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A Deadly Episode
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  • Published: 23 April 2026
  • ISBN: 9781804942994
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384
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A Deadly Episode

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
21 Apr 2026
Hardback
23 May 2026
EBook
23 Apr 2026
Audiobook
23 Apr 2026
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By global bestselling Anthony Horowitz, a brilliantly entertaining new mystery in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.

From the global bestselling author of Moonflower Murders and Close to Death comes an unputdownable new mystery in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.

The good news is that The Word is Murder, the first book in the Hawthorne series, is being turned into a major feature film.

The bad news is that the director is pretentious, the screenwriter thinks she’s Salman Rushdie, the stars hate each other and the producer has run out of money.

And things are about to get much worse.

In the third week of the shoot (in Hastings), the actor playing Hawthorne is murdered. It happens the day after the real Hawthorne and his hopeless assistant have visited the set. And now Hawthorne has no choice.
He has to investigate his own murder.

Is it possible that Hawthorne made the biggest mistake of his career and arrested the wrong man? And is it now time for him to pay the price?

The sixth book in the Hawthorne series is a wild ride through a world that the author knows only too well. It’s going to be the most surprising and shocking case Hawthorne has had to deal with so far.

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‘Easily the greatest of our crime writers’ Sunday Times

'Nobody does this crime fiction better than Anthony Horowitz’ Crime Time FM

'Anthony Horowitz is a national treasure' Ragnar Jónasson


Readers love the Hawthorne & Horowitz series . . .

***** 'It’s Agatha Christie on steroids!'
***** 'Wow, this has got to be my favourite detective series ever!'
***** 'I had so much fun reading this book'
***** 'Outstanding . . . I loved it'
***** 'Honestly, the best crime read in a long time'
  • Published: 23 April 2026
  • ISBN: 9781804942994
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384
Categories:

Media gallery

Extra Media

About the author

Anthony Horowitz

Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz has written two highly acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk and Moriarty; three James Bond novels, Trigger Mortis, Forever and a Day and With a Mind to Kill; the acclaimed bestselling mystery novels Magpie Murders, Moonflower Murders and Marble Hall Murders; and the Detective Hawthorne novels, The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, A Line To Kill, The Twist of a Knife and Close to Death. He is also the author of the teen spy Alex Rider series, and responsible for creating and writing some of the UK’s most loved and successful TV series, including Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War. In January 2022 he was awarded a CBE for his services to literature.
AH

Also by Anthony Horowitz

Marble Hall Murders
The Word Is Murder
Moonflower Murders
Close to Death
The Twist of a Knife
With a Mind to Kill
A Line to Kill
See all

Praise for A Deadly Episode

Brilliant . . . the author combines delicious dry humour with a rigorous fair-play whodunnit, but this installment’s Scream-like Hollywood satire takes it to another level

Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Delightful

Library Journal

The sixth outing for the sleuthing duo of Horowitz and Hawthorne, A Deadly Episode, is another winner.

Financial Times

Clever and playful, this is meta-mystery at its best.

i Paper

[Horowitz’s] "Overactive imagination" has once again produced a chunk of five-star entertainment

The Times

The sixth in the brilliant Hawthrone and Horowitz series... (is) layers of fun.

Daily Express

Horowitz is quite simply a brilliant writer - he's funny, smart and knows how to craft a good story.... Be warned. Horowitz is addictive

Sunday Independent

I take such pleasure from this series and this, the sixth, is every bit as good as its predecessors... dare I say, my favourite.

Belfast Telegraph

A fresh treat

Boston Herald

Horowitz’s ever-inventive Horowitz and Hawthorne series gets extra metafictional in this brilliant sixth installment

CrimeReads

[A] cracking good, crackling narrative . . . diabolically clever work of metafiction

Booklist, Starred Review

‘A intriguing page-turner that once again demonstrates why Anthony Horowitz is the reigning king of the modern whodunit

Red Carpet Crash

I loved A Deadly Episode from beginning to end. Here’s hoping that this is not the last we see of the partnership between Hawthorne and Horowitz in a novel written by the real Anthony Horowitz.

Bookreporter.com

A fast, funny, clever read

Crime Fiction Review

A meta romp

New York Times

The twisty fun we’ve come to expect from Horowitz

Yorkshire Evening Post

A Deadly Episode keeps Horowitz and Hawthorne as lively as ever. Told from two time frames, it could, in fact, very well be the strongest series entry so far. Anthony Horowitz (the actual one) — with his wry humor fully in evidence — proves once again that he is a contemporary master of the classic murder mystery.

The Anniston Star

Twisty fun we’ve come to expect from Horowitz

Woman’s Way

My favourite Hawthorne yet. Utterly brilliant, and a complete treat. A veritable nesting doll of mysteries in one book, it’s something very close to genius. Anthony Horowitz is in a league of his own

Lucy Foley

Another slice of fiendish fun

Good Housekeeping

My favourite literary hero at the moment is Anthony Horowitz

Shari Lapena

One of the most creative writers in the country today

Jeremy Vine