The Twist of a Knife

A Novel

By: Anthony Horowitz

Narrated by: Rory Kinnear

Narrated by Rory Kinnear

In New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fourth literary whodunit following The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, and A Line to Kill, Horowitz becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation—and only one man can prove his innocence: his newly estranged partner in solving crime, Detective Hawthorne.

“I’m sorry but the answer’s no.” Reluctant author, Anthony Horowitz, has had enough. He tells ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne that after three books he’s splitting and their deal is over.

The truth is that Anthony has other things on his mind.

His new play, a thriller called Mindgame, is about to open at the Vaudeville Theater in London’s West End. Not surprisingly, Hawthorne declines a ticket to the opening night.

The play is panned by the critics. In particular, Sunday Times critic Margaret Throsby gives it a savage review, focusing particularly on the writing. The next day, Throsby is stabbed in the heart with an ornamental dagger which turns out to belong to Anthony, and has his fingerprints all over it.

Anthony is arrested by an old enemy . . . Detective Inspector Cara Grunshaw. She still carries a grudge from her failure to solve the case described in the second Hawthorne adventure, The Sentence is Death, and blames Anthony. Now she’s out for revenge.

Thrown into prison and fearing for both his personal future and his writing career, Anthony is the prime suspect in Throsby’s murder and when a second theatre critic is found to have died in mysterious circumstances, the net closes in. Ever more desperate, he realizes that only one man can help him.

But will Hawthorne take the call?

A 21st century Poirot with great narration.

In what has to be an homage directly to The Golden Age of Detectives, Horowitz does it with suttle clues and a boatload of red herrings.
The narrator for this series is spot on.
Well done.

Keep on writing Hawthorne

Have totally enjoyed Anthony’s adventures with Hawthorn and Mr Kinnear does a great job with the voices and narration!

The Story Is Good, Narration Outstanding

This is a good book, but it is not equal to the first and third in this series (and brings back a character from the second who everyone wonders why she isn't on the dock herself). The story is fairly predictable, but the fictional Anthony really has bad taste in people and honestly has a real axe to grind by the end of the book. It stretches credulity on why Anthony still works with Hawthorne in the end as the issue is not really one for either of them. I'm not necessarily satisfied with the characterization on either fictional Anthony or Hawthorne's parts.

Rory Kinnear's narration is still quite outstanding and adds to the telling of the story, from the accents, to the mood changes, and does great justice to both the lighthearted and serious parts of this thriller.

I absolutely LOVE this series

I love everything about this series. It is such a unique take on a character. The author makes himself the protagonist and makes him a fictional character. Anthony Horowitz also takes a lot of his real-life activities and adds it to these books which gives the book a lot of depth. The first book I was skeptical, but this series has really grown on me.

I also think Rory Kinnear is a wonderful narrator and really brings the characters to life. I can't wait until the 5th book comes out in the spring of next year.

Another Triumph

Another great mashup of fact and fiction is the life of the character of Horowitz. This tale centers around a murder connected to Horowitz's real-life theater play in the West End "Mindgame". Hawthorne's past and personal life remain enigmatic, and it becomes more apparent that he isn't always truthful about with the information he does volunteer.