The Word is Murder

Broadly defined, the mystery genre encompasses a plot dedicated to the solving of a crime—often, though not always, a murder. The crime may be solved by a member of the police, someone adjacent to the criminal investigation, or an amateur. Horowitz is clearly indebted to the traditions of the 1930s Golden Age of Detective Fiction, pioneered by Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, and others, beyond his stated interest in Sherlock Holmes, one of the Victorian era’s most notable fictional detectives. In these novels, the central crime can be solved by the reader through clues and evidence left in the narrative, though the detective frequently sums up the case for an audience in the conclusion—a convention that disconcerts Hawthorne.

In his first chapter, Horowitz leaves clues he does not fully explicate. He intentionally cites and describes the quotation from Hamlet above the funeral parlor while offering no indication that the play is key to the identity of the killer (4). Throughout the work, Horowitz as author has Anthony the character record details without noting their significance or context, such as the thematic resonance of Diana Cowper’s funeral program or Robert Cornwallis’s full name seen on his Undertaker of the Year award (52).