The Sentence Is Death was published by Century in 2018. Richard Pryce, a high-profile divorce lawyer, is found beaten to death with a bottle of Chateau Lafite 1982. The number 182 is painted on the wall in green paint. Hawthorne and “Horowitz” investigate, moving through the worlds of literary London, wine collecting, and the vicious emotional landscape of high-net-worth divorce.
The metafictional element continues: Horowitz-the-character resents Hawthorne’s secrecy, struggles with the ethics of writing about real people, and occasionally breaks off to describe his actual professional life (writing Alex Rider scripts, attending literary events). The tension between fiction and reality becomes the series’ distinctive texture.
Collecting The Sentence Is Death
First edition (Century, London, 2018): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $15–$30
- Very good: $8–$15
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
The Wine-Dark Mystery
The use of a 1982 Château Lafite as the murder weapon is pure Horowitz: a clue that is both physical evidence and cultural signifier. The number 182 (painted on the wall) could refer to the vintage, an address, a page number, or something else entirely. The multiple possible meanings keep both Hawthorne and the reader guessing, and the solution requires knowledge of a very specific subject area that Horowitz researches with visible pleasure.
Frequently Asked Questions
What order should I read the Hawthorne novels? In publication order: The Word Is Murder (2017), The Sentence Is Death (2018), A Line to Kill (2021), The Twist of a Knife (2022), Close to Death (2024). The relationship between Horowitz and Hawthorne evolves across the series, and later books reference earlier cases.