South By South East

South By South East

File:South By South East cover.jpg 2007 edition cover
Author	Anthony Horowitz
Language	English
Series	The Diamond Brothers
Genre	Children's novel
Publisher	Lions (1991) Walker Books (2007)
Publication date	14 March 1991
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Paperback (1991) Hardback (2005)
Pages	208 pp
ISBN	978-0-00-673821-3
OCLC	24698306
Preceded by	Public Enemy Number Two
Followed by	The French Confection

South by South East is a children's comedy adventure written by Anthony Horowitz, first published in 1991. It is the third book in the Diamond Brothers series about the incompetent detective Tim Diamond and his smart younger brother Nick. The book's title is a pun on the famous mystery film, North by Northwest. A television series based on the book was broadcast on CITV.

Plot summary

The Diamond brothers are broke as usual. They have just moved into a cheap apartment when suddenly a mysterious man (Jake McGuffin), bursts into their office, tells Tim someone is trying to kill him, an assassin who is trying to murder a Russian diplomat, offers Tim a wad of cash for his coat and disappears as quickly as he came, leaving his own coat behind. When Nick bends down to pick up the coat, something falls out of one of the pockets: a key. There is a plastic tag attached to it and in bright red letters: Room 605, London International Hotel.

When Tim and Nick go outside, they find the man lying in a telephone box, dying from a gunshot wound. His last words, drowned out by a train, sounded like "suff bee suff iss", or was it "south by southeast"?

Suddenly, the Diamond Brothers are thrown into an extremely hazardous and risky adventure involving MI6 and their chase for Charon. Charon is the code name of an assassin, the head of a gigantic murder organization. Nobody knows who Charon is as he can disguise himself extremely rapidly. There is only one way of recognizing Charon - he has lost a finger, therefore he only has nine. Charon's men are responsible for the murder of Jake McGuffin, who was aware of Charon's plan to murder a Russian diplomat, Boris Kusenov.

The Diamond brothers become wanted by the Police after Charon gives Tim a suitcase containing a bomb when he is going for an interview at the bank and it goes off.

The boys' later find out what Jake McGuffin said was 'Sotheby's, Tsar's Feast.' They race over to Sotheby's, where they know that TNT is under the seat. They get into a wrestle which gets the two police officers involved, and the painting gets destroyed. The police officers get credited, and they refer to Nick as 'an unknown boy.'

Charlotte Van Dam, a woman they meet in Holland, invites Tim to the tunnel of love at a fair, where she plans to kill him. Nick finds out that Charlotte is Charon, and goes to stop her. Nick's clever thinking makes Charon fall into the river, and she gets electrocuted.

Allusions to other works

The title is a play on the Hitchcock film North by Northwest, and there are allusions to Hitchcock's films throughout the book. MacGuffin is also a throw-away plot device used to kick off a story.

Television adaptation

South by South-East was made into a TV series in 1991, written and directed by Anthony Horowitz and produced by Stephen Bayly. It was broadcast on CITV in six half hour episodes.

As in the film Just Ask for Diamond, Dursley McLinden played Tim and Colin Dale played Nick. Michael Feast played Snape, Gordon Wynter played Boyle and Michael Gough played Mr. Waverly. There were also cameo appearances by Jenny Agutter and Anna Massey. As many elements of the story are homages to Hitchcock, a well-known Hitchcock impersonator appeared at some point in each episode.