A bit of a different one this time as it features a previous case of Hawthorne's. Part cosy crime, part locked room mystery, and part masterful plot impossible to unravel, it's a good one. I certainly didn't guess the culprit(s). It features some interesting characters, some not quite who they seem (naturally), and the glorious background of a very select residential area in Richmond. I loved the map.

Convoluted but very readable with a satisfying, if complicated, conclusion.

A little different this one in the Hawthorne & Horowitz series in that this is supposedly a case that Hawthorne had before Horowitz and his sidekick is different. Hawthorne couldn't solve it apparently and Horowitz has him and the notes to refer to in order to write his new novel about Hawthorne.

This one is a little cul-de-sac where there are a few houses and all the neighbours of the victim have potentially the same motive for the killing but just who did it. Hawthorne was called in to consult and solve. The big question is can he solve and if he can, is it possible to prove who did it and how.

There is quite the cast from two old ladies who have a book shop selling only cosy mysteries to a chess master to a doctor and more but none are what they seem at first and all want rid of the murdered man who moved in and upset the status quo and rubbed his neighbours up the wrong way to the point of murder.

Horowitz and Hawthorne take you through his notes and what they saw at the time and when he thinks there isn't a book as it is unsolved (is it?), the irrepressible Hawthorne says it is all their for Horowitz to read and solve himself. All the clues and how but can he do it and work it out.

Well I don't want to ruin it but if you like these where Horowitz writes the book and is part of it with Hawthorne then you won't be disappointed. It is a good read and a good mystery and I enjoyed it.

I've read all the others in this series and find them eminently readable, and also, you never know exactly where they are going to go plot wise as Anthony Horowitz is the narrator and main character, and he has a complicated relationship with his fictional detective, Daniel Hawthorne. In many ways this was a good murder mystery set within the framework of the Horowitz / Hawthorne relationship, with well written characters. Many of the characters in the Close are retired, and they reminded me of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club books.

Now this _was_ a series that was definitely getting stale but I was pleased to receive the #arc from #netgalley because they are a comfortable, easy read.

Well, Horowitz has undone the musty odour and refreshed his style. A big chunk at the start if the book is told in an old-fashioned, Agatha Christie-esque style rust makes you forget it's the self insert genre.

It doesn't end in a particularly satisfactory manner, but not everything in life is all neatly packaged with a bow on top!

Unlike recent Hawthorne books, this one opens with the description of a select close in Richmond, where a new neighbour is causing problems, and looks very like a “cosy crime”.
It transpires that this is one of Hawthorne’s previous cases, from several years ago, and he is passing the details to Anthony in a piecemeal fashion.
Hawthorne also has a different sidekick , Dudley, who is documenting his actions.
Needless to say, there are several deaths, lots of red herrings, and another attempt to find out about Hawthorne’s past, which doesn’t go well, as well as trying to establish Dudley’s whereabouts.
And a locked room (garage) mystery, immediately after stating that he doesn’t approve of locked room mysteries.
I enjoy how the author is playing with the genre, and look forward to where the duo of Hawthorne and Horowitz go next.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the opportunity to read this book.

This was the first book I'd read in this series and it was ok but not what I expected . I enjoyed the Hawthorne chapters about the murder investigation, they kind of had a cozy mystery feel about them. However, the Horowitz parts just felt completely unnecessary and didn't really add anything to the overall story. The ending felt strange and didn't really feel satisfying and fell a bit flat. Just about an average read for me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

Another book featuring the ex detective inspector Daniel Hawthorne. This one is different because it is an old case and Hawthorne was assisted by John Dudley ex police who left the Bristol force in mysterious circumstances. However the author has been tasked with writing the book.
Although Hawthorne is reluctant to have a book written about this particular case, he gives the author all the notes and recordings. Riverview Close is an upmarket development in Richmond near London, close to the river Thames. It was built on the site of a once royal residence.
The house named
the Stables is owned by a chess grandmaster and his chinese wife. Adam and Teri Strauss. Well House is owned by retired Barrister and widower Andrew Pennington. The Gables has two ex nuns and widows May Winslow and Phyllis Moore living there. Residing in the Woodlands are the dentist ( to the stars ) Rodney Browne and his wife Felicity. On the other side of the close Gardner's Cottage is owned by doctor Tom Beresford and wife Gemma. Finally at the head of the close Riverview Lodge has hedge fund manager Giles Kenworthy and his wife Lynda residing with their two children.
For a variety of reasons tempers and emotions are running high and death will visit Riverview Close!
Another well written and excellently plotted book from this very good author. Recommended.

Utterly absorbing and seriously strange. It’s not like any story I’ve read before and I’ll definitely be reading more by Anthony Horowitz.

