CLOSE TO DEATH (2024)

By Anthony Horowitz

Harper Penguin, 432 pages

★★★★★

 

Close to Death is subtitled “A Literary Whodunnit about a Murder in a Gated Community.” I’m sure every published author thinks their work is “literary;” Anthony Horowitz has the chops to say that without provoking an eye roll.

 

This is a continuation of the Hawthorne though in previous books, private investigator Daniel Hawthorne’s partner is John Dudley. Tony Horowitz’s role is akin to Dr. Watson’s in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels; he writes about how the cases were solved. Like Holmes, Hawthorne’s agency never takes credit for the solution; they allow local loan enforcement to wallow in kudos.

 

In Close to Death, Hawthorne and Dudley have parted ways and Horowitz has taken Dudley’s place. Is it literary to be a character, a guide, and the author of the same tale? If you can tell it like Horowitz, it does. The title is a pun. In England, a close as a small gated community, in this case, just six homes clustered around a half circle in Richmond Upon Thames.

 

Things have long been tranquil, but that changes when pushy social climbers Giles and Lynda Kenworthy buy the largest home in the Close. There is only one way around the half circle and the Kenworthys park so many cars there that it’s hard to get out. Their three kids are said to have ripped up flower beds, skateboarded underneath windows, and tossed a ball that smashed a chess set belonging into Adam Strauss. He is a ranked Chessmaster, who often wins matches in which he competes with more than 20 other opponents simultaneously. Adam insists the ball broke an invaluable set given to him by an Indian Raja, though the figures are from “Lord of the Rings” and appear to be plastic.

 

Others in the Close include Dr. Tom and Genna Beresford; Tom insists the Kenworthys are literally guilty of murder, as a patient died in his surgery because he couldn’t get out of the driveway blocked by the Kenworthys. Roderick Browne’s wife Felicity is an invalid, and the kids make noise that disturbs her rest. Mary Winslow and Phyllis Moore, two ex-nuns who also operate a mystery murder bookstore, think Giles threw their dog down a well, and even quiet Andrew Pennington, a retired attorney, thinks the new family is unfriendly.  

 

Adam calls a Close meeting and invites the Kentworthys to address the complaints. When they are no-shows, their thoughtfulness seems unbounded. When the family next announces plans to build a swimming pool that would uproot a beautiful magnolia tree, and the village council surprisingly approves the plan, Giles’s body is soon discovered outside his garage with a crossbow bolt in his throat.

 

Police Detective Tariq Khan comes to investigate the murder. The crossbow belonged to Roderick, but everyone in the Close–including Giles’ wife–had a murderous motive. Each also has an airtight alibi. So, who did it? Could it have been the gardener? Perhaps the Kenworthys’ Australian nanny? How about Lynda’s trainer who is probably her lover? Khan agrees to call in Hawthorne and Dudley to consult on the case. Dudley is unkempt and uncouth, and Hawthorne is a grating know-it-all. Khan is happy to dismiss them when Rodrick leaves a confession/suicide note ostensibly to spare Felicity more pain.

 

Five years later, Horwitz is Daniel’s new partner. He’s also a writer who owes his publisher a book but because Hawthorne has no new cases, Horwitz wants to write about the Close. He wonders why Daniel warns him not to touch the case. All of his reasons seem odd. Why can’t he ask Dudley about the case? Where is Dudley? Tony does some investigating of his own and lots of things don’t add up, including the number of meetings that were held. But things have changed and in the five years since the murder. Only Andrew and Lynda still live in the Close. Adam died a month after Giles by falling off a bridge, though no one saw him tumble. The more Tony ponders, the clearer it becomes that no one in the Close was who they appeared to be.

 

Yet his dilemma is the same as Hawthorne’s and Dudley’s: If everyone is a suspect, where do you turn? This novel has more red herrings than a large Dutch city! Horowitz’s multiple voices–in and separated by time–enhance the intrigue. Multiple people are fingered as the probable murderer, until they are not. This mystery will certainly engage your mind. It’s like a sophisticated game of Clue, except you can’t trust your gut, your logic, or any conclusion without reservation, even when Horowitz the writer offers one.

 

Rob Weir