61 pages • 2-hour read
Close to Death
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Symbols & Motifs
Stickers
Stickers are a motif of the Horowitz and Hawthorne series and this novel in particular. Hawthorne identifies stickers as “the crimes that are like no others because there’s an intelligence behind them” (360). He says that these crimes are the product of “the genius, the killer who’s not going to get caught, who sits down and works it all out” (359). He continues, “That’s where I come in. That’s sort of my specialty” (360). The cases that Hawthorne takes Horowitz along on are always stickers; it is Horowitz’s ability to solve them that keeps the police reluctantly hiring him when they find, as Khan does, that they are “out of [their] depth” (101).
The stickers, and Hawthorne’s ability to solve them, illustrate Hawthorne’s unique perspective. Khan knows Hawthorne by reputation alone as “a hard-working, solitary, difficult man who somehow always manage[s] to pull the guilty rabbit out of the blood-soaked hat” (101). Hawthorne realizes immediately when Khan contacts him that “[the case] [i]s a sticker if ever there was one, and frankly, the local plod ha[s] as much chance of solving it as […] well, [Horowitz]” (93). This quote highlights another fundamental aspect of Hawthorne’s character: He is successful in part because of his confidence in his abilities, as well as his unabashed knowledge that his skills exceed those of the police and of Horowitz as well.
The Swimming Pool
The Kenworthys’ swimming pool is a point of contention in Riverview Close and motivates the residents’ meeting to discuss the Kenworthys. The pool symbolizes the disruption that the Kenworthys have caused in Riverview Close; it goes beyond the boundaries of neighborhood etiquette, with the neighbors seeing it as not only a disruption but also a sign of disrespect.
The swimming pool also illustrates the differences between the Kenworthys’ wealth and lifestyle and the rest of the neighborhood. The Kenworthys can afford a swimming pool, they can afford to sway the council to get permission, and if the other residents take them to court, they can afford to defend themselves until the residents’ coffers run dry.
The Close is designed to be small, intimate, and in the style of a traditional English estate. Beyond the disruption to Felicity Browne’s life, the swimming pool doesn’t fit the old-fashioned aesthetic of the neighborhood, which has “a deliberately picturesque design” (19). The swimming pool is modern, loud, and brash, a symbol of Giles Kenworthy himself. It is a physical representation of all the ways that Giles in particular, but really the entire Kenworthy family, conflicts with the neighborhood.
The Tea Cosy
The Tea Cosy is May and Phyllis’s business, a “bookshop with a café attached” (37). The Tea Cosy creates a self-conscious awareness of mystery novels and “cozy crime” in particular. Horowitz uses the shop to reinforce metafictional self-awareness of the novel as a “cozy crime.” The bookshop “specializes in detective stories—but only those that belong[] to the so-called Golden Age of Crime or modern novels that reimagine[] it” (37). Like May and Phyllis and even Riverview Close itself, The Tea Cosy is a reminder of the past—in particular, the past of the mystery/crime genre itself.
There is irony in Horowitz’s use of The Tea Cosy in the text—the owners, May and Phyllis, were in prison together after killing their abusive husbands. Via the shop, Horowitz juxtaposes the reality of murder with its fictional representation. The bookshop’s inventory and its owners place reality and fiction in the same context and force Horowitz to see the differences between them. As May says, “All this is entertainment. It doesn’t mean anything. But Phyllis and me, we’ve been to a terrible place” (315).
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