It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
The Sentence is Death

The Sentence is Death

A mind-bending murder mystery from the bestselling author of THE WORD IS MURDER

Summary

Passion, deception, an unexplained death and a detective with quite a lot to hide lie at the heart of Anthony Horowitz's brilliant murder mystery, the second in the bestselling series starring Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne.

'EASILY THE GREATEST OF OUR CRIME WRITERS'
Sunday Times
'My favourite literary hero at the moment is Anthony Horowitz' Shari Lapena
'Sheer genius ... A joy from start to finish' INDEPENDENT
_____

Secrets can kill.

Smooth-tongued divorce lawyer Richard Price is bludgeoned to death at his London home.

Scrawled on the wall beside the body: the number 182.

What does it mean? And who was at his front door just minutes before he died and while he was still talking on the phone?

Confronted with this most baffling of mysteries, the police are forced to turn to private investigator Daniel Hawthorne.
_____

'Pure pleasure for readers ... A must-read delight' WALL STREET JOURNAL
'Anthony Horowitz gets away with murder in all sorts of ways and emerges triumphant' The Times
'This is crime fiction as dazzling entertainment, sustained by writing as skilfully light-footed as Fred Astaire' Sunday Times Crime Club
'A crime story that keeps you up into the small hours... a page-turning mystery' Metro
'Sheer genius ... A joy from start to finish' Independent
'Fans of traditional puzzle mysteries will be enthralled' Publishers Weekly
'Huge fun... It's hard to know why anyone who loves a good mystery wouldn't thoroughly enjoy the ride' Irish Independent
'Succeeds on all levels ... Horowitz has the Midas touch' Booklist
'No one currently working the field has anywhere near this much ingenuity to burn' KIRKUS

About the author

Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz is responsible for creating and writing some of the UK’s most loved and successful TV series, including Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War. He is the author of the teen spy series, Alex Rider, which has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide.

He has been widely praised for his murder mysteries which began with two highly acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels and continued with the bestselling Hawthorne series in which he appears as the former detective’s hapless sidekick. In January 2022 he was awarded a CBE for his services to literature.

His novel, Magpie Murders, was made into a BBC drama starring Lesley Manville as editor Susan Ryeland. The sequel, Moonflower Murders, also starring Lesley Manville, was a BBC drama in 2024. Marble Hall Murders continues the story…
Learn More

More in this series

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more