62 pages • 2 hours read
Anthony HorowitzThe Word is Murder
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Star Power”
Hawthorne takes a phone call and informs Anthony they will be going to Damian Cooper’s London residence for an interview. Anthony wonders who has been keeping Hawthorne apprised of such developments, and Hawthorne reluctantly admits his former boss, the detective chief inspector, is now a regular client and source of information.
Anthony is preoccupied with the knowledge that he will have to publicly admit to his new project, which currently seems like a case with no suspects. Hawthorne asks if the work has a title. Privately, Anthony ruminates that choosing what to call a work is difficult and that many famous works once had uninspiring titles. Hawthorne suggests Hawthorne Investigates, and Anthony becomes incensed when Hawthorne criticizes the title of his Holmes novel.
Anthony then reflects on the biography of the fictional Damian Cooper, giving him roles in real theatrical productions, movies, and televisions shows, including the rebooted Star Trek, Mad Men, and Homeland. These productions did involve famous British actors, including Simon Pegg and Damian Lewis, indicating that Anthony has constructed Damian Cowper as a composite of multiple celebrities. Anthony dislikes him instantly, noting both his good looks and his casual arrogance. Damian seems more interested in his career than bereaved. Damian, like Anthony, assumes that his mother’s cryptic final message referred to Jeremy Godwin, and he defends her behavior and concern for him. He blames Alan Godwin for disrupting his mother’s life and notes that the police never found a witness to the accident, mentioned by other bystanders, who was first on the scene and tried to assist but ran off when the authorities arrived.
Damian’s partner, Grace Lovell, interrupts briefly. Grace is a young woman whose looks and height impress Anthony. She insists Damian is more emotional about his loss than he appears. She explains she was also an actress, before the birth of their three-year-old daughter. She attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (hereafter RADA) with Damian and starred in Hamlet with him, as Ophelia. Hawthorne is angry afterward because Anthony asked a question during the interview, shifting his focus. He suspects he has lost a key opportunity to find evidence. Anthony defends himself and insists he cannot attend the funeral due to a meeting, ignoring Hawthorne’s protests.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Script Conference”
Anthony explains that his meeting is with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson about his screenplay for their new Tintin film. Anthony has struggled with the project but enjoyed working with both giants of cinema in the past. Spielberg simply declares that the script is an adaptation of the wrong books, declaring that Anthony can write another.
Hawthorne, to Anthony’s horror, interrupts the meeting to persuade him to come to the funeral. He barely recognizes either Spielberg or Jackson and criticizes the film version of The Two Towers, as he and his son both disliked it. Anthony is mortified but finds himself unable to stand his ground when Spielberg recognizes the name of Diana Cowper because he is familiar with Damian’s work. Both he and Jackson insist Anthony should go. Anthony, discouraged, leaves. From a future viewpoint, he admits that his consolation is that “so far there has been no new Tintin film […] or maybe they’re working on it now. Without [him]” (113). Hawthorne ignores Anthony’s anger and suggests Spielberg could adapt the Cowper case instead.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Funeral”
The funeral is held in London’s Brompton Cemetery, which Anthony has fond memories of as a writing retreat. He feels awkward at the chapel, as he lacks a personal connection to the deceased. Anthony spots Raymond Clunes and another theater producer, Bruno Wang, whom he knows from his own ties to the Old Vic theater. Wang reluctantly tells Hawthorne that he warned Diana away from Clunes, who is being investigated for misuse of investor funds. Hawthorne considers this a possible lead. The funeral begins, and Anthony is struck by Damian Cowper’s “star role in this production,” noting, “[A]nd he seemed to know it. He had dressed for the part in a beautifully tailored suit, grey shirt, and black silk tie” (118). Anthony also notices a man acting strangely. The vicar opens the service, where Damian’s eulogy focuses mostly on his own career.
The assembly walks with the coffin toward Diana’s grave, and Meadows approaches Hawthorne, gloating that the death is likely a burglary, as they have a new suspect from other cases in the area. Hawthorne reject the idea and insults Meadows’s competence. Anthony compares the two to Shakespearean adversaries Hamlet and Laertes. Before the coffin is lowered, a recorded children’s song, “The Wheels on the Bus,” begins to play repeatedly. Damian is instantly furious, and Anthony realizes the music is “coming from inside the grave. It [is] inside the coffin” (124). The song shatters the seriousness of the moment, and Anthony notices the stranger hurry away. Damian storms off, telling Grace to attend the wake without him. The coffin is taken back to the chapel, with the music still playing.
