Another winner from Anthony Horowitz. A murder mystery told with wit and red herrings aplenty. Thank you to netgalley and random house for an advance copy of this book

Thanks to Random House for a review copy. This novel is the third in the Daniel Hawthorne series (after ‘The Word is Murder’ and ‘The Sentence is Death’). Anthony Horowitz is the first person narrator of these stories acting as a sidekick-type character to former police detective Daniel Hawthorne. This is a very clever and effective way of anchoring the novels firmly into the real world and makes them very believable. Although ‘A Line to Kill’ stands perfectly well on its own I would recommend reading the series in order as the characters of Hawthorne and Horowitz are developed through the books as is their somewhat spiky but nevertheless endearing relationship with each other. There are also references (though no outright spoilers) to events in the previous novels which would obviously only make sense to those who had read them. As usual in these stories all the clues are there, Anthony Horowitz plays a totally fair game with the reader though, certainly as far as I am concerned, he wins every time. I was proud of myself for seeing through some of his subterfuges this time but when it came to picking out the killer, not to mention the motive, I was, as ever totally off target. Whilst these books are excellent entertainment there is food for thought in them too. It is often said that those ‘lucky’ enough to have gone to independent schools enjoy advantages in life not available to others. To some extent that is certainly true, especially now that there is a good deal more emphasis on welfare and safeguarding, but the bullying, both physical and psychological, described by one character who was at boarding schools in the 1980s is certainly neither exaggerated nor fictitious. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was delighted by the very clear intention to continue the series which was signalled by the events at the very end. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good detective story (with the added bonus of being set on the beautiful island of Alderney). I can’t wait to see what this ill matched but hugely lovable pair get up to next.

This is as engaging, funny, wry and clever as the other Anthony Horowittz's I have read. I think it is such a clever and self-deprecating way of playing with the genre and I love the behind scenes of the publishing world too, The plot is fast paced and lots of clues and red herrings thrown in- masterful. Thank you for the proof- I will be buying for the library and look forward to book four and indeed a tv series??

This is the first book in this series that I have actually read as I listened to the previous two as audiobooks. The audiobooks earned three stars but this book was much more enjoyable for me and it gets five stars. A great plot with Anthony again appearing as first person narrator and running himself down as well as a few instances of mentioning his successes. Hawthorne is his usual taciturn but brilliant self - the pair of them really are an excellent modern day Watson and Holmes. Alderney was a good setting with plenty going on, both past and present. An excellent read for which I thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author who provided me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was given a review copy of this by Netgalley. I had already read The Word Is Murder and The Sentence Is Death and loved them both, so I was delighted to be reading this, the third in the Hawthorne series by Horowitz. This time the action is set on Guernsey and centres on the small community on the island and the tensions of living cheek by jowl, local politics play their part and it is all set against a glorious lampoon of what it is like to be a speaker in a literary festival. As ever, Horowitz pitches the line between sending himself up and the macabre twists and turns of a classic whodunnit perfectly. It's best to read these in order and you won't be sorry if you haven't read them yet. They're a treat.