They’re making a major feature film of the first Hawthorne/Horowitz mystery novel. Except—they’re behind schedule, they’ve run out of money and... oh! The star has just been murdered. Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne is dead. Or, rather, the actor playing him in the film adaptation of The Word is Murder is. Rising star David Caine has been stabbed, and it seems that everyone on the set had a motive. Caine had just fired his PA. He had fallen out with his director, slept with the screenwriter, humiliated his co-star and dropped his agent days before he was about to sign a multi-million-dollar deal to appear in the next Spider-Man movie. But what if Caine’s murderer had made a mistake? What if it was the real Hawthorne who was the intended victim? For it turns out that the brilliant detective may have got it wrong ten years earlier. An innocent man has died in jail. And perhaps someone has decided that Hawthorne must pay the price. From the film set on the south coast of England, the story moves to Reeth, in Yorkshire, the village where Hawthorne grew up. A burned-down school, a car accident that isn’t what it seems, blackmail and murder in an Elizabethan country house... somehow, they combine to unlock the secret of what has happened in Hastings. For once, the local police are helpful. DS Sarah Milnes gives Hawthorne carte blanche to investigate and there may even be a hint of romance in the air. Which leaves his hapless sidekick, Horowitz, on his own, stumbling his way to the truth. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; A Deadly Episode is an intriguing page-turner that once again demonstrates why Anthony Horowitz is the reigning king of the modern whodunit.
"Narrator Rory Kinnear returns to deliver private investigator Daniel Hawthorne, author Horowitz, and a host of new characters in the sixth addition to this metafictional series. A struggling production company is adapting the first Hawthorne/Horowitz novel for film, offering listeners an entertaining behind-the-scenes view of the challenges of translating from page to screen. Horowitz's mounting frustration is palpable as a young eco-warrior screenwriter reshapes his work. When the egotistical actor cast as Hawthorne is murdered, Hawthorne and Horowitz are pulled into investigative mode. Kinnear skillfully differentiates male voices through accent, tone, and pacing, though his voices for female characters are less credible.
Listeners new to the series will have no trouble stepping in and keeping pace with this engaging listen."
