The Killing Joke Book

Anthony Horowitz is a very busy man. The Killing Joke, a grimly hilarious black comic novel, may be his first book for adults, but his Alex Rider series (in which a junior James Bond repeatedly saves the world) is a publishing phenomenon, selling millions to young readers – and shortly to be rendered into a film series. Horowitz has written a film for Christina Ricci, and has scripted such TV series as Foyle’s War and The Midsomer Murders. All of this varied experience has fed into The Killing Joke, and produced a novel that will have you laughing quite as often as it raises your pulse (and that's on Horowitz’s agenda, too). Guy Henderson is a struggling actor recently dumped by his girlfriend. Getting drunk in a downmarket North London pub, he overhears builders telling a sick joke about a recently deceased actress – who just happens to be Guy’s long-lost mother. He objects, and is viciously headbutted for his pains. But does he seek revenge? No – the incident sends him on torturous quest for the source of jokes such as the one that offended him – and he encounters both shadowy, sinister figures and bizarre characters who appear to have stepped right out of jokes -- and don’t have his welfare at heart.The one-liners here are, to quote the title, killingly funny, and the hapless Guy is a wonderfully shambolic hero; If the final revelation doesn’t quite match the brilliantly sustained build up, few will complain. It looks like Horowitz has another career – first-rate comic novelist – to add to his bulging CV. --Barry ForshawRead More