The second book featuring Susan Ryeland and Atticus Pund is as good as the first. The idea of a book within a book works even better this time round. Yes. the books echo Agatha Christe, but that is no bad thing. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Reading an Anthony Horowitz novel is always a pleasure, his storytelling prowess is not rivalled by many living authors. Moonflower Murders is a sequel to The Magpie Murders, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It is always difficult to follow up such a popular novel, but I believe success has been achieved on this occasion. As always with this author you experience such a rollercoaster of journey, at times thinking you have everything sussed out, only to have the rug pulled out from under you several times in a row. The structure of a book within a book is always a tricky one to pull off but Horowitz does it with aplomb, I feel like I have read two books for the price of one!

DNF-ing at 50%.
I'm not enjoying this, there are other things I'd rather be reading and therefore I don't feel that I can give it a fair review. I'm really not enjoying having a whole other book slapped in the middle of this one. It was done in the last book and I was hoping it wouldn't happen again.

I may come back to this in future, but at the moment it's not for me.

I thank the publishers wholeheartedly for the ARC - thank you!

Moonflower Murders is the second in the Susan Ryeland series, and the first - Magpie Murders - has a similar premise, in that it's a sort of 'murder mystery within a murder mystery'. In this book, our protagonist, ex book editor Susan, is asked to investigate the murder of a man (Frank) who stayed at a hotel in Suffolk, and the subsequent disappearance of the owner, Cecily, as the two may seem to have links to a book by the ever-puzzling late Alan Conway. He's an author we met in book 1 (so it's worth reading Magpie Murders first, though certainly not essential to enjoy this novel), who Susan published during her time as an editor, and he is known for slipping clues and riddles into his work.

I really enjoy books where characters who aren't police or detectives investigate, though of course at times their powers of deduction seem surprisingly good, and in this novel Susan provides a brilliant main character. She's not perfect but she's sharp, insightful and determined to unearth the secrets around the murder and disappearance.

Of course, just having that storyline is far too simple for Anthony Horowitz! Susan reads one of the Atticus Pund novels, which Cecily read right before she disappeared and which she claimed helped her realise who killed Frank, and we read along with her. So, we get a complete story within a story, with lots of parallel characters and occurrences - but which are intentional, and where is the elusive information that will help us understand who killed Frank? Needless to say, the plot is full of mystery, riddles and clues, and I loved reading them all and trying to work out what had happened (and, of course, completely failing!)

Moonflower Murders is satisfyingly complex, but very readable too. For anyone who is a crime fiction fan, this series is a must-read!

This is the follow up to Magpie Murders and as in that novel, a second murder mystery in the form of an Atticus Pund novel, is inserted in the middle of the novel to drop clues for the vigilant and add dramatic tension. So far, so meta.

Moonflower Murders effectively picks up where Magpie Murders left off. After the devastating end of the publishing house where she worked, Susan Ryeland is now living and working with her partner Andreas, in Crete, where they run the Polydorus hotel. Already disaffected with her current life, when she is approached by a couple who offer to pay her to help them find their daughter, Susan heads back to England. Soon she is enmeshed in not just a missing person case but an 8 year old murder investigation as well.

As with all Anthony Horowitz novels, this was easy to read, zipping along with a well-drawn cast of characters and plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing. You just know that he had tremendous fun sourcing and adding the clues which he credits to Alan Conway and his habit of adding themed Easter Eggs into his texts. You just know that he relishes them, even though he has Susan sneer at them.

A great fun, light read.

One request, it may be type-casting but if these are ever filmed, please cast Killing Eve’s Owen McDonnell as Andreas. I know that he isn’t Greek (or Polish) but Irish but in my head he is exactly how Andreas looks.

In the latest Horowitz book agent Susan Ryeland, unemployed is living on Crete with her partner, her life and finances are not in a good place. She is approached by Lawrence and Pauline Treherne who own a Suffolk hotel and offered money to try and track their missing daughter Cecily. Why Susan? It turns out that about eight years previously there had been a murder at the hotel, incidentally on the day of her wedding. The victim was supposedly unlinked to visitor Frank Parris. A member of staff Stefan, to a certain amount of disbelief, was convicted of the murder having apparently confessed.
Shortly after the murder Susan’s most important client Alan Conway had visited the hotel and asked questions about the murder. It was said that he then wrote another crime novel with his usual investigator Atticus Punde. The book reputedly employed characters who were based on key people associated with the hotel murder. He, Conway, has subsequently been murdered and so cannot explain the truth or otherwise of this. This becomes of greater significance when Cecily disappears shortly after reading the novel and starts saying quite openly she knows who the original hotel murderer was. Susan will be asked to investigate this claim – and to an extremely tight deadline – and to do this she comes to the hotel and meets the main characters.
Without giving the main plotlines away it is fair to say that the Horowitz novel will then follow her investigation, but then explore the Conway fictional murder as well. The latter incidentally takes place in a hotel too, but in an entirely different place and period. The tale will close with the final denouement where Susan (in best historical crime fiction tradition) will summon all the characters together – plus the reluctant investigating detective of the first murder – and publicly unveil “whodunit”. In this case both the first murder of Parris and the disappearance of the hapless Cecily.
Setting aside the unlikelihood of any the above – this is fiction – both tales unravel a web of complicated personal ties, jealousies and infighting, with added complications of financial issues. Both “murders” seem to have been complicatedly staged; both investigators have to see through a barrage of lies, half truths and deceits. So the reader is given not one, but two layers of murder and plotline to try and see through to the final ending. Some might say that makes it over-complicated. It all falls within a standardised presentation of the genre requiring the suspension of disbelief. So you know what is coming, the only issue is whether you can spot the killers (through the multiple layers of authors’ ambition) too early to enjoy the rest of the book – probably not…….

