A Deadly Episode

Horowitz’s ever-inventive Horowitz and Hawthorne series gets extra metafictional in this brilliant sixth installment (after Close to Death). In the world of the novel, Anthony Horowitz is the sidekick to master sleuth Daniel Hawthorne, and the pair’s first murder case was long ago immortalized in the true crime bestseller The Word Is Murder. The action begins with the duo learning that The Word Is Murder is being adapted into a film. Horowitz is suspicious: the project is backed by a little-known production company, and screenwriter Shanika Harris is frank about her lack of interest in stories about murder and desire to depict Horowitz and Hawthorne’s relationship as more tumultuous than it really is. After production gets underway, Horowitz and Hawthorne end up with a fresh homicide to investigate when David Caine, the rising star playing Hawthorne, is stabbed to death in his trailer. Though the initial inquiry focuses on Caine’s many enemies, Horowitz soon comes to suspect that the real Hawthorne was the intended target. As always, the author combines delicious dry humor with a rigorous fair-play whodunit, but this installment’s Scream-like Hollywood satire takes it to another level. This series is in peak form. (Apr.)