow in his home among the ritzy mansions of Riverview Close, police detective Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, John Dudley, jump on the case. At first, owing to Kenworthy's lack of popularity among his neighbors, Hawthorne and Dudley float the idea that it was a collaborative killing in the tradition of Murder on the Orient Express. Then one of their key suspects dies in an apparent suicide, and the case shifts into locked-room mystery territory, with a single killer likely picking off Riverview Close peers one by one. Horowitz again inserts himself in the narrative, working with Hawthorne to turn the case into a proper novel, but he writes much of this volume in third person, turning to his own voice only occasionally to comment on genre conventions or tease the mystery's conclusion. The result is a narrative of frames within frames that gradually loses entertainment value as a fair play mystery and ultimately slips into something far more jumbled. There's plenty of ambition on display, but this isn't up to series standards.
Customer Reviews
Finished in one day!
I definitely didn’t want the story to end and like usual I never figured out Whodunnit. I did get some stuff right but cant mention what without spoiling the story. This book is different than the others and I thought at first I wouldn’t like that aspect but it turns out I did. This book was a bit sadder to me because of the conflict between my beloved two main characters but in a series that is what happens as an author is world building and slowly unraveling the real mysteries which is who is Hawthorne and what happened at Reeth and to his parents, etc.
I cannot wait for the 6th one even though i know it’ll be at least a couple years—oh, how will I stand it? Anthony Horowitz’s series has made me excited to read again and look forward to something. Keep up the good work, Mr. Horowitz.
Too clever
While I generally like this writer’s works, I thought he was trying too hard to be innovative. Didn’t work for me. Too many murders for too small motives.