by Anthony Horowitz, 2024, Audiobook narrated by Rory Kinnear, Harper Audio

This novel is a bit different from the preceding four as it doesn’t cover a current crime being investigated by Hawthorne. Horowitz has committed to delivering five Hawthorne books to his publisher, but Hawthorne isn’t involved in any investigation at the current time so Horowitz asks Hawthorne if there are any interesting crimes that he investigated in the past that he could write a novel about. Hawthorne proceeds to tell him about a murder that was committed in a posh community a few years back. Hawthorne hands over a file that contains some notes and Horowitz proceeds to reconstruct what happened. The task is challenging as he has to assume some things took place which, it turns out, didn’t actually occur.

The novel centers around what might happen in a closed community when one individual or family ignores the rules and impinges on the happiness of the neighbors. The book uses some Agatha Christie techniques as all of the other residents have ample motivation to kill the offender. Which one did it (or were they all involved)?

Rory Kinnear continues to do an outstanding job narrating these books.

Horowitz seems to find ways to keep his Hawthorne novels fresh by inventing entirely new scenarios. I look forward to his next Hawthorne novel.