Tag: NetGalley November

#BookReview The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz

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The Sentence is DeathAbout the Book

“You shouldn’t be here. It’s too late…”

These, heard over the phone, were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer. Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death in his bachelor pad with a bottle of wine – a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth £3,000, to be precise.

Odd, considering he didn’t drink. Why this bottle? And why those words? And why was a three-digit number painted on the wall by the killer? And, most importantly, which of the man’s many, many enemies did the deed?

Baffled, the police are forced to bring in Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, the author Anthony, who’s really getting rather good at this murder investigation business.

But as Hawthorne takes on the case with characteristic relish, it becomes clear that he, too, has secrets to hide. As our reluctant narrator becomes ever more embroiled in the case, he realises that these secrets must be exposed – even at the risk of death…

Format: Hardback (384 pages)            Publisher: Century
Publication date: 1st November 2018 Genre: Crime

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My Review

The Sentence is Death is the second book in the author”s crime mystery series featuring former Detective Inspector turned private investigator Daniel Hawthorne, and his often hapless sidekick, one Anthony Horowitz. I’m a huge fan of the series and, in fact, I’ve read all the other books – The Word is Murder, A Line to Kill and The Twist of a Knife. This one completes the set. It’s also one of the books on my list for the #NetGalleyNovember reading challenge having been languishing on my NetGalley shelf for four years.

I always imagine Anthony Horowitz chuckling away to himself as he writes these books because of our narrator’s constant grumbling about how he would much rather be writing fiction than, in his role as Hawthorne’s biographer, dutifully documenting the progress of the investigation, and how he wishes he could include scenes that would be more exciting for the reader. ‘Sadly, none of these possibilities were available to me. I was stuck with the facts. My job was to follow Hawthorne’s investigation, setting down his questions and occasionally trying, without much success, to make sense of the answers. It was really quite frustrating. It wasn’t so much writing as recording.’

Horowitz longs to find out more about Hawthorne, more than just that he likes constructing Airfix models, belongs to a book club and is a chain smoker. He’s also intrigued by Hawthorne’s past, convinced there is some secret to do with Hawthorne’s dismissal from the police force, and eagerly collecting any scrap of information. Hawthorne’s plain-speaking and non-PC views also concern him. After documenting one particular conversation, he protests ‘I can’t put that sort of stuff in the book… People won’t like it… They won’t like you’.

Horowitz acts as a kind of Dr Watson to Hawthorne’s Sherlock Holmes, even if Hawthorne is rather scathing about the abilities of Conan Doyle’s fictional creation. Anthony is always one step behind when it comes to spotting the clues that will lead to the identity of the murderer. Actually, that’s a bit unfair; he often spots the clues but reaches a completely wrong conclusion about what they mean.  From time to time he gets a little disgruntled at Hawthorne’s unwillingness to share his thoughts on the case. ‘Whenever Hawthorne saw anything or worked something out, he deliberately kept it from me as if the whole thing was some sort of game.’

Each of the book’s cast of characters at one point or another appears to have the motive, means and opportunity to have committed the murder of Richard Pryce. As Horowitz innocently observes, ‘It was almost as if they were queuing up to be suspects’. There are the usual red herrings and false trails beloved of crime novelists, as well as cast-iron alibis than turn out to be anything but. Horowitz also comes up against the formidable DI Cara Grunshaw who is determined to beat Hawthorne to an arrest and doesn’t much care what she has to do to achieve it.

Alongside the investigation, there are references to the author’s work – his Alex Rider series, his Sherlock Holmes novels and his TV drama Foyles War – but these are balanced by his self-deprecating observations. There is also some gentle poking of fun at the snobbery of the literary establishment. And I suspect the author had a lot of fun writing the excerpt from a Game of Thrones-like fantasy novel.

The Sentence is Death is a clever, witty and thoroughly entertaining murder mystery.

Try something similar: A Three Dog Problem by S. J. Bennett

AnthonyHorowitzAbout the Author

Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz has written two highly acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk and Moriarty; three James Bond novels, Trigger Mortis, Forever and a Day and With a Mind to Kill; the acclaimed bestselling mystery novels Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders and the Detective Hawthorne novels, The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, A Line To Kill, and the latest A Twist of Knife.

