
<b>Brought to you by Penguin.</b><br /><br /><b>From the global bestselling author of <i>Moonflower Murders </i>and <i>Close to Death </i>comes an unputdownable new mystery in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.</b><br /><br /><b><i>The Word is Murder</i>, the first book in the Hawthorne series, is about to be made into a major feature film.</b><br /><br />The actors have been cast, the script written, and filming has already started in Hastings.<br /><br />But when Hawthorne and Anthony visit the set, they find a far from happy family.<br /><br />The director’s pretentious, the screenwriter’s an eco-warrior, the two stars hate each other, and the producer has run out of money.<br /><br />And things are about to get much, much worse.<br /><br />In the middle of shooting, the actor playing Hawthorne is stabbed – which leaves the real Hawthorne with no choice. He has to step in and investigate his own murder.<br /><br />Because the killer may not have got the right man. Was it Hawthorne himself who was meant to be the target?<br /><br /><b>A Deadly Episode is a wild ride through a world that the author knows only too well, and the most personal case Hawthorne has had to deal with so far.</b><br /><br />‘Easily the<b> greatest of our crime writers</b>’ <i>Sunday Times</i><br />'<b>Nobody does this crime fiction better than Anthony Horowitz</b>’ <i>Crime Time FM</i><br />'Anthony Horowitz is a <b>national treasure</b>' Ragnar Jónasson<br /><br />© Anthony Horowitz 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026