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The Killing Joke, Anthony Horowitz
Orion
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Where do jokes come from? How and why do they go from person to person? What's the point in having jokes in the first place? The main character in this amusing novel, Guy Fletcher, a down-on-his-luck actor, is forced to ask these and other questions in order to unravel a mystery of his own making.

Unfortunately for Guy, he doesn't really "do" jokes. He can never remember them, has trouble with the punch lines and doesn't laugh at those he does hear. This doesn't bode well when one day he finds himself in a pub where he overhears a sick joke, and for reasons that only become clearer later, decides to trace the origins of the joke right back to the person who invented it.

Is it possible to do this? Where will it take him? This hunt for the author of the joke becomes an obsession, a personal crusade that takes him the length and breadth of the United Kingdom as he follows its journey in something akin to a madcap case of Chinese whispers.

Once he starts to get close to the origins, things turn a bit silly as well as sinister, with cliches and old jokes, murders and gags trundled out to prevent Guy from finding out the "truth".

In parts it's quite funny, having the qualities of a good old British farce, and the whole idea itself is intriguing. But it all wears a bit thin as the mystery deepens, and believability becomes over-stretched and concludes with a disappointing though unexpected ending.