Pun Salad

This is Anthony Horowitz's third book in his series featuring his fictional self accompanying the unconventional and inscrutable master detective Daniel Hawthorne. The idea is that Horowitz accompanies Hawthorne on his investigations in order to relate them in the very books you're reading. It's as if Sherlock's companion was not named "Watson", but "Arthur Conan Doyle".

Based on the recent publishing of the first novel in the series, Hawthorne and Horowitz get invited to a literary festival on the Channel Island of Alderney. (I was sure it was fictional, but it's not.) We're immediately plugged into a dizzying array of characters: the other authors who have been invited; the festival organizers; some of the island inhabitants; and one dark figure out of Hawthorne's past.

And of course, there's soon a grisly murder. Alderney barely has a police force, so Hawthorne gets roped into the investigation, with Horowitz tagging along as usual. I'm not a huge fan of these "find the murderer among these N colorful suspects", but I think Horowitz does a pretty good job of keeping it all moving along and interesting. At least there's no "You're probably wondering why I've gathered you here" scene" in which the killer is revealed.

And I see at Amazon that a fourth book in the series is coming out next month. I'm in.