4.5*
Close To Death doesn’t follow the same format as the previous Hawthorne and Horowitz books in that Horowitz isn’t Hawthorne’s sidekick at the time of this particular crime. In fact they’re hardly in contact. Hawthorne had teamed up with someone he’d worked with before, and Horowitz plays his part as he’s charged with writing a book several years after a murder has taken place as there is nothing current. The murder has already been solved, although Horowitz isn’t given the name of the perpetrator. He has to weave the story from Hawthorne’s notes and evidence gathered in order to fulfil his contract for the next book.

Five years previously in a small, quietly exclusive gated community of half a dozen houses lived an assortment of neighbours, including an ex chess champion, two elderly ladies, a dentist, a barrister and a doctor. All was harmonious, with the residents socialising together and getting on famously. Then the Kenworthy family arrived and antagonised the rest of the close with noise at all hours, inconsiderate parking, with their fleet of cars, large motor home and unruly children.

The breaking points were a needless death and planning applications so it’s no surprise who was murdered…in a very unusual way. All of the residents in Riverside Close were under suspicion for varying reasons…but they all had alibis.

The first few chapters deal with the events in Riverside Close as it introduces the well defined residents and their situations. Thereafter the narrative alternates between the present and past as Horowitz tries to work through the information he has and turn it into a book. It’s not an proving easy task.

I enjoyed Close To Death despite the altered format, although I do like Hawthorne and Horowitz working together. The plot is detailed with twists and misleading clues that help to keep up the momentum. In effect, this is locked room mystery with a nod to classic crime – the suspects in the same place, and not all is as it seems as Horowitz interviews some of the residents in the present as he follows up on Hawthorne’s initial notes. Secrets are there to be uncovered and everyone had a motive for the murder. An excellent story with an imaginative and well delivered plot.

My thanks for the eARC from Penguin via NetGalley

I absolutely love this series, with Anthony Horowitz as the long-suffering sidekick to former Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne. In this novel, Horowitz is told he has a contact to write a new book, but currently there is no case going on, so it is suggested he focus on an old case that Hawthorne was involved in with his previous assistant, John Dudley.

This case revolves around a gated community in Richmond, Riverview Close, with a number of expensive houses and wealthy residents, including a chess grand master, a dentist to the famous, a doctor and his jewellery designer wife, two elderly ladies, a retired lawyer and, well, the new family in the Close, the odious Giles Kenworthy, his wife and sons. A man who does everything he can to upset the harmonious balance amongst previously happy neighbours, including blocking driveways, playing loud music, wishing to build a swimming pool and other minor nuisances which build up. When he is found murdered, Hawthorne is called in as a consultant.

Given the paperwork from the case, Horowitz is, as always, working with as much knowledge as Hawthorne cares to disclose. He has no idea who has committed the murder and we follow both the investigation by Hawthorne and that by Horowitz. In addition, Horowitz is keen to try to discover more about the intensely secretive Hawthorne's past and do a little digging of his own....

If you have not started this series, I would suggest starting from the first book, as you will have a greater idea of the characters involved and their meaning. However, you could certainly read this as a stand-alone mystery, but ideally go back to the beginning. Anthony Horowitz has created a series which is unique in my experience. He is wonderfully self-deprecating - for instance, letting slip that the play he had written in the previous book had been a flop and, as always disgruntled over his agent's relationship with Hawthorne. Loved this - I am visiting a talk by Mr Horowitz next month and I am really looking forward to hearing him speak. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I really enjoyed this, I haven’t read any others in the series and had to quickly google the format to see if it was actually real or not.. that’s how well written it was.
There are no characters that you particularly like which is unusual in terms of the suspects!

Great all the way through

In 'Close to Death', Anthony Horowitz does not reprise the role of Watson to Hawthorne's Sherlock. Instead he undertakes to write a novel based upon a past Hawthorne investigation; one where he was accompanied by John Dudley (an ex police officer) and investigates a murder in a quiet close in Richmond. There a neighbour dispute about parking, flower beds and dogs sneaking under fences, ends with a murder and whilst initially the police feel out of their depth and call in Hawthorne to investigate, quite quickly there appears an obvious solution accompanied by a confession. However, Hawthorne isn't convinced and Horowitz is warned repeatedly that he won't like the outcome of the investigation.

Unlike previous books where Horowitz like Watson is part of the action and chronicles events in the first person, much of this novel is in the third person, with passages where Horowitz describes meeting with Hawthorne about the book, and his own attempts to make sense of the story. For me, using this device this novel was far more successful than its previous counterparts, partly because I've found the character Horowitz gives himself in these novels pretty narcissistic and smug. Initially, I felt the cutting back to Horowitz from the third person took away from the action, but overtime I liked this way of playing with the idea that the novelist is describing a real murder as opposed to a fictional one. Overall this is a very successful novel that I would recommend.

