Lisa's Reviews > The Word is Murder

I would have enjoyed this one as much as Mr. Horowitz' others if it weren't for the inclusion of himself so often! It could have been a very clever thing, but I wasn't sure if I was reading a fictional mystery, a fictional autobiography, an actual autobiography, or a bit of all three. The fictional Horowitz engaged in so much name dropping it should have been embarrassing to the real Horowitz. The book would have been half the length if the meetings with celebrities and unnecessary diversions into his screenwriting history weren't included. They did nothing to further the story. Even if the meetings were fictional, and the movies or television shows were not as written, it still read as very self-promoting, which this author does not need, he's well enough known and successful without it. How many times did he have to mention Foyle's War?

The fictional Horowitz states, "I was trying to find the 'voice' of the book. If I was really going to appear in it, I had to be sure that I wasn't too obtrusive, that I didn't get in the way." Well, he did. Big time.

I didn't mind Hawthorne as a character, but do not look forward to #2 if he teams up with Horowitz in fiction-land again.