Hawthorne and Horowitz Series: Book 6
Publication Date: April 28, 2026
They’re making a major feature film of the first Hawthorne/Horowitz mystery novel. Except—they’re behind schedule, they’ve run out of money and . . . oh! The star has just been murdered.
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.
Caine had just fired his PA. He had fallen out with his director, slept with the screenwriter, humiliated his co-star and dropped his agent days before he was about to sign a multi-million-dollar deal to appear in the next Spider-Man movie.
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.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, A Deadly Episode is an intriguing page-turner that once again demonstrates why Anthony Horowitz is the reigning king of the modern whodunit.
Hawthorne is dead, or at least the actor playing him is, in A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz.
A Word is Murder is being made into a movie. But it is not the positive experience Anthony is hoping for. The script is not his cup of tea, money is tight, and tensions are high on set. Tensions boil over, and David Caine, the lead actor playing Hawthorne, is found dead in his trailer. Hawthorne joins the local police in finding the killer. But Hawthorne’s past puts a twist in the investigation, and now the mystery goes from one murder to two. Hawthorne must solve a crime in the past to solve the crime in the present.
The Hawthorne & Horowitz series is one of my favorite Horowitz series. I love the interactions between Hawthorne and Horowitz, and the mysteries are always a treat. I thought this one was very interesting, as it takes place on the set of a movie adaptation of the first book in the series. I was very engaged in this part of the book and convinced myself of the killer early (don’t worry, I was totally wrong.) What lost me just a little was the fact that it switched to a separate murder mystery halfway through. While I thought it was well tied together at the end, I almost wish it had been two books instead of one. I feel like both stories could have been expanded into novels in themselves, and combining the two left me wanting more. However, the writing, as always, is incredible, and it was still a joy to read.
A Deadly Episode is an excellent two-part murder mystery that brings the past and present together in an epic climax.
ANTHONY HOROWITZ is the author of the US bestselling Magpie Murders and The Word is Murder, and one of the most prolific and successful writers in the English language; he may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author. His novel Trigger Mortis features original material from Ian Fleming. His most recent Sherlock Holmes novel, Moriarty, is a reader favorite; and his bestselling Alex Rider series for young adults has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. As a TV screenwriter, he created both Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle’s War on PBS. Horowitz regularly contributes to a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines, and in January 2014 was awarded an OBE.
