British writer Anthony Horowitz has an impressive resume. He created the hit television show Foyle’s War for ITV, contributed scripts for Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Midsomer Murders, and is the author of a successful series of young adult novels featuring teenage spy Alex Rider. In 2011, meanwhile, he penned The House of Silk – the first new Sherlock Holmes novel ever commissioned by the Conan Doyle Estate – and was likewise commissioned by the estate of Ian Fleming to craft a James Bond novel based on unpublished material written by Fleming.
Seven years later, Horowitz decided to not just write about famous spies and detectives created by others but to introduce a new criminal investigator of his own instead. Since every good crime fighter needs a sidekick, Anthony Horowitz likewise chose to break down the fourth wall and cast himself in the role as a bumbling John Watson haplessly assisting the more brilliant Sherlock Holmes stand-in Daniel Hawthorne.
Introduced in 2018’s The Word Is Murder, Hawthorne is a former British police detective fired from the job for allegedly pushing a suspected pedophile down a set of stairs. Despite an abrasive personality, his ability to close murder cases at a higher rate than anyone else in the department is a skill still sought after despite his employment status, and Hawthorne is often tasked as an independent consultant to assist on cases that lack a clear cut solution.
As for the Anthony Horowitz of The Word is Murder, he is a part-factual, part-fictional amalgamation of the bestselling author who often digresses within the pages of the novel to reflect on his real-world career, making The Word is Murder and its 2019 follow-up The Sentence is Death part memoir to go along with their murder mystery storylines. It is within this intersection of the factual and fictional that the paths of Hawthorne and Horowitz initially cross, as well as the basis for their unlikely partnership.
While creating a five-part legal drama for ITV called Injustice (fact), Horowitz was in need of a police consultant to assist with making the series ring true (also fact) and Daniel Hawthorne was recommended and hired (fiction). While Hawthorne turned out to be a valuable asset with keen insight into criminal investigations, Anthony Horowitz found him “menacing, borderline racist, chippy and aggressive” and thus did not form any sort of relationship with Hawthorne beyond the professional.
Close to a year later, however, Hawthorne calls Horowitz and asks if they could meet. Although reluctant, Horowitz agrees and is taken by surprise by what Hawthorne proposes. “The thing is, you see – and to be honest, I don’t like to mention this – I’m a bit short,” he tells Horowitz. “There just aren’t enough people getting murdered. And when I met you on that TV show of yours and heard that you write books, I had this idea that actually we could help each other. Fifty-fifty. I get some really interesting stuff. You can write about me.”
Obviously Anthony Horowitz has no intentions of taking Hawthorne up on his offer, but the case that Hawthorne is working on intrigues him nonetheless – an elderly woman walks into a funeral parlor to arrange her own funeral and is then murdered six hours later. Horowitz also has dreams of breaking out of the Alex Rider young adult fiction that he is best known for and becoming a mystery writer with a more adult fan base instead.
Add the fact that every writer fears that they might be passing on the next big thing, and Horowitz eventually – reluctantly – agrees. Not a day goes by, however, that he doesn’t regret the decision but by then he is too invested in the murder and feels compelled to see it through to the end no matter how difficult Hawthorne makes his life in the meantime.
And Hawthorne does indeed do just that. Just as the factual Anthony Horowitz was hired to write the script for a follow-up film based on the Belgian comic The Adventures of Tintin, so has the fictional Horowitz. Steve Spielberg – who directed the first film – was set to produce, with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson taking the helm behind the camera, in both the real world as well as that of The Word is Murder.
In the fictional world, however, both Spielberg and Jackson travel to London to meet with Horowitz and discuss the first draft of the script he has completed. Horowitz is nervous – working with the likes of Spielberg and Jackson would obviously be the highlight of anyone’s career – but before the meeting begins, a door swings open and Daniel Hawthorne enters. The funeral of the woman who was murdered is taking place that morning, and Hawthorne insists that Horowitz accompany him. Eventually Hawthorne notices Steven Spielberg – who he vaguely recognizes – but is more impressed by Peter Jackson.
“You did those three films,” he gushes. “The Lord of the Rings! I watched them on DVD with my son. He thought they were great. The first one, anyway. He wasn’t too sure about the second. We didn’t much like those trees. The talking trees. We thought they were stupid. And Gandalf. I thought he was dead and I was a bit surprised when he turned up again. The actor who played him, Ian McEwan, he was a bit over the top.”
“Sir Ian McKellen,” Jackson corrects. “He was nominated for an Oscar.”
“That may be the case,” Hawthorne counters. “But did he win it?”
Needless to say, it was the last meeting that Anthony Horowitz would ever have with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.
In addition to such intrusions into his private life, Horowitz is equally frustrated by Hawthorne’s unwillingness to talk about himself and the fact that the author is always one step behind his more intelligent counterpart. Determined not to play the bumbling Watson to Hawthorne’s Holmes, Horowitz makes a personal vow in The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death to solve the crime first. He not only gets it wrong in both cases, but almost gets himself killed by the actual murderer as well.
“What on earth have you been doing?” his wife asks him at the end of The Word is Murder. “You could have been killed. And you’re not really going to write about it, are you? You’ll look ridiculous!” She offers the same sentiment in The Sentence is Death. “You can’t keep ending your books with somebody trying to kill you,” she says. “People aren’t going to believe it.”
The remark is irrelevant, as Anthony Horowitz has succeeded in crafting a new Sherlock Holmes for the twenty-first century in the form of Daniel Hawthorne. More importantly, breaking down the fourth wall and transforming himself into a pseudo John Watson not only adds comic relief but biographical insight into the life of an accomplished television creator and novelist, making The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death a success themselves on a multitude of levels.
Anthony Letizia