Psychological thrillers and whodunnits are my favourite type of book.
Which is why I leapt at the chance of reviewing Anthony Horowitz’s latest novel, Close To Death.
It has an intriguing tagline: ‘How do you solve a murder when everyone has the same motive?’
ARC synopsis Close To Death by Anthony Horowitz
The action unfolds in Riverside Close, an exclusive, gated community in Richmond, London.
It is a close community mainly of retirees and rich, middle-aged professionals, where everyone knows and is respectful of each other… until new residents enter to stir things up.
The Kenworthy’s with their multiple gas-guzzling cars, loud kids and plans to build a swimming pool means they quickly get onto the wrong side of everyone.
When patriarch Charles Kenworthy is found with a crossbow through this chest and pinioned to a wall, Daniel Hawthorne is called in.
My thoughts on Anthony Horowitz’s Close To Murder
As he rubbed everyone one up the wrong way, the list of suspects is long, and the elderly residents all wanted him gone for the same reason – being a horrid neighbour.
I’m not great with a long list of names, and with a cast of 11, I did have a little difficulty keeping track of who’s who.
I found making notes helped, but when I hit the half-way mark, I felt I got to know the characters a little better, so I stopped consulting my notes.
On the face of it, the book sounds like a good whodunnit, but what gives the plot an added complexity is the narrator.
Now comes a hint of meta.
The novel’s narrator is the assistant of former Detective Daniel Hawthorne, a character supposedly based on Anthony Horowitz.
I love a bit of Sherlock Holmes.
When I discovered Anthony Horowitz had also penned two Sherlock novels, The House Of Silk, and Moriarty, I felt a bigger sense of urgency to dive into his novels.
For the record, I am new to Anthony Horowitz’s work.
I have heard of him over the past few years ever since I watched the Alex Rider Stormbreaker film in 2006 starring Alex Pettyfer.
I enjoyed the book, as I am the target audience, and the plot twist was a nice surprise.
The novel reminds me a little of the set up of The Thursday Murder Club, a book that I’m in the middle of at the moment.
There are elderly, feisty residents in both novels, and I really enjoyed getting to know them.
I liked how the narrator guided the reader through the book, seeing everything through his curious, expert eyes.
There was one part of the book that ran into spy territory, which I wasn’t expecting.
Perhaps Close To Death is setting the scene for more spy-related plots for future novels by Anthony Horowitz.
Pacing of the novel was steady and ran consistently throughout the 415 pages print length book.
I found it to be an easy book to speed through and read, so maybe it could be the perfect holiday read?
As a first-time reader of Anthony’s Horowitz’s work, I can say I like his writing style and idea formation.
I will be exploring more of his body of work and look forward to reporting back about them.
For more information about Anthony Horowitz and his books visit his website anthonyhorowitz.com by clicking here.
*Book gifted by Sarah Harwood PR