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A review by katherinescanon
The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz
4.0
It's funny that I'm giving a mixed review given the murder victim in THE TWIST OF THE KNIFE is a theater critic. Rounding up to a 3.5 but I have a couple of nits:
* I'm sure it was popular back in the day to disgrace a mystery thriller's antagonist as fat and therefore stupid and incompetent - it's not now. I don't care how evil or shit at her job Cara Grunshaw is, it's going to pull me out of the storyline if other characters make fun of something that has nothing with her ability to do her job. Doesn't keep me from continuing to read but I found it stereotypical and unnecessary
* You know that feeling you get from a writer that's trying to talk about contemporary cultural issues but does a shit job because they're old and white? That's how I felt reading this book. The passage where Anthony chats with a character about his Native American heritage is so cringeworthy, I can only suspect that the author is trying to capitalize off mainstream conversations without understanding the point he's trying to make
* We know almost nothing about Hawthorne after the 4th (and final?) book in the series. I'm tired and no longer interested in his backstory - and combined with the fact that he doesn't entirely believe Anthony isn't the murderer, his outward ambivalence to the possibility of his partner-in-crime going to prison for life really got on my nerves
* No spoilers here, but it really sucks the air out of a story's revelation when the killer is someone you can really sympathize with and the murder victim is an absolute twat who deserves to die. This is the second time Anthony has done this in the series
* Call it intuition, but as someone who has read this series from start to finish I can tell that
Anthony is either running out of ideas or is ready to move on to another series. This book is so cut and dry - maybe in part because it's fast-paced and takes place across the span of only 4 days, but it still felt lacking in suspense
I'm disappointed because I love this series and got an early copy of this book without intending to review it. I'll continue to read Anthony's books if he adds to this series, but my expectations will certainly be lowered.
* I'm sure it was popular back in the day to disgrace a mystery thriller's antagonist as fat and therefore stupid and incompetent - it's not now. I don't care how evil or shit at her job Cara Grunshaw is, it's going to pull me out of the storyline if other characters make fun of something that has nothing with her ability to do her job. Doesn't keep me from continuing to read but I found it stereotypical and unnecessary
* You know that feeling you get from a writer that's trying to talk about contemporary cultural issues but does a shit job because they're old and white? That's how I felt reading this book. The passage where Anthony chats with a character about his Native American heritage is so cringeworthy, I can only suspect that the author is trying to capitalize off mainstream conversations without understanding the point he's trying to make
* We know almost nothing about Hawthorne after the 4th (and final?) book in the series. I'm tired and no longer interested in his backstory - and combined with the fact that he doesn't entirely believe Anthony isn't the murderer, his outward ambivalence to the possibility of his partner-in-crime going to prison for life really got on my nerves
* No spoilers here, but it really sucks the air out of a story's revelation when the killer is someone you can really sympathize with and the murder victim is an absolute twat who deserves to die. This is the second time Anthony has done this in the series
* Call it intuition, but as someone who has read this series from start to finish I can tell that
Anthony is either running out of ideas or is ready to move on to another series. This book is so cut and dry - maybe in part because it's fast-paced and takes place across the span of only 4 days, but it still felt lacking in suspense
I'm disappointed because I love this series and got an early copy of this book without intending to review it. I'll continue to read Anthony's books if he adds to this series, but my expectations will certainly be lowered.