Horowitz, Anthony, (Magpie Murders [hc, Harper, 2017]) 978-0062645227 [Susan Ryeland is editing the latest manuscript by best-selling (but unpleasant) author Alan Conway. The book, set in 1955, follows Atticus Pünd as he investigates a death at a sleepy English manor. However, Susan realizes the final chapter is missing—and soon discovers that Conway has died under suspicious circumstances. You effectively read two mysteries at once, looking for clues in the “fictional” Pünd story that explain the “real” murder of the author.]
United Kingdom · Fiction author
Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz (born in 1955 in Stanmore, Middlesex, a suburb of London) – prolific British author and screenwriter known for his work across children’s, young adult, and adult mystery genres. He was raised and identifies as Jewish, but notes that he does not “dive into too many Jewish themes” in his writing. He has mentioned a deep personal connection to Jewish culture through food, specifically his mother’s recipes for chicken soup, latkes, and chopped liver. He has written about the emotional impact of his father’s orthodox funeral, where he had to read the Kaddish prayer for the dead despite not being religious himself at the time. Jewish identity and culture appear in several of his works through specific characters and meta-fictional elements.
His most prominent Jewish character is Atticus Pünd in the Magpie Murders Series. He is a 1950s private detective of German-Greek Jewish descent who survived the Holocaust. Horowitz created him as a “serious” figure whose firsthand experience with the evil of the concentration camps gives him a unique perspective on the evil of murder.
Horowitz, Anthony, (Moonflower Murders [hc, Harper, 2020] 978-0062955456 [pb, Harper Perennial, 2026] 978-0063305694 [Susan Ryeland has retired to run a hotel in Crete, but she is pulled back to England when a young woman disappears. The disappearance is linked to a murder that occurred years earlier at a British country hotel—a murder that Alan Conway used as the basis for one of his Atticus Pünd novels, Atticus Pünd Takes the Case. Susan must re-read Conway’s old novel to find the hidden truth that the police missed years ago.]
Horowitz, Anthony, (Marble Hall Murders: A Mindbending Metafictional Murder Mystery [hc, Harper, 2025] 978-0063305700 [pb, Harper Perennial, 2026] 978-0063305694 [Susan Ryeland returns from Crete to England and becomes involved in solving another complex murder case, to complete the trilogy. Once again, the plot focuses on a mystery novel featuring Atticus Pünd, entitled Pünd’s Last Case.
It is the fascinating persona of the fictional Pünd which permeates this trilogy. He is deliberate, cerebral, and dying of a terminal illness, which adds a layer of urgency to his cases. His background as a concentration camp survivor gives him a profound, somber understanding of human cruelty.
Amongst Horowitz’s other works are official continuations of both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond episodes. He also authored the Hawthorne & Horowitz Mystery Series, a 6-volume, meta-fictional series featuring himself as a character within his own novels, serving as a bumbling “Watson” to an eccentric, abrasive private investigator named Daniel Hawthorne.
The Premise: Hawthorne, a disgraced ex-detective, approaches “Horowitz” to shadow him on investigations and write books about his cases, splitting the royalties.
The Dynamic: The series blurs reality and fiction; “Horowitz” includes real-life details (like his wife Jill) while struggling with Hawthorne’s secretive and often insulting personality.
Horowitz, Anthony [Hawthorne/Horowitz series #1], (The Word Is Murder [hc, Harper, 2018] 978-0062676788 [pb, Harper Perennial, 2019] 978-0062676801 [Horowitz reinvents the classic crime novel, writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern Sherlock Holmes. A woman crosses a London street. It is just after 11 a.m. on a bright spring morning, and she is going into a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later the woman is dead, strangled with a crimson curtain cord in her own home. Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric man as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. And Hawthorne has a partner, the celebrated novelist Anthony Horowitz, curious about the case and looking for new material. As brusque, impatient, and annoying as Hawthorne can be, Horowitz- a seasoned hand when it comes to crime stories - suspects the detective may be on to something, and is irresistibly drawn into this witty mystery. As this meta mystery unfolds, Horowitz realizes that he’s at the center of a story he can’t control, and his brilliant partner may be hiding dark and mysterious secrets of his own.– Amazon- Google/AI]
Horowitz, Anthony [Hawthorne/Horowitz series #2], (The Sentence Is Death [hc, Harper, 2019]) 978-0062676832 [pb, Harper Perennial, 2020] 978-0062676849 [A celebrity divorce lawyer is bludgeoned to death with an expensive bottle of wine.]
Horowitz, Anthony [Hawthorne/Horowitz series #3], (A Line to Kill [hc, Harper, 2021] 978-0062938169 [pb, Harper Pernnieal, 2022] 978-0062938152 [The duo attends a literary festival on the island of Alderney where a murder occurs.]
Horowitz, Anthony [Hawthorne/Horowitz series #4], (The Twist of a Knife [hc, Harper, 2022]) 978-0062938183 [pb, Harper Perennial, 2023] 978-0062938190 [Horowitz himself becomes the prime suspect after a theater critic who panned his play is murdered.]
Horowitz, Anthony [Hawthorne/Horowitz series #5], (Close to Death: A Literary Whodunnit about a Murder in a Gated Community [hc, Harper, 2024] 978-0063305649 [pb, Harper Perennial, 2025] 978-0063305656 [A “locked-room” style mystery involving a gated community and an unpopular neighbor.]
Horowitz, Anthony [Hawthorne/Horowitz series #5], (A Deadly Episode [hc, Harper, 2026] 978-0063305748 [pb, Harper LARGE PRINT edition, 2026] 978-0063567368 [Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne is dead. Or, rather, the actor playing him in the film adaptation of The Word is Murder is. Rising star David Caine has been stabbed, and it seems that everyone on the set had a motive. But what if Caine’s murderer had made a mistake? What if it was the real Hawthorne who was the intended victim? For it turns out that the brilliant detective may have got it wrong ten years earlier. An innocent man has died in jail. And perhaps someone has decided that Hawthorne must pay the price.
From the film set on the south coast of England, the story moves to Reeth, in Yorkshire, the village where Hawthorne grew up. A burned-down school, a car accident that isn’t what it seems, blackmail and murder in an Elizabethan country house…somehow they combine to unlock the secret of what has happened in Hastings. For once, the local police are helpful. DS Sarah Milnes gives Hawthorne carte blanche to investigate and there may even be a hint of romance in the air. Which leaves his hapless sidekick, Horowitz, on his own, stumbling his way to the truth. [Amazon and Google/AI]