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Featuring his famous literary detective Atticus Pund and Susan Ryeland, hero of the worldwide bestseller Magpie Murders, a brilliantly complex literary thriller with echoes of Agatha Christie from bestselling author Anthony Horowitz. 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. Brilliantly clever, relentlessly suspenseful, full of twists that will keep readers guessing with each revelation and clue, Moonflower Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction from one of its greatest masterminds, Anthony Horowitz.… (more)
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The story goes that, once again, former literary editor Susan Ryeland is once again called upon to help solve a mystery that her erstwhile (and
Is it odd that I liked the book-within-the-book so much better? Atticus Pund Takes the Case was a more enjoyable story. Sure, it was simple, less complicated, but that's what made it fun. Pund arrives to solve a murder. While there, things happen, which he observes first hand, another murder takes place, suspects throw red herrings left and right, and in the end he prevails. The culprit is caught. Just about what you'd want from a detective story.
In the outer, wrapper story, Susan Ryeland arrives to solve a mystery. Not much happens. She talks to a lot of people. Thinks about it a lot. And then, just when you think she's going to give up, she comes up with the solution. The mystery is solved through the gentle art of conversation. Kind of boring. Kind of like another mystery novel I read recently. Why can't detectives (or people playing detective) do anything in these stories.
Anyway, my advice is to skip this one.
A story within a story makes for a challenging memory device. Once I got used to the two stories (one completely inside the other) and got the competing characters and story lines straight, this was a compelling although challenging read. Horowitz is a master
An enjoyable and challenging read. Keep a notebook handy to keep all the characters and plot devices straight!
5 of 5 stars
This is an extraordinarily labyrinthine and complexly plotted book. There are clues within clues, twists, misdirections and red herrings galore. We are constantly being pointed at a suspect only to find our attention suddenly switched elsewhere before we can be sure of anyone’s guilt or innocence. The final denouement rests on the slightest of earlier clues.
Structurally the book is incredibly daring. The 200-plus page book that purports to identify the real killer is embedded in full in the story at the point where Susan Ryeland sits down to read it to see what the fuss is all about. Not only is this novel-within-a-novel written in a different style, it is printed with its own pagination, typeface and endpapers.
Does this complexity and cleverness work? Horowitz is paying homage to the Golden Age of Crime Fiction, the age of the country house murder, and especially to the work of Agatha Christie. He crams in as many tropes from those novels as he can, but often with a twist for modern sensibilities and always with an eye to entertain rather than bamboozle us. My only gripe is that the faux novel-within-the-novel is more interesting than the actual novel and it took me a while to adjust back to the characters and plot of the original when the novel reading ended.
Cleverly plotted, clearly written and with characters that are believable within the constraints of the novel itself, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
As with all novels written today, several of the characters and much of the plot revolve around the gay scene (I believe the word homosexual is frowned upon). Is there a literary code of conduct that makes this a requirement these days?
I did get tired of Susan procrastinating about reading the book, but I think Susan procrastinated in order to have readers become hopelessly tangled in the story. This is a marvelously twisted bit of plotting. The only problem I had with it is that I think I overdosed on puzzle-solving-- there are just too many. But it is fun, so if you're in the mood to decipher an ingenious tale full of twists, turns, and red herrings, Moonflower Murders may be just the book for you.
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)
The author is quite capable of writing a murder mystery that satisfies the reader, but it doesn't appear to satisfy him. He layers the complications on top of the mystery, keeping his audience looking forward to what he comes up with next.
Enter the Trehernes. They run a very posh hotel in Suffolk. Eight years prior to new there had been a murder during their daughter’s wedding which was held on the grounds. A fairly well known man was bludgeoned with a hammer, the killer soon confessed, and life went on. A short time after those events occurred Alan Conway, the author of the Atticus Pund mysteries, stayed at the hotel. The next book he wrote was far different from the locations and events surrounding the original murder, but the Trehernes daughter Cecily read the book and is convinced the key to the identity of the real killer is hidden therein.
Now she has gone missing and the Trehernes beg Susan to come back to England and investigate. They feel that as she was the editor for the book, she is in part responsible for it, it’s secrets and hence the missing daughter.
£10,000 as a reward for solving the mystery is hers as payment. Since Susan feels she is partly responsible, and since the hotel she is jointly running is leaking money, she accepts.
What follows is, like Magpie Murders before it, a book within a book. While the Pund novel is not quite as good as the surrounding mystery, both are pretty good. Give it a 4 out of 5 is you like that sort of thing.
I don't think I can succinctly summarize the plot, but the outer story concerns Susan investigating the disappearance of a woman called Cecily, which is linked to an eight year old murder. The secret to her disappearance is in a novel
Eventually Susan did re-read the novel in question, and it is embedded in this novel in its entirety. Things started to drag a bit for me at this point and I enjoyed this thread much less.
The solution to the main plot was logical and had been cleverly clued (although some of the clues were a bit of a stretch), but was lacking in emotional impact. The solution in the embedded novel was improbable in other ways, but was more emotionally satisfying. I liked the Susan/Andreas storyline.
This is book two in a series featuring this literary detective, Susan Ryeland. And like the first novel, the secret to this one lies in a book Susan edited which featured the master German detective, Atticus Pünd (think Hercule Poirot). So, of course, Susan must re-read the book in question, and the mystery of what has happened to Cecily is interrupted after 227 pages, to allow the reader to experience the Atticus Pünd novel in its entirety, before returning to Cecily’s disappearance and to the murder she felt she had solved using the Pünd book.
