The Killing Joke Review

Title : The Killing Joke

Author: Anthony Horowitz

Release date: 1^st April 2005

Publisher: Orion

 
When Guy Fletcher protests at a sick joke he overhears in a pub, he finds himself headbutted and struck by an idea in quick succession. Is it possible to trace a joke all the way back to its original source?

 Guy’s quest takes him across the UK, from a humourless Hungarian dentist to a group of giggling grave-diggers, from a hyper active troupe of boy scouts to half a dozen undercover detectives. And along the way some pretty odd things are happening. Guy is sure he is being followed by an Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman. He has an unfortunate accident on a banana skin. There’s a fly in his soup, an army of nuns on his train – and an exploding house in Cambridge... Guy is on the verge of discovering something very unpleasant. Making jokes is no laughing matter.

If you were to trace the origins of a joke, how far would you go?

I couldn't work out whether this novel is pure genius or utterly bonkers... so I settled for a mixture of both.

The complex sentence structures and lexis give the book a sophisticated edge but the content is so ridiculous that I couldn't help but plough through the text.

The entire content of the book relies on communication, whether this be in the form of jokes spreading throughout the country or what the author of a book chooses to tell you about their particular story (see the end of the book!). I'm not going to go on some obsessive joke hunt like Guy Fletcher did but the story did make me wonder about the origins of jokes. Who's to say there isn't a joke factory somewhere? The character of Liddy makes some compelling arguments about why jokes are a necessary part of society but I'd rather believe there's a 'fat boy in the attic' somewhere who has nothing better to do with his time than a terrifying international conspiracy.

Guy and Sally's romance adds another level to a ridiculous story and I hope I'm not ruining the plot for anyone when I say I'm really REALLY glad they got their happy ending. In fact the ending was brilliantly positive but in keeping with the silly style of the rest of the story. I did actually laugh out loud when I reached the final chapter of the book, Anthony Horowitz lets his readers know that the story never truly ends, just like jokes which are continually being revised and redistributed.

I felt that Guy really developed as a character which helped drive the novel. He has gone off on a wild goose chase but what if, this time, he can actually catch the goose? The entire story takes place over a few weeks but I felt like I'd known Guy for years and could really sympathise with him when his world comes crumbling down.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who fancies a good laugh. It has a compelling narrative, colourful characters and a string of unusual occurrences.

5/5 Beware the Englishman, Irishman and the Scotsman!