Anthony Horowitz has once again returned to his strange series of novels in which he features as a character, alongside fictional detective Daniel Hawthorne. I like Horowitz's crime novels - he writes well, and has a gift for constructing the sort of twisty, enjoyable 'cosy' mysteries that are popular with me and many other readers. I just wish he'd stop this particular series. The actual crime story here could be told without needing the bizarre intrusion of Horowitz as a character, busily name dropping as many of his awards, other works and successes as possible whilst also claiming to be a terrible bumbler in the world of 'real' crime - which clearly isn't real. It's a concept I've never liked and hasn't grown on me with time.

Having said that, I did still read this, the fifth in the series. Despite my irritation with the concept, it's not great enough to outweigh my liking for Horowitz's mysteries themselves and his style of writing. Leave aside all the nonsense with Horowitz-the-character generally putting his foot in it and being exceptionally dense and irritating, the central plot is decent. A murder has taken place of an unpleasant investment banker right at his own front door in a wealthy gated street in Richmond. Every one of his neighbours had good reason to dislike him - he was locked in some form of dispute with all of them. Hawthorne is sent in to help the police solve the crime.

Unlike the other books in this series, Horowitz does not follow Hawthorne around himself. The crime took place several years earlier and Horowitz must piece together the narrative from Hawthorne's notes, and those of Hawthorne's assistant at the time. Horowitz's irritation at discovering such a person existed leads him to blunder about trying to find out more about the detective with predictably poor consequences. In fact Horowitz's jealousy towards his predecessor is really strange given that he was never enthusiastic about writing the books to start with and doesn't even like Hawthorne much. It feels like the concept, never good to begin with, is being stretched too far now.

If you like murder mysteries and 'cosy crime', it's worth reading, although you are spoiled for choice in this genre. If you only want to read a couple of cosy crime novels a year, then don't put this at the top of the list. Horowitz's 'Magpie Murders' and 'Moonflower Murders' are much better choices.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this, I have to confess that I have not read any of the previous books in the series but I don’t feel like that detracted anything from the experience, this was a great book, very well written, there is a classic whodunnit and it keeps you on your toes throughout with the different timelines. The fact that the writer acknowledges the fact that he is writing it feels quite meat at times but I feel like makes the story more interesting. Over all really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend

Another great book in the Hawthorne series. Not my favourite as simply not enough of the narrator! A private close in Richmond where everyone has a motive. More back story for Hawthorne but much more to come I hope.

A different crime for Anthony this time as there hasn’t been any murders for Hawthorne to solve their agent suggests Anthony writes about an old case of Hawthorne’s. A murder in a exclusive close in Richmond. Anthony is also determined to find out more about Hawthorne’s life with disastrous consequences. An enjoyable read with an ever changing culprit

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz
This is the 5th book in the series featuring Horowitz and Hawthorne and I have enjoyed them all so far. This one is slightly different in that it does not feature a ‘live’ case but one which occurred a few years before. Hawthorne was again brought in to help the police and he was working alongside someone else, not Horowitz. It focuses on the death of an unpopular man who lived in an exclusive close. All of the people in the close are suspects and we gradually find out more about them all. Each one, it seems, has something they want to hide from others. There is a mixture throughout of first and third person and we see different perspectives on the people involved and the crime committed.
I enjoyed the mystery and did not work out who the rer was through the clues that were given but it kept me engaged throughout. I did not find it my favourite of the series but I did not miss some of Hawthorne’s foibles and attitudes.
I will be recommending it to others in my book group. Many thanks for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

This is the fifth book in the Hawthorn and Horowitz series, but the first one I have read. The mystery to be solved involves a gated community, effectively making this a locked room murder mystery. There didn't seem to be much in the way of sleuthing going on, rather the story revolved around the characters, in particular Horowitz trying to find out more about Hawthorne. The book started off well with a classic murder mystery style setting of the scene. However, I was rather thrown by the sections in which Horowitz appears as a character as they interrupted the pace and added a somewhat surreal feel to the book. Perhaps if I had read the earlier books in the series it would have felt less strange. The ending was disappointing, but again, if I'd read the other books it might have made more sense. Nevertheless, this was a quick read and I did get into the idea of the author as a character after a while.

I absolutely loved how this book was written. I think have the author himself as the narrator and flicking between that and the story he was writing really made the book very interesting to read. It’s very cleverly written and really entertaining to read.

Horowitz is the master of well-clued mysteries and twisty plots. This book is no exception. It diverges from the usual first-person meta fiction perspective for the main plot, but this brings a new angle on the (can we call it long-running yet?) Hawthorne series.