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Smell of Blood”
Anthony suspects Hawthorne almost enjoyed the spectacle, as it proves that Meadows’s theory no longer applies. Anthony posits that the song is a reference to Jeremy Godwin and his twin, and Hawthorne admits that Damian’s reaction is proof it was a deliberate strategy. Irene Laws, Cornwallis’s assistant, opens the coffin, and they find that the music is coming from an MP3 alarm clock. Hawthorne recognizes it because his son owns one. Laws denies any knowledge, and Robert Cornwallis, at a family event, is unavailable for questioning. Laws and her assistant admit that the hearse was briefly unattended. Hawthorne asks for Cornwallis’s home address to pursue another interview.
Hawthorne and Anthony attend the wake and meet Grace Lovell again. She points out both Diana’s doctor and Diana’s personal attorney. She agrees the song was directed at Damian, defending his outrage, as he has always been sensitive about the Godwins. She indicates that the song was played at Timothy’s funeral. Hawthorne needles Grace, noticing that she has not spoken warmly of Diana. Grace admits that Diana was more concerned with Damian’s career and saw parenthood as a setback for him.
After Grace ends the conversation, they seek out Diana’s doctor, who says Diana had been concerned about Damian and that she had begun taking antianxiety medications. The doctor is astonished to hear she planned her funeral, as she had no health concerns beyond her anxiety. Diana’s lawyer defends her acquittal in the Godwin matter. He indicates he was on the board of the Globe Theatre with Diana, but that she had resigned on the day of her death. Anthony notes that Hawthorne seems ignorant of the theater’s history with Shakespeare productions.
As the lawyer takes his car keys from his wife, Hawthorne has a sudden epiphany, rushing Anthony out and into a taxi. Anthony is silent in his confusion, admitting, though he doesn’t know why, “[W]hatever was happening, it might somehow be my fault” (140). Hawthorne directs the driver to Damian Cowper’s home. They arrive to find the door open, with Damian’s blood everywhere and his body mutilated. Anthony is overcome by the gore and loses consciousness until Hawthorne shakes him awake.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
As the investigation continues, the links between Horowitz’s fiction and the real world of the 2010s grow more complex and intertwined. Damian Cowper functions as much as a composite or archetype as a three-dimensional character: the famous, arrogant actor preoccupied with his own fame. Assigning him roles the reader knows belong to others establishes him as fictional while indicating the caliber of his work and stardom. Hawthorne’s questions to Grace and Damian highlight the extent of Diana’s filial devotion, while indicating that Anthony’s dislike of Damian seems entirely warranted.
Once again, the two investigators end an interview at odds, as Hawthorne is outraged by the interruption. Anthony attempts to reclaim his own agency by refusing to attend the funeral, only to find Hawthorne interrupting his meeting, entirely willing to disrupt his professional life and speak to Hollywood elites in his usual brash tone. His insensitivity and willingness to put himself at the center of the project add to Anthony’s irritation, inviting the reader to dislike him as well.
Tellingly, much of the drama in this stage includes allusions to Shakespeare, including Hamlet. Damian is driven to rage in a cemetery, and Grace informs Hawthorne that he played Hamlet to her Ophelia. In Act 5 of that play, Ophelia is buried, and Hamlet spends much of the scene reflecting on death and mortality. Damian’s reflections, however, are those of anger and grief, as the song from the coffin reminds him of his family’s past. Hawthorne, interestingly, is presented as possibly ignorant of Shakespeare—prompting Anthony the character to take on the role of literary guide. Both versions of Horowitz include multiple allusions to Shakespeare in this section—effectively using his work as a signpost that Hamlet may be key to the killer’s identity.
At this stage, Anthony the character is driven by emotion, including resentment of his investigative partner. At the funeral, he is a passive follower while Hawthorne directs the action. He even admits to a nagging feeling of guilt, as he suspects that their race across London somehow involves not only Hawthorne’s error but his own. Anthony’s overwhelm in the face of violent death allows him to stand in for the reader and underlines that he is the vulnerable party in the partnership, a theme that will develop further later in the investigation.
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