On 'Extra-Curriculars' and Anthony Horowitz's The Twist of A Knife

March 09, 2024

At the bus-stop with my copy of The Twist of A Knife by Anthony Horowtiz 
Good afternoon beautiful people,

I am officially a coffee and theatre person.

I never thought those two words, coffee and theatre, would be part of my descriptors, but here we are. Do not get it twisted though, I still love my tea; but on those dark winter mornings, a girl needs something strong to jumpstart the system. I am also reading theatre related material with my latest dig being The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz.
What are the odds of getting a book by a British writer in a roadside library modeled after a London Telephone Booth? 
I got my copy from a roadside library (we have a couple of those in Lancaster) - and once I give a synopsis of the book, I bet you will be able to figure out why I chose it. This novel is a semi-fictional who-done-it story within a story, set in London’s Vaudeville Theatre (and surrounding areas).

It takes us through the investigation of a theatre critic’s murder. The critic, Harriet Throsby, was stabbed in her house the morning after the opening of Mindgame at Vaudeville Theatre.
Vaudeville Theatre is a real theatre in London - and is officially on my ‘places to catch a show’ list (Image source)
The murder comes after the cast and playwright read her (yet to be published) critique of their performance, and the play - and the knife used belongs to the playwright. This makes him the first suspect but according to him, and his detective friend, Detective Daniel Hawthorne, all the cast members had access to the knife, and are therefore all suspects.

Through the 370 pages of The Twist of a Knife, we learn more about the cast, their pasts and associates, as we travel through London with the author and his investigator friend, to uncover who killed Harriet Throsby.

If you read my A Few Things About Me post, you already know that I picked this book because 1) it is a who-done-it and 2) it is theatre related (Vaudeville Theatre). I loved those two aspects when reading the book and even more, enjoyed the twists in the book derived from the fact that 3) this book is semi-fictional and 4) falls under the story within a story genre.
Inside Vaudeville Theatre (Image Source)
To help me explain point 3 and 4, I would like to share a little bit about the author, Anthony Horowitz, and his work. A quick Google search shows that Horowitz is a writer and playwright from the UK who has written a couple of books and plays. Some of his work has been turned into TV Shows. As a lover of shows on Acorn TV, Britbox, PBS and the like, I have been seeing ads for Magpie Murders (based of his 2017 book with the same title) and Alex Rider (which he mentions a couple of times in this book).

Here is what made me love Horowitz, and why I say his work is both semi-fictional and in the nested story genre. He uses his real name and occupation in the book, so he is a real person and also one of the main characters in the book. In real life, he wrote a play titled Mindgame in 1999 that was actually performed at Vaudeville Theatres. He turned the play into a book in 2001 (the play did an off-broadway stint in 2008, and a UK tour in 2018).
Image Source

The book I just finished, The Twist of a Knife, is a fictionalised version of the Mindgame play/book which sees him get arrested as the main suspect, he neglects telling his wife Jill about the arrest until later (he has a wife in real life, and her name is Jill). Besides mentioning his Alex Rider book series, he mentions other books he has written and also hints that he and his detective pal have signed a deal to write more who-done-it type books. He mentions his agent Hilda, who is his real life agent. 


Before I unearthed all this information, I was reading the acknowledgements wondering why he is acknowledging fictional characters…then I figured it out and liked him and his work even more.


I know this is my first time reading his work, but I am sold. I want to watch Magpie Murders and the Alex Rider series, heck he has a book dropping next week, the 5th part of this who-done-it series, and I am tempted to get it, just to see what he and his detective friend get up to…this is the type of matrix I want to be trapped in.


From the look of things, coffee runs, theatre subscriptions and getting trapped in fictional matrixes will definitely play a prominent part in my 40s. And if this PhD/being a researcher and professor dream does not pan out, I would not mind travelling the world to see plays and musicals that I read about in books, then doing coffee runs as I review both the plays and the books…and somehow supporting the next generation of mental health champions.


Until I figure out that matrix, I will stick with what I have going on. 
 

Sending love and light,

Sitawa

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