The second in the Horowitz and Hawthorne detective series, this installment sees Horowitz’s namesake writer following ex-police private detective, Hawthorne, as he investigates the murder of a divorce lawyer in a tony London neighbourhood. As you might suspect for a lawyer, in particular a divorce lawyer, the victim had many enemies and the detecting team have quite a task in front of them.
This was a quick and fun romp through London, with a side trip to the Yorkshire dales. Horowitz the author has a long pedigree in mystery writing (Midsomer Mysteries for one) and its evident in how entertaining and well plotted this novel was. [Sidenote: I’m not sure where the character Horowitz and the author Horowitz diverge, but I don’t think it really matters].
A note on sequential reading: I missed the first book in the series and although it would give more backstory to the characters and their relationship, it certainly isn’t essential to understanding the novel. I will be going back to read the first one, but largely because of how much I enjoyed this one, not because it is essential to understanding the series.