.png)
A locked-room mystery has been a staple of detective fiction since Agatha Christie penned And Then There Were None. In Anthony Horowitz’s newest novel, A Line To Kill, the setting is the tiny island of Alderney in the English Channel. Our characters arrive there for a literary festival, and all the players have books to sell and secrets to hide. Horowitz is himself a main character who is at the festival with ex-detective inspector Daniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne’s cases are the subject of Horowitz’s latest book, and the two collaborators are a main draw to the festival. However, all is not well on Alderney. There is a feud over a proposed power line that has divided neighbor against neighbor.
The festival’s sponsor is Charles le Meseurier, an immensely wealthy and immensely unpleasant man whom everyone on the island dislikes. When he is found brutally murdered, the suspect list is long, literally, "a line to kill". Hawthorne and Horowitz are on hand to help the police investigate. Who on this tiny island is a murderer? Will there be another? Is anybody really safe? The author has written an entertaining novel of mystery, misdirection, and plot twists that keep readers on the edge of their seats. This is a mystery for anyone who is a fan of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and other writers of the Golden Age of detective fiction.
