by Anthony Horowitz, 2026, Audiobook narrated by Rory Kinnear, Harper Audio

I was looking forward to another Hawthorne and Horowitz mystery but was a bit disappointed with this one. It’s about a murder of one of the actors in the filming of the first book in the series, The Word is Murder. This book starts slowly as it depicts many conversations between Hawthorne and the various suspects as well as Horowitz’ thoughts about each one. As usual, Horowitz thinks he has it figured out, only to find that he is many steps behind Hawthorne.

As they try to unravel the murder, they find that there is a woman who is bartending in a local pub who is linked to a murder that occurred many years prior that Hawthorne investigated. The story then recounts what happened in that murder and Horowitz thinks he may be able to uncover some details of Hawthorne’s past. He gets close, but isn’t successful.

The narrator, Rory Kinnear, is excellent as usual. He not only captures Hawthorne’s character, but all of the others as well. He does the female characters particularly well.

I think that the author needs to move on to other subjects rather than recounting material from his prior novels. He needs to add more excitement.