An audio book.
The persona (Horowitz himself, sort of) wants to stop working with Hawthorne (ex-police) on books. He writes a play, "Mindgames", a comedy-thriller which gets to London after a succesful tour. The star, Tirian, is soon to appear in Tenet (he has a low opinion on the script and director). The first night is attended by the usual critics, including Harriet whose review, the first out, is vicious, suggesting among other things that Horovitz should stick to writing thrillers for kids because the audience is less discerning (Horovitz wrote the Alex Rider series). She also writes that it's neither comedy nor thriller though it tries to be both. Next day police knock at Horowitz's door and arrest him for murdering Harriet at 10am that morning. A knife (given to him by Akmed, the producer) with his fingerprints on it was the murder weapon. He's met the detectives Cara and Derek Mills before - he hoodwinked them and they want revenge. Hawthorne gets him released with the help of Kevin (a wheelchaired teenage hacker). Horowitz thinks that one of the cast framed him. He and Hawthorne interview the suspects. Harriet's daughter hated her and felt sorry for her hen-pecked father. Sky, an actress, has a rich father and is friends with Harriet's daughter. Akmed is going bust but Muriel still adores him. The director left his wife for an actress disfigured by a fire in one of his plays. Jordan, a native american, fears cultural appropriation. Harriet wrote a book, "Bad Boys", about Martin Longhurst (Akmed's accountant) - his 10 y.o. brother Stephen and a friend killed a teacher in a prank. His rich parents gave the teacher's widow money so their son could appear less guilty. It emerges that a theatre critic died years before, after writing a cutting review of a Horovitz play, "The handbag".
The police go to Horovitz's house to arrest him. His wife is there, and believes the police. Horowitz stays the night at Hawthorne's temporary flat, looking around while he's there to learn more about the man.
Hawthorne brings all the suspects together and in traditional fashion (so that Horowitz can make notes, Hawthorne says) explains what happened. Tirian killed Harriet because she was going to reveal that he was Stephen's accomplice. He tried to frame Jordan but messed up. Horowitz plans to make the tale into a novel. Hawthorne demands a big cut.
Does it successfully combine thriller and comedy? For me it does. I liked how writers are made fun of. Whenever Horowitz enters a house he checks to see if his books are on the shelves. A character has never forgotten how as a child he sent his favourite author a letter and never got an answer. Horowitz worries that he was the author in question. After reading the book I found that Horovitz wrote a play, "Mindgame", in 2001, etc.
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