He is also the author of the teen spy Alex Rider series, and responsible for creating and writing some of the UK’s most loved and successful TV series, including Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War. In January 2022 he was awarded a CBE for his services to literature.

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#BookReview The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner

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The Weather WomanAbout the Book

Neva Friezland is born into a world of trickery and illusion, where fortunes can be won and lost on the turn of a card.

She is also born with an extraordinary gift. She can predict the weather. In Regency England, where the proper goal for a gentlewoman is marriage and only God knows the weather, this is dangerous. It is also potentially very lucrative.

In order to debate with the men of science and move about freely, Neva adopts a sophisticated male disguise. She foretells the weather from inside an automaton created by her brilliant clockmaker father.

But what will happen when the disguised Neva falls in love with a charismatic young man?

It can be very dangerous to be ahead of your time. Especially as a woman.

Format: Hardback (496 pages)                 Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 10th November 2022   Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

The fact the heroine of the book, Neva, can predict the weather might give you the idea this is a book with a strong element of fantasy. However, although Neva’s gift is inexplicable, it seemed to me she just has a different way of seeing the world. In fact she struggles to comprehend that others cannot read the clouds as she can. ‘Her gift, she thinks, outdoes rational thought, making her an island utterly disconnected from others.’ Her gifts don’t stop with forecasting the weather because she also perceives people’s emotions in the form of colours – what we might now describe as synesthesia – and is a chess prodigy.

Initially her weather forecasts are treated with sceptism but gradually the person she has come to think of as her father, Victor Friezland, realises her predictions are always right. You could bet your house on the fact that if she says it’s going to rain at a certain hour on a certain day, it will. However Regency England isn’t ready for someone who can predict the weather, and certainly not if that person is a woman. And received ‘wisdom’ is that the weather is a product of chaos, not something that can be predicted by scientific, or any other, means.

Although constructed with the best of intentions in order to protect Neva’s identity, Victor’s Weather Woman automaton turns her predictions into purely a source of entertainment – or means of personal gain – for the aristocracy, not something that could be of genuine benefit. ‘Again she thinks of mariners who sail into storms and ships that are wrecked on rocks. What use is this gift, what use? she asks herself.’ And Neva longs to discuss her views with others, especially her observations on the impact of human activity on the weather. ‘I think perhaps the vapours produced by the industries of men can change the colours in the sky.’ However, as we are frequently reminded, this is a world run by men. As a result, Neva adopts a male persona – Eugene Jonas – whom she thinks of as her ‘second skin’, allowing her to go where a woman cannot. However, as it turns out, the brilliance of her disguise has unintended consequences.

From the early focus on Neva’s weather forecasting ability, the later part of the book introduces a mystery element and a number of romantic story lines. Some of these are incredibly touching and may leave you slightly tearful on occasions. The colourful cast of characters gives the book a real Dickensian feel with some of my favourites being Ebenezer Ratchet and his dog, Old Bones, and the formidable fixer-in-chief, Mrs Dent. I also had a soft spot for the lovelorn Mr Gutteridge, Victor’s legal advisor. And I particularly liked how the author included a number of characters in unconventional relationships (for the times) such as Mr James, who advises Neva on how to convincingly pass as a man, and Lady Elizabeth Wardell. There are characters for whom you will feel sympathy and those for whom you will feel no sympathy whatsoever.

There are wonderfully whimsical elements to the book, such as a chess-playing bear and a bet involving a live herring. There are also brilliant descriptions of London life including the frost fairs on the River Thames that open and close the book. All in all, The Weather Woman is a delightful historical novel with some unforgettable characters.

I received a digital review copy via NetGalley.

In three words: Charming, imaginative, romantic

Try something similar: The Doll Factory by Elizabeth MacNeal

Sally GardnerAbout the Author

Sally Gardner grew up and still lives in London. Being dyslexic, she did not learn to read or write until she was fourteen and had been thrown out of several schools, labeled unteachable, and sent to a school for maladjusted children. Despite this, she gained a degree with highest honors at a leading London art college, followed by a scholarship to a theater school, and then went on to become a very successful costume designer, working on some notable productions.

After the births of twin daughters and a son, she started first to illustrate and then to write picture books and chapter books, usually with fairytale- or otherwise magical subject matter. She has been called ‘an idiosyncratic genius’ by London’s Sunday Times. (Photo: Twitter profile)

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