Book Review: Moonflower Murders

Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life, running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend Andreas. It should be everything she's always wanted. But is it? She's exhausted with the responsibilities, and truth be told she's beginning to miss London. And then the Trehearnes come to stay. The strange and mysterious story they tell, about an unfortunate murder that took place on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was married—a picturesque inn on the Suffolk coast named Farlingaye Hall—fascinates Susan and piques her editor’s instincts.

One of her former writers, the late Alan Conway, author of the fictional Magpie Murders, knew the murder victim—an advertising executive named Frank Parris. Conway based the third book in his detective series, Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, on that very crime. The Trehearne’s, daughter, Cecily, read Conway’s mystery and believed the book proves that the man convicted of Parris’s murder is innocent. When the Trehearnes reveal that Cecily is now missing, Susan knows that she must return to England and find out what really happened.

This mystery by Anthony Horowitz is the sequel to Magpie Murders. It was released in November of 2020 from Haper Collins Publishers.

I recently read and reviewed Magpie Murders, so I was very delighted to find there was a follow-up available. Like the first book, this one also is made up of two parts - the present-day mystery being investigated by Susan and a classic mystery novel in Conway's Atticus Pund series. So, once again, we get two mysteries for the price of one.

Horowitz is impressive in that he comes up with two completely separate stories, each with rich casts, and yet leaves the reader with plenty of clues to help solve both mysteries just as his lead characters do. I am thoroughly enjoying both the classic tales of Pund and the modern ones of Ryeland. While I would love to read more (we have seven more Pund novels in the cannon), I fear the end of this one might signal the end of the line for the series. I hope I am very wrong there.