The Sentence is Death

Building from the Word is Murder to the The Sentence is Murder, Anthony Horowitz has topped the list of my favorite mystery writers.  I have watched all the Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War episodes on television and loved everyone of them.  I really must expand and read all his other books, including Alex Rider and the books written in the style of other writers whose estates have requested Horowitz to write for them.  he is extraordinary.

These mysteries though light, humorous and entertaining like a cozy mystery are so much more. 
The usual cozy mystery has become so popular and sometimes so formula and the dialog is repetitious , Horowitz has created such a clever, creative series for his detective series.
An ex police officer turned detective, Daniel Hawthorne is a difficult person for Horowitz to understand.  Horowitz writes, "But on a personal level I found him extremely trying. He was dark and solitary, refusing to tell me anything about himself even though I was supposed to be his biographer....If I had to choose to pluck a hero from real life, it certainly wouldn't have been him."

Horowitz plays Watson to Hawthorne's Holmes and mixes reality with fiction. 
He writes as if he is telling you about his real everyday life, working on the set of a Foyle's War taping when Daniel Hawthorne turns up and informs him there is a death they need to go investigate.

Incredible dialog is also a part of this great writing style.  Where other mysteries have mundane conversations that build on the formula to solve a crime, Horowitz creates well crafted intelligent dialog that makes the story move forward to is engaging on its own.  For example, a quote of creative dialog, "It was a joke."  "Not a very funny one."  "I don't think a joke has to be funny, Detective Inspector.  In my books, I use humour only to subvert the status quo.  If you've ever read the French philosopher Alain Badiou, you'll know that he defines jokes as a type of rupture that opens up truths. I actually met him at the Sorbonne, by the way.  He was a remarkable man.  By ridiculing my enemy, I defeat him. That was, the insight that Alain gave me and although I see no need to justify myself, that was precisely the mechanism I was using ..."
This is such creative, clever and caustic repartee, that it bring the barebones mystery novel to a higher level.

Off goes Horowitz following Hawthorne as he interviews suspects and witnesses.  Taking notes to write about how he solves the murder before the police can and Horowitz insisting that he is giving the reader all the information needed to solve the crime.  But, even though he is meticulously trying to keep track of all the clues and figure out the answer before Hawthorne, Hawthorne always seems to notice something or interpret something differently and come to the real conclusion when no one else does. 

So of course there are many red herrings and misdirections through out this mystery novel.  The plot unwinding and twisting beautifully in many directions.  A few subplots revealed as the book progresses that reader guessing until you think, "eureka, I've got it", and then as the final answer is uncovered you realize that Horowitz led you astray purposely and there is one more terrific twist.