It was probably a mistake to read the fourth in a series of books without reading the first three. I felt unengaged with Hawthorne because I was not familiar with him, and I found Horowitz' character incredibly boring. The plot line of the actual murder is quite entertaining, but it took far to long listening to the Horowitz character feeling sorry for himself to actually get to the meat of the story.

I may choose to read more of Horowitz work at some time, but I don't feel any great rush to do so.

Reminded me of a similar plot in an episode of Murder, She Wrote. That's a compliment.

Horowitz delivers again with an excellent installment in the Hawthorne & Horowitz Mystery series. Though if I were Jill, I don’t know that I’d be as forgiving.

Can’t wait for the next one!

The morning after the opening of author Anthony Horowitz's new play, theater critic Harriet Throsby is murdered---and someone has set Horowitz up as the killer. He didn't kill the unlikeable writer, but when his fingerprints are found on the murder weapon, he asks ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne to help him find the real criminal.

This is my least favorite of the Hawthorne and Horowitz books. It took me a long time (more than half of the book) to really get into the storyline. I liked the theater setting but the cast members weren't especially compelling. The story picked up pace about 3/4 of the way through, and I enjoyed the ending, although the reveal didn't quite make up for the lackluster start. In previous books I found Hawthorne and his odd relationship with Horowitz more entertaining; this time around the bromance was just meh and Hawthorne a little too smug for my liking. Recommended for fans of the series.

This was my favorite one yet! Loved it, and I can’t wait for the next!

I like the Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery Series detectives for their predictability. Horowitz, as usual, will make himself look ridiculous, Hawthorne will hide everything about himself, and I won't guess who the killer is, as usual.

In The Twist of a Knife, Horowitz (author and protagonist in the same person) experiences a joyous and exciting event: the premiere of his play. The Sunday Times critic Harriet Throsby trashes the play and Horowitz himself, and the next day she is found dead with a dagger through her heart. And the dagger belongs to Horowitz. How does the writer get out of this mess?

The fact that the story revolves around the premiere allows the author to sprinkle in a lot of interesting facts about the theatre backstage, which I was excited about. The real Horowitz's play Mindgame was indeed once staged at the Vaudeville Theater in London, so he knows what he is writing about.

The book Horowitz has an interesting conversation about representation and cultural appropriation with one of the characters, a Native American actor. If Horowitz, a white cisgender author, creates a Native American character based on a real figure, would that count as cultural appropriation? On the one hand, it's ridiculous, but on the other hand, Twitter scandals have erupted for more minor reasons.

"We've already agreed that I can't write about Ahmet or Pranav. So presumably I can't write about Maureen or Sky either ... because they're both women! Or Lucky because he's a dog! At the end of the day, if I listened to you, I'd only write about myself! A book full of middle-aged white writers describing middle-aged white writers being murdered by middle-aged white writers!"

All in all a great book for a cozy read for a couple of evenings.

I've enjoyed the Hawthorne series but must admit that I was 5 chapters in before I realised that I'd read this before.

4/5 another classic Horowitz banger!