Sound confusing? Well, that’s because I am no where near the talented writer that Anthony Horowitz is. I was completely mesmerized by this book (these books?). I enjoyed the difference in style between the two storylines, and was equally immersed in each mystery (or really three mysteries … the one that Pünd is solving; the murder that Cecily believed she had solved by reading the Pünd novel; the disappearance of Cecily).
I like Susan as a character, and I like Atticus Pünd. Both are meticulous and thorough and deliberate in analyzing the evidence they uncover. And I love the way that Horowitz plays wit words
I haven’t read the first in the series - Magpie Murders - yet, but I definitely will, and I look forward to future installments as well.
I find this type of storytelling by Anthony Horowitz both unique and intriguing. There were truly four mysteries to solve and although nearly everyone is a suspect I was only convinced of one early on.
Anthony Horowitz has an uncanny ability to recreate the voice of writers from the Golden Age of mysteries, most specifically Agatha Christie, while maintaining his own unique voice. In Moonflower Murders, the second (and hopefully not the last) book in the Susan Ryeland series, he gives us a book within a book and makes them both unputdownable. As in most Golden Age mysteries, there is little action and the crimes, in this case from both books, are solved through careful investigation, talking with a myriad of suspects, and, of course, the ‘little grey cells’ of the investigator with lots of red herrings and twists and turns thrown in to keep the reader guessing. Loved it!
Thanks to Netgalley & HarperCollins Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
Susan Ryeland returns as the 'detective'. She's a retired book editor and now runs a hotel in Crete with her boyfriend. I quite liked her from the first book and was happy to see
The Treahornes are guests at Susan's hotel, and they tell her the story of a murder at their hotel in England. A man was convicted but their daughter Cecily believes he was innocent and that the real sulprit might be in the pages of a book that Ryeland edited for now deceased author Alan Conway. (Another of his books was the basis for the first book in this series - Magpie Murders) Susan is ready for a change of scenery and agrees to travel to London, stay at their hotel and see if she can shed any light on things - especially now as Cecily has gone missing.
Okay, that a great starting point, but the plotting of Moonflower Murders is so much more involved than you can imagine. It's absolutely fantastic. There are many, many characters, so readers or listeners will want to pay close attention.
The Treahornes and their employees all seem to be harboring secrets. Susan decides to learn what she can about them all before re-reading the book. And here's the part I love. When she does start reading the book, Horowitz takes us completely into the book. Story within a story. Hard to do well, but Horowitz does it brilliantly. The book is 'Atticus Pund Takes the Cake', a series that Conway penned. Pund brings Hercule Poirot to mind, in mannerisms and methodology. This second murder is just as well plotted as the first. How are the two related? How and what has Conway hidden in his fictional book?
Horowitz is fiendishly clever. I really enjoyed the 'recap' at the end, 'seeing' the clues that I didn't pick up on. The twists, turns, red herrings and more kept me guessing til the last final whodunit . I most certainly didn't figure it out!
Absolutely recommended for those who love 'old school' mysteries, where the answers are in deduction, not DNA.
Premise/plot: Moonflower Murders is the sequel to Magpie Murders. Susan Ryeland (editor/amateur detective) is now living on Crete running a small hotel with her boyfriend Andreas. Two of their guests have arrived with a proposition for Susan. Their daughter, Cecily, has gone missing. Before Cecily disappeared, she'd called her parents saying that reading Atticus Pund Takes The Cake has changed her mind about who murdered their own guest so many years before. Stefan Codrescu may have been convicted of the crime and may be in prison, but, he's innocent. The proof is hidden within Alan Conway's mystery novel.
The Trehernes are offering to pay Susan to investigate both crimes. Perhaps as Alan's editor she can spot what Cecily spotted in the text. And she did have success in solving who murdered Alan, after all. Susan takes the case for two reasons--she's TIRED and worn down from running the hotel and misses her old life, and the MONEY will prove useful whether she stays or goes.
As she begins detecting the two cases--surely Cecily disappeared because she knew too much--Susan tries to sort out where she belongs and what she really wants.
About three-quarters through this one, Alan Conway's novel ATTICUS PUND TAKES THE CAKE is embedded.
My thoughts: What a wearisome novel this was!!! The pacing was all over the place--and obviously not in a good way. I didn't mind Alan Conway's novel kicking off the first book. The fact that the missing end chapters was the literal conflict (or one of them) in the "main" story helped me stay engaged. It was a fun, premise-driven novel. I didn't love, love, love it. But it always kept me reading.
Moonflower Murders doesn't have a great premise working on its behalf. Susan is retired. She is no longer an editor; she is no longer in the book business. If Susan had been less bored or less in need of money, chances are she'd not left the island or her boyfriend to play detective.
My biggest issue with this one, however, is that almost all the characters are so unlikable and in some cases so disgusting. It's hard to spend HUNDREDS of pages (felt like thousands of pages) with characters that you despise/dislike. My neutral feelings for Susan and Andreas weren't enough to really rescue this one.
I don't know that this one needs a trigger warning exactly. But so much of the unfolding mystery surrounds adult men (aged 50+) engaging with very young barely-legal (and perhaps not legal) young teen male prostitutes. And it gets descriptive/graphic. Okay, that may not be fair. I don't think it's meant to be graphic in a romantic/sensual way. But it's a LOT to process.
I wrestled with whether to keep reading this one or to abandon it. It was just so wearisome.
An interesting and entertaining well-written mystery with a cast of varied characters.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.