"'I couldn't see the sea from my bedroom but I could hear the waves breaking in the distance. They reminded me that I was on a tiny island. And I was trapped.'
There has never been a murder on Alderney.
It's a tiny island, just three miles long and a mile and a half wide. The perfect location for a brand-new literary festival. Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne has been invited to talk about his new book. The writer, Anthony Horowitz, travels with him.
Very soon they discover that all is not as it should be. Alderney is in turmoil over a planned power line that will cut through it, desecrating a war cemetery and turning neighbour against neighbour.
The visiting authors - including a blind medium, a French performance poet and a celebrity chef - seem to be harbouring any number of unpleasant secrets.
When the festival's wealthy sponsor is found brutally killed, Alderney goes into lockdown and Hawthorne knows that he doesn't have to look too far for suspects.
There's no escape. The killer is still on the island. And there's about to be a second death..."
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I haven't read anything by Mr Horowitz before and was a little apprehensive about reading this, with it being the third in the series, but I needn't have worried - this is a unique and enjoyable mystery.
I have never read a book where the author puts himself as one of the main characters in a book but here he is joining up with an ex-Detective Inspector Hawthorne and, I must say, it really worked for me. Mr Horowitz doesn't take himself too seriously and he comes across as a Dr Watson-type character to Hawthorne's Sherlock Holmes - which, let's face it, isn't a bad thing at all. How much the fictional Horowitz is like the real Horowitz, I don't know but I like him!
Anyway, Horowitz and Hawthorne have been invited to take part in a literary festival on the island of Alderney. A murder ensues and Hawthorne is asked to assist the local constabulary to investigate with Horowitz in tow. The relationship between the two is a complex one ... do they really like each other or do they just tolerate each other for the purposes of writing books? I am still working that one out but I am liking it.
This is a proper old-style mystery with a cast of excellent characters many of whom have their own secrets which creates multiple suspects and I for one must have said "I knew it was them all along" numerous times and was wrong! There is a lot of humour and tongue-in-cheek moments which make this a fun and enjoyable read with a very satisfying ending.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was quite nice to read a murder/mystery without a plethora of violence for once and I am very much looking forward to more "adventures" from Hawthorne and Horowitz.
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