Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #549164 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

AMAZON.CO.UK
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 Forshaw

Ben Silverstone, JEWISH TELEGRAPH
'An entertaining read, cleverly plotted and joke-filled, if not killingly funny'

Review
'An entertaining read, cleverly plotted and joke-filled' (Ben Silverstone JEWISH TELEGRAPH )

'The best (of comic writing out this summer) is The Killing Joke...Great fun' (Peter Gutteridge THE OBSERVER )

'Horowitz's novel takes a simple 'what if' and allows the answer to unfold more or less logicaly, gathering laughs as it speeds away from reality' (SUNDAY TIMES )

'With touches of the absurd, the downright sinister and comic genius, this book is full of twists and suprises' (IRISH NEWS BELFAST )

'But for a hilarious fairground hall-of-mirrors sex scene and a paedophilia joke, this is a book my nine-year-old son could have enjoyed, the kind of sheer enjoyment adult readers seek, as increasingly, they turn to children's fiction' (DAILY MAIL )

'A scorchingly funny black comedy thriller' (Barry Forshaw DAILY EXPRESS )

'Not only the funniest book I have read this year, it's also the most original' (Mark Campbell CRIME TIME )

'Extraordinarily witty...laugh-out-loud funny...Horowitz's novel is really a gem. All joking aside' (IRISH EXAMINER )

Customer Reviews

Horowitz invades the adult market!
This is a gripping book. What Horowitz does really well is that he not only keeps the tension, drama and humour that made Horowitz's children's books so popular, but uses the adult genre to make this book much deeper than his others.

The book is about a man named Guy Fletcher who, on hearing a rather horrible joke about a famous actress who died in a car crash, tries to find out where this joke and others like it come from. It isn't long however until Guy gets into serious trouble.

Some of the twists in the plot are extremely clever and Horowitz also makes even the more unlikely events in the story seem strangely plausible (as he always effortlessly seems to do).

This book is one of the reasons that reading is so enjoyable. It may look like a fairly long book, but it is so intense that you'll read it in a flash (I finished it in 3 days).

You might be wondering, why I've given the book 4 stars if it's so good. Well, the ending may be a bit dissatisfying, clever though it is and the book could be about 500 pages longer at the rate at which everyone who picks this book up will storm through it.

I would recommend this book to anyone apart from those who can't stand action of any kind in a novel, whether they barely read at all (this will be the one book you finish) or whether your an experienced reader who just likes a gripping book. However, I wouldn't recommend this book to those who are too young i.e younger than 14, due to the adult content in the book (some sex and bad language).

A great read!
The Killing Joke is the first book I've read by Anthony Horowitz but it will undoubtedly not be the last.
My first impression was that it would be a comical read. It turned out to be much more. There were many parts which made me chuckle but within it lied something much more sinister. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and literally could not put it down. It is well plotted and unpredictable. I recommend it to anyone and it is already being passed around my friends.
Courtney, 14

Not a children's book!
Despite being listed in the children's section this is not a children's book. Do not make the same mistake as me and think that it is!