Anthony Horowitz teases Detective Hawthorne TV series and reveals biggest fear about 12-book plan

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Anthony Horowitz is facing a challenge – actually, both of them are. The real Anthony Horowitz, a 71-year-old author I recently disturbed while he was jotting down notes for his popular Detective Hawthorne crime novels, has a problem. It’s possible these notes will even appear in the seventh book of the series.

The same goes for the fictional Anthony Horowitz, who appears as a character alongside Hawthorne in these books. Still following? Get ready, because things are about to get even more self-aware… but also, not actually real.

Anthony Horowitz’s new book, A Deadly Episode, is a mystery about the murder of an actor portraying the detective Hawthorne. The actor was killed while filming the movie adaptation of Horowitz’s own novel, The Word Is Murder—the first book in the Hawthorne series.

Okay, so things get really meta in this one. I’m brought in to investigate a murder, but I’m paired with…well, another Anthony Horowitz. It’s complicated! This other Horowitz is supposed to be the author of the book we’re in, and even the author of the first book in the series, yet he’s completely clueless about who the killer is. Honestly, that’s the central puzzle – figuring out why this Anthony Horowitz is so lost, and how we’re going to solve the case when the supposed author is drawing a blank.

The man sitting across from me at London’s Ivy Club is clearly preoccupied. He explains that his character, Anthony, is constantly worried that the detective, Hawthorne, will either fail to solve the mystery – meaning no book at all – or solve it too quickly, resulting in a very short story. This is how the actual author, Horowitz, describes his character’s internal conflict.

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I’m really worried because I’ve uncovered so much about Hawthorne and the source of his pain in this latest story, ‘A Deadly Episode,’ more than in all the previous five books combined. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t think I can finish the series – my plan was to write twelve books, but now that I know the truth about him, I just don’t see how I can continue writing these stories.

It’s unlikely, considering how much this well-known author typically plans ahead. He usually has the outlines for at least his next three books already written by hand, and his wife, Jill – who also happens to be a TV producer and appears as a character in his books – reads each draft first.

He doesn’t need to search for inspiration for his characters; he finds plenty among the people he works with. Most of them realize they might end up in one of his books, though a former detective who helped him with a TV show – and served as the basis for a character named Hawthorne – doesn’t seem to know he played a part.

Okay, this is a bit of a weird one! It turns out my editor, Selena Walker, actually was a character in a book! I found out yesterday while speaking in Hungerford – a lovely woman named Susan Lamb came up to me afterwards. She used to be my editor and publisher at Orion, and she’s the inspiration for Susan Ryeland, the detective in the Magpie Murders trilogy – Lesley Manville plays her. It’s a funny little connection, because Ryeland is a type of lamb! I’ve always loved a good pun and a clever wordplay, so I found the whole thing rather delightful.

I’ve always loved how much the creator cares about his characters. He told me the idea for ‘A Deadly Episode’ actually started with a personal annoyance! He thought about how frustrating everyday things can be, and how that frustration could, in a really extreme way, push someone over the edge and even… well, to murder. It’s fascinating how he connects with what his actors are playing, imagining what they might feel in those situations.

My characters don’t enjoy killing; they’re typically driven to it by fear, a need to hide something, or self-preservation. Whether motivated by sorrow or a desire for revenge, I view the forces that lead someone to murder as a kind of sickness. I don’t condone their actions, but I do feel sympathy for them when their story is revealed, because they didn’t intentionally become killers.

It’s no surprise Horowitz has a long list of TV credits, including the very first episode of Midsomer Murders, “The Killings at Badger’s Drift.” He jokes that the show requires viewers to willingly accept a part of England where people are constantly being murdered in unusual ways – like with croquet mallets or rolling cheeses.

Authors

Bill Borrows

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2026-05-11 19:49