sees everything and understands nothing as Hawthorne pulls off his incredible feats of deduction. As Close to Death begins, the fictional Anthony Horowitz is under deadline pressure from his publisher to produce a new volume in the popular series. The problem is, Hawthorne’s caseload won’t cooperate. Instead of Holmesian puzzlers, the detective has been working on solving mundane crimes that don’t become best-selling mysteries. So, Horowitz suggests the detective recount an earlier case from before the two met. Hawthorne reluctantly complies after warning the author he probably won’t like the ending (the first of many clever bits of foreshadowing in the book).

The murder in Close to Death takes place in Riverview Close, a private subdivision with six homes, the remnants of a former large estate on the Thames. The victim is Giles Kenworthy, the close’s newest resident, who was the proverbial neighbor from Hell. His family’s boorish conduct angered all the other residents, which led to someone shooting him with a bolt from a crossbow. That death is followed a couple of days later by the apparent suicide of Roderick Browne, the crossbow’s owner, under circumstances that suggest no one could have murdered him. Of course, anyone who has ever read this type of mystery knows that apparent suicides rarely are, especially when committed in locations that seem sealed off from an outside murderer’s access.

Take away the present-day framing device, and Close to Death is an excellent example of the Golden Age mysteries exemplified by the works of Agatha Christie (who gets a shout-out in the book). The characters are colorful, not the stereotypes readers often find in these books. Roderick Browne is the self-described “dentist to the stars.” (He has a picture of him with Ewen McGregor prominently displayed in his house.) Browne’s immediate next-door neighbors are a pair of 80ish former nuns who run a combination cafe and mystery bookstore appropriately called the Tea Cosy. Another neighbor is a chess grandmaster who has occasionally tangled with Magnus Carlsen.

The author also plays scrupulously fair with readers in the finest classical mystery tradition. He reveals every necessary bit of business, sometimes more than once. The locked room mystery’s solution is worthy of John Dickson Carr. It’s the type of elaborate scheme that mystery writers love to write and their fans love to read, but which may not hold up well on close examination. As you might expect, Hawthorne eventually confronts the killer and explains his reasoning and the howdunit aspects of the case in intricate detail.

However, there’s much more to Close to Death than an entertaining classical mystery. Anthony Horowitz has clearly enjoyed inserting himself in this series and continues that tradition here. He gives an autographed copy of an Alex Rider book to an investigating detective whose son is a big fan. He also drops hints about what’s coming in the James Bond series, including providing the main villain’s name. In the Acknowledgments at the end of Close to Death, Horowitz thanks some of the minor characters in the novel for helping him with the manuscript. In his last Hawthorne book, The Twist of a Knife, he’s even arrested for murder and hopes Hawthorne can clear him.

Although The Twist of a Knife might seem about as meta a mystery as possible, Horowitz has topped himself here. Once Hawthorne agrees to provide the author with details of the five-year-old case, he gives Horowitz extensive case notes and recordings made at the time. However, Hawthorne releases this information piecemeal so that Horowitz can only write a few chapters at a time as Hawthorne critiques them. He’s especially hard on Horowitz, who provides imagined (and incorrect) details about the characters’ physical appearance and other matters. So, Horowitz begins his own present-day investigation into the crime, interviewing the remaining residents of Riverview Chase and learning the fates of others. To paraphrase a character in the recent film, Madame Web: “Hawthorne novels are a whole new level of meta these days.”

In the end, readers get answers, both to the mysterious deaths at Riverview Close and Hawthorne’s equally mysterious past. That’s been a subtext of the Hawthorne novels from the beginning, as Horowitz tries to learn what makes his eccentric partner tick. Readers who have followed the series from the start will learn more about Hawthorne’s character here than in the other four novels combined, although many questions remain. Anthony Horowitz has said he envisioned telling Hawthorne’s story over ten volumes. However, there’s an air of possible finality here that might make Close to Death the final chapter in the saga. If so, it’s a great conclusion to a great concept from a highly talented mystery writer.  

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.