I love the mix of literary fun and mystery that are guaranteed by Anthony Horowitz every time. He never disappoints.

Susan Ryeland is running a hotel with her partner in the Greek islands and it’s idyllic. Well it was meant to be but she has never been so tired and frustrated. She is trying to make it work but things don’t want to go her way. Then a couple arrive from England and regale Susan with a tale of murder at a hotel. Not long after, the couple’s daughter Cecily goes missing after reading an Atticus Pund novel called ‘Atticus Pund Takes the Case’ (a book Susan edited).
It seems all too coincidental so
Susan starts her own investigation, conscious that time is ticking, and if she doesn’t figure things out quickly it could be curtains for Cecily.
A book so expertly crafted in suspense and whodunnit you can’t put it down. Every time I read Anthony Horowitz I’m astounded at his ability to write like no other author. His originality and imagination are mesmerising and his writing style is second to none. Simply put, this book is wonderful.

This was an interesting way of telling a story for me. We have the main story of Susan being requested to solve a murder and in the middle of this story, we have another whole book that she's supposed to find the main clue in.
I quite enjoyed having two stories for the price of one.

I'm afraid this one was not for me it started as an interviewee asking questions trying to find out what happened to the daughter of a couple called Cecily who went missing, so this starts out as 1 book and then you start to read another book that the interviewer Sue Ryland an ex-publisher read many years ago called "Atticus Pund take the case", then you go back to how she resolves the case using the same style very weird might be fine with others but not for me. The Atticus Pund was more in the style of Agatha Christie's Poirot, in fact, I thought I was reading Christie, and to me looks like the author has copied somebody else's work, maybe not the case but that's how I see it, to me.it's a shame as part of it was well written and the area and characters were well described, but I won't be bothered with this author just yet but maybe in the future. I must thank Random House UK and Netgalley for giving me a copy to review I do wish it could have been better as the author/story looked very promising.

Moonflower Murders⁣
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Another very clever novel by Anthony Horowitz using the Russian doll analogy of a story within a story, “𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴” continues the adventures of detective Atticus Pund. While this is a stand-alone novel, it will help the reader to have read his previous novel, “𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘱𝘪𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴”. Both novels feature many of the same characters, including Susan Ryeland, the narrator of the story. Susan, a former editor now runs a hotel with her partner Andreas in Crete. Not totally enamoured with her new life, Susan is easily lured back to England to solve the disappearance of Cecily Trehearne, which appears to be linked to the last novel written by Ryeland’s former deceased client, Alan Conway, “Atticus Pund takes the Case”. ⁣
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So follows the very clever and minutely plotted story within a story. Conway has written a novel which cruelly caricatures real life characters, and which Cecily believed pointed to the true identity of the murderer of Frank Parris 8 years previously. Agatha Christie fans will love this intricate and complex story which is a real homage to the golden age of crime writing, even up to the wonderful Poirot-esque gathering together of all the suspects for the traditional denouement and the big reveal. Thoroughly enjoyable, this was a 5 star read for me and I really look forward to a third book in the series. ⁣
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Many thanks to Random House and netgalley for this ARC in return for my honest review.

The 'book in a book' concept is clever, and I find an exceptionally clever author in Anthony Horowitz...however, I have to be honest and say this felt a bit of a slog to read...just my personal feeling.

Wow! What a book....or should I say two! A true murder mystery with all the suspense, twists and turns required to make it a winner. Susan Ryeland is approached in Crete to.investigate the disappearance of Cecily, the daughter of Pauline and Lawrence in England. What makes the disappearance more worrying is that a murder took place at the hotel the family owns on the night of Cecily's wedding and just before she disappeared Cecily disclosed that she believed the wrong man was convicted having worked out who really did it after reading a book,that was edited by Susan in her previous publishing job. Cecily believes the author, Alan Conway, has left a clue in the book to who the actual murderer is. Susan obviously