SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
There's a murder near the opening of Anthony Horowitz's new novel. There almost always is. Anthony Horowitz has written over 50 books of the television series "Magpie Murders," "Moonflower Murders" and "Midsomer Murders." In his latest novel, "A Deadly Episode," ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne is found stabbed to death, except he is not. Rather, it's a British movie star named David Caine, who is playing Daniel Hawthorne in a film production. Was the rising star or the famed sleuth the true target of the murder? Anthony Horowitz, who's also written the bestselling teen spy series "Alex Rider," two Sherlock Holme (ph) novels and three James Bond novels, has somehow found the time to join us to talk about "A Deadly Episode." Thanks so much for being with us.
ANTHONY HOROWITZ: It's a pleasure, Scott. Thank you for having me.
SIMON: When it comes to motive, there are a number of people on the movie set and in David Caine's life, who - let me put it this way - are murderously put out with him, aren't there?
HOROWITZ: That is certainly true. David Caine, the star of this film, is not the most popular person on the planet. He is quite arrogant, and he's quite a difficult human being. And he is surrounded by people with large egos. A co-star and he are at each other's throats. The director is pretentious. The screenwriter hates detective stories and wants to turn the whole film into a sort of an ego message. They're running out of money. They're over budget. Everything is disastrous. Tempers are high. And a murder, I suppose, is not that surprising.
SIMON: Daniel Hawthorne, ex-detective, he can be irritating, can't he? - walks into a room and immediately reaches conclusions.
HOROWITZ: There are lots of things about Daniel Hawthorne that are irritating. Our relationship in the books - because I should, of course, mention that I am inside the book myself as a character. I am the narrator. I am the Watson to his Holmes. And we have a very uneasy relationship between us, and he is quite sort of mean to me. He has political and sort of sociological views with which I disagree. The worst thing he does is to call me Tony. I have a certain aversion to being called Tony. I prefer Anthony, and he seems to ride roughshod over this with a certain degree of pleasure.
But he also has a way of getting everybody's backs up. Every police officer who meets him seems to dislike him, and he has been fired from the police for reasons that are still, even after six books, not entirely clear. He is definitely not an easy man, and part of the joy of writing these books is that the character, Anthony, inside the books, is constantly searching for what happened to him in his life - certainly, when he was a child - that turned him into this really very difficult person. And I have to say that in this book, which is the sixth in the series, we find out much more about that background than we have done up until now.
SIMON: I wrote down - 'cause I love the line - a character tells him, you're not very nice.
HOROWITZ: (Laughter).
SIMON: And he replies, at least I'm real (laughter).
HOROWITZ: That's - yes. That's a conversation with the writer after one of the early chapters. But, you know, the thing about him is that in his own way, he is likable. I think it's very difficult to read a detective story in which the detective is not a likable character. And as the books have continued in this series, I have come to like him more and more and to feel more protective towards him. And in that respect, there is a similarity with Holmes and Watson because Sherlock Holmes was himself a very difficult detective. I mean, not the easiest person to get on with, a drug addict, something of a recluse and very cold-hearted. But Watson's friendship with him is the reason why we like Sherlock Holmes. And I think I'm mirroring that a little bit in these books, that no matter how bad Hawthorne is - and he is occasionally a little bit mean - I have a sort of a respect for him, and that's grown into a strong liking.
SIMON: I have to ask, after dozens of books and television series, how do you keep so many murders and ways to murder people in your mind?
HOROWITZ: You know, it's actually harder over on this side of the pond in the United Kingdom because, of course, we don't have guns like you do in. And so, of course, that is - you know, I'm very happy that we don't have guns because that is, you know, such a easy way to kill people, and it's so frightening when there are so many guns out on the street. That's not a political comment, incidentally. It's just sort of the way I feel. But in England, one does have to think up different ways of killing people. I always find poison, which has been a method used in a few books, a little bit sort of disappointing. It's somehow - it's an invisible poisoner. It doesn't have the violence of a knife or a bullet or a rope or pushing somebody off something. And I think one looks for something that is dramatic, so I do have to think up different ways.
But at the end of the day, my books aren't really murder stories. I think murder is a horrible thing. Murder is - in real life, if somebody is murdered, one feels a certain sense of revulsion and horror. It's only in books that they become entertaining for reasons that I'm not - I've never really completely understood. And for me, the murder is only really an excuse to explore character, motivation, to enter different people's worlds and lives, and to look in depth at what people are thinking.
SIMON: Much of the book satirizes moviemaking and series making true crime or what's called true crime as a genre. It seems as if every murder these days is optioned.
HOROWITZ: (Laughter) That's a very good observation. Certainly, I am, to an extent, satirizing a world I know very well. I've been working in television and film for most of my life - certainly 30 years. And I don't deliberately target anybody in this book. I'm not scoring points. That's not the sort of person I am or sort of writer I am. But I am drawing on tropes and sort of insecurity and egotism that I have encountered in my career. I have to say that I love film and television. My wife, Jill Green, is the producer of my TV shows, and we've worked together on shows, including some that you mentioned - "Magpie Murders," "Moonflower Murders," "Foyle's War." And I've had a wonderful time on her sets.
But, yes, I think it is an industry which is ripe for satire. I mean, I've been watching "The Studio" on TV - the wonderful Seth Rogen show - and he absolutely nails it. I am not going quite as far as that in my book, but certainly it's written with a smile.
SIMON: This is not the most original question, but where do you get your ideas?
HOROWITZ: It's a question that haunts me. I'm not what I would call a particularly clever person. If you read the books, the Anthony in the books is really nothing more than an idiot.
SIMON: (Laughter).
HOROWITZ: But even in life, I wouldn't call myself a genius, and yet somehow these ideas just come and keep coming and never stop coming. And I sometimes think to myself that writers - all writers - are like radio receivers. I'm not a very religious person. I'm not observant in any way, but I do sometimes think that there is a bigger power. And writers have some kind of ability to sort of tap into something that is bigger than ourselves. Ideas that are in the ethos arrive in my head without any effort really from me.
I can be lying in bed, and I'll just suddenly open my eyes, and I will have had an idea - a big idea - but it's come from who knows where? Every single object you see, whatever you look at that's in front of you, has a story attached to it. I'm sitting in a hotel room, and I'm looking at a bottle, and I'm looking at a box with coffee pods in it, and you may think that there's no story there, but then you think, who brought those things into this hotel room? What was his or her story? What is it like to work in this hotel? Were they perhaps an immigrant to this country? And if so, where did they begin? So even these two objects sitting in front of me might have a story attached to them. And if it's a murder story, then maybe one of these coffee pods could have something in it that is not coffee. Although, I've said, I'm not crazy about poison, but that is the beginning of a story, I suppose.
SIMON: Mr. Horowitz, it's none of my business, but please take our advice and stay away from the coffee pods.
HOROWITZ: I never drink coffee as it happens. I prefer green tea.
SIMON: Anthony Horowitz, a green tea drinker and accomplished novelist. His new one, "A Deadly Episode," is out next week. Thank you so much for being with us.
HOROWITZ: I hope that was all right. I very much enjoy talking to you, and thank you again.
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