This is the fourth in a series in which Horowitz the real-life writer has audaciously and quite effectively inserted himself, or some version of himself, into his novel. (You don’t have to have read the others to thoroughly enjoy this one) ... it’s more fun than confusing. Like Glass Onion,The Twist of a Knife is as much a work of dry humor as it is a murder mystery ... a classic race-against-the-clock crime fiction cocktail. While paying homage to the genre’s golden age, Horowitz also gives a nod to Alfred Hitchcock, adopting his voyeuristic approach to storytelling ... Borrowing from here and there — including from himself — Horowitz has, paradoxically, created something wholly original.
The thing I most like about the mysteries of Anthony Horowitz — besides their smooth writing, skillful plotting and delightful sense of humor — is this: Horowitz gives you clues. He lays them all out there, and if you are sharp and paying attention, you can solve them. I assume. I never have ... All the clues were there. So did I solve it? I did not. But Hawthorne did, and maybe that's enough.
Horowitz continues to delight in mixing real life...as nebbish against the always-three-steps-ahead Hawthorne. Not to worry, their relationship isn’t over quite yet. There’s much more to discover, and readers will be waiting eagerly for more from one of the best mystery writers around.
The real-life author, mostly eschewing the floridly inventive meta fireworks of his earlier tales, sticks more closely to his golden age models this time, producing an efficiently old-fashioned whodunit with all the surprises you'd expect ... An expertly conventional puzzle.
Fair-play whodunits don’t come much funnier than bestseller Horowitz’s brilliant fourth mystery ... Clues are adroitly hidden in plain sight. This humorous homage to golden age closed-circle mysteries is not to be missed.
