Moonflower Murders

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anthony Horowitz

Mystery

608 pages

Published November 10, 2020

by HarperCollins

From Goodreads: Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life. She is 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 of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, 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 Halle—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—and once visited Farlingaye Hall. 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—a Romanian immigrant who was the hotel’s handyman—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.

My thoughts about Moonflower Murders

Conway was notorious for working real people into his books so Susan, and you the reader, must figure out how the characters in one mystery relate to those in the other.

This book is intricately plotted since you’re actually reading a mystery wrapped in a mystery with places and characters in one related to those in the book within a book – it’s very meta.

The writing is clear and descriptive but avoids floweriness.

The characters are well-developed, even – maybe especially- the unlikable ones. It shows that Anthony Horowitz spent years writing television shows because he paints detailed and clear images of his characters.

This is a slow read – Horowitz wants you to pay attention as first Pund and then Susan solve their respective mysteries. Take time to appreciate all of the clever wordplay, deftly hidden clues, and brilliant reveals. Both mysteries are incredibly satisfying.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the DRC.