He’s a complete idiot, isn’t he? Never gets anything right.” He’s not above taking swipes at British television either which, let’s face it, is also Horowitz’s bread and butter. I love that Horowitz continues to poke fun at his own genre, calling out the usual tropes, as when Detective Chief Superintendent Locke rails at Susan over Conway’s portrayal of the police, “What’s the police detective called in Atticus Pünd Takes the Case? Hare? I suppose he’s got that name because he’s hare-brained. I’m still delighted by Horowitz’s ability to nestle a charming, Agatha Christie-like tale within the pages of the “current” mystery that Susan is trying to unravel, and how Conway’s voice is so very different from Susan’s. Much of what I said in my review of Magpie Murders applies here. Desperate to find their daughter and understand what she saw in Atticus Pünd, they offer Susan ten thousand pounds to come to Branlow Hall and help discover whatever secrets Conway’s novel holds. Shortly after that phone call, Cecily disappeared. More recently, Cecily called her parents upset, saying she had read Conway’s novel and realized that she had been right all along: Codrescu was innocent.

Why did the Trehernes come to Susan with this long-resolved murder? Because shortly after the incident, Alan Conway, Susan’s former client and author of the Atticus Pünd mystery series, visited the hotel and used the murder and Branlow Hall as inspiration for his novel Atticus Pünd Takes the Case. The culprit, an employee named Stefan Codrescu, was quickly identified, tried, and imprisoned, in spite of Cecily’s doubts. The brutal murder (hammer to the face) occurred on the same weekend that the Trehernes’ daughter Cecily got married on the hotel grounds. Eight years ago, an advertising executive from Australia named Frank Parris was murdered in the Trehernes’ hotel, Branlow Hall. The story the Trehernes relate is a peculiar one. She misses the life she had in London, so when Lawrence and Pauline Treherne arrive in Greece with an unusual proposal, Susan recognizes an opportunity to (temporarily?) escape the rut in which she and Andreas have found themselves. What should be a dream life proves to be an exercise in frustration and disillusionment: guests complain, the internet is spotty, and the couple never get to relax and enjoy the idyllic island they call home. That mystery-within-a-mystery was clever, well-constructed, and utterly entertaining, but how could Horowitz plausibly make that format work again using the same characters? To my tremendous joy, Horowitz has constructed an equally triumphant (maybe even better?) sequel.Īt the start of Moonflower Murders, former publisher Susan Ryeland is living in Crete, trying to succeed in the boutique hotel business along with her Greek boyfriend Andreas.

I was surprised when I heard that Anthony Horowitz was releasing a sequel to Magpie Murders, one of the most deli ghtful books I read in 2019.

Moonflower murders review