Fired Scotland Yard detective Daniel Hawthorne bursts onto the scene of his unwilling collaborator and amanuensis, screenwriter/novelist Anthony, who seems to share all Horowitz's credentials, to tell him that the game's afoot again .The victim whose death requires Hawthorne's attention this time is divorce attorney Richard Pryce, bashed to death in the comfort of his home with a wine bottle. What's the significance of the number "182" painted on the crime scene's wall and of the words ("What are you doing here? It's a bit late") with which Pryce greeted his murderer? The frustrated narrator (The Word Is Murder, 2018) can barely muster the energy to reflect on these clues because he's so preoccupied with fending off the rudeness of Hawthorne, who pulls a long face if his sidekick says boo to the suspects they interview, and the more-than-rudeness of the Met's DI Cara Grunshaw, who threatens Hawthorne with grievous bodily harm if he doesn't pass on every scrap of intelligence he digs up.
