If you love mystery novels, this one is for you. This World Book Day, add Anthony Horowitz novels to your reading list. Definitely the most prolific murder-mystery novelist in the world right now, Horowitz has been a name to reckon with ever since he took over Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming’s mantles to write Sherlock Holmes and James Bond novels. Horowitz has an extensive bibliography, having written over 50 novels (for young adults and adults across three original characters, and two Holmes and Bond novels each), eight graphic novels, three films, and nine TV series. He has created the famous Alex Rider series for young adults, and two detective characters for adults, Susan Ryland and Daniel Hawthorne. His second Susan Ryland novel, Moonflower Murders, a follow up of the bestselling Magpie Murders, released late last year, and is a fascinating thriller. His third Daniel Hawthorne novel, A Line About Killing, releases in August this year.
Interestingly, in the Hawthrone novels, a fictionalised version of Horowitz himself regularly features as Hawthorne’s Watson. Horowitz’s has a chameleonic style, seamlessly adapting to styles of other writers when required — his Holmes novels end with short featurettes that explain the process of adapting to Conan Doyle’s writing style. His writing is fluid and descriptive, but thanks to his extensive TV writing, has created an in-built sharp editing system, and an episodic structure that allows the books to be fast reads, even though they are quite lengthy. Horowitz loves pulling a meta once in a while. His Susan Ryland novels are essentially two novels in one, as the narrative follows the events of real-time incidents, but follows clues from another novel that Ryland has been the editor for. Entertaining, engaging, and unputdownable, Horowitz should be your current obsession.
This, World Book Day, these Horowitz novels should be added to your 2021 reading list.
The Word Is Murder (2017)
The Sentence Is Death (2018)
Trigger Mortis (2015)
Forever and a Day (2018)
The House of Silk (2011)
Moriarty (2014)
Magpie Murders (2016)
Moonflower Murders (2020)
