The Word is Murder

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide, discussion of death and injury to children, and graphic descriptions of blood and violence.

The text opens in the third person, falsely indicating that the rest of the book will use a narrative the author describes from a distance. Diana Cowper, a wealthy older woman, is visiting a funeral home to plan her own memorial. The sympathetic funeral director, Robert Cornwallis, assures Diana that advanced planning for one’s death is a considerate gesture and not uncommon in his business. They plan a lighter coffin, not a wooden one, for ecological reasons; this will later prove important, as knowledge of this fact assists Diana’s killer with other murders.

The narrative shifts to first person and jumps forward in time, with the author, Anthony Horowitz, referred to as Anthony, explaining that Diana “was murdered about six hours later that same day” (7), and that the prior account is based on evidence he later gathered when involved in the case. He explains that this investigation revealed that Diana had lunch with a friend and then attended a meeting of the Globe Theater’s board.