The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

Harper, 400 pages, $27.99

“The Word Is Murder” is about a writer named Anthony (definitely not “Tony”) who has just released “The House of Silk” (2011) and has written several kids’ books featuring a character called Alex Rider. Hey, ANTHONY Horowitz wrote a book called “The House of Silk” (2011) and writes a kids’ series starring a character named Alex Rider. "Anthony" wrote “Foyle’s War” for television. Anthony Horowitz wrote “Foyle’s War” for television. You get where I’m going. More importantly, you get where Anthony Horowitz is going. I had to check the front cover for the tiny words balanced between the pen and the sword (the pencil and the knife), “A Novel.” But nowhere in the book does Anthony divulge his last name. Plausible deniability.

So fictional Anthony meets Hawthorne, the disgraced ex-Met homicide detective. Hawthorne suggests Anthony write about a current case for which he is a consultant with the London police. Sort of like Sherlock Holmes is called upon to consult with the London police. You mean write about the step-by-step method Hawthorne uses to solve (it is hoped) the case? Like Watson wrote about Sherlock’s cases?

Indeed Hawthorne bears a strong resemblance to Sherlock: He is a keen observer, has a organized mind and an inability to communicate his “obvious” thought processes to his scrivener without making the scrivener appear to be an idiot. All the clues (sort of) are there should we wish to make the same deductions.

A woman, a camel, and a lump of Play-Doh walk into a mortuary. Now erase the camel and lump from that statement. It’s not a joke. The woman has come to discuss her own funeral service with the mortician. She has precise wishes involving a trumpet voluntary, Sylvia Plath, and “Eleanor Rigby.” A few hours after concluding her meeting, she is murdered in her home.

Diana Cowper’s wishes are carried out to the letter when she is buried about a week later. Her famous actor son, Damian, has flown in from America to mourn. He has brought his photogenic wife and baby daughter. The body has not completely settled into its new residence when a second murder is committed.

Digging into all aspects of Diana’s life uncovers that about ten years ago she hit two boys with her car. One of them died and the other is permanently disabled. The last text message Diana sends is to her son. In it she says she feels threatened by the “boy who was lacerated.” Could that be a reference to the surviving son, who would be about eighteen years old?

No doubt the unlucky Godwin family has suffered and not just because young Jeremy, the boy who survived the car accident, needs continual care. The parents eventually separated. The young nanny who witnessed the accident feels guilty and she has stayed on as Jeremy’s caregiver. Alan Godwin, the father, has written a threatening note to Diana and has demanded money.

Throw in a sneaky house cleaner, a smarmy theatrical producer, a melancholy daughter-in-law and her protective parents, an egotistical son and the resulting mix has suspects galore and a red herring or two. Yay! And, yes, third and fourth murders are clearly in the offing. Yay!!

Anthony, the fictional writer, plays his part of the smart — but not as smart as Hawthorne — guy very well. After all, he is a successful writer of mysteries. Why shouldn’t he make a good detective as well? In the language of mystery books, the mystery Boswells are always doomed to play second bananas, and ones rife with weak spots and less a-peeling logic. It’s the trope and it comes with the territory. I have to confess that I fell into thinking about the same scenarios that “Anthony” comes up with, ones that are disabused by the blunt and still-waters-run-deep Hawthorne.

Why is this book set in 2011? This is what I thought. “Anthony” is looking to break into the adult fiction world. Although “House of Silk” is being released, he must continue to come up with ideas for new books. That’s my thinking, at least until Hawthorne disabuses me of it.

This book was very enjoyable, albeit a little strange for Horowitz having inserted his avatar in the proceedings.