“With Horowitz and Hawthorne, nothing happens until halfway through the book. Usually, you have a dead body in the mix, but instead, you're made to read the development and relationship of these two characters for the longest time. That's the strength of a series.”
While presenting A Line to Kill, Kojima set out his theory of continuators: authors such as Anthony Horowitz begin by writing novelizations or sequels to other people’s material (Bond, Sherlock Holmes — his Moriarty wasn’t that great), learn to write in a very accessible way, and when they add their own ideas they take off. Kojima said Horowitz transformed as an author with Magpie Murders, whose plot he found extraordinary. Of Hawthorne and Horowitz he highlighted their structural luxury: nothing happens until halfway through the book — normally you would already have a corpse — and instead the reader is made to follow the development of the relationship of the two protagonists; that, he said, is the strength of a series. He thought he had had enough Horowitz, but they are so good, and he predicted they would top the rival lists again.
“Mr. Horowitz was writing James Bond stuff earlier on. […] He really transformed as an author. […] People like him started off writing novelizations based off of other material picking up after a different author. They write in a very easy to understand way. And then they add their own ideas into the mix and that's when they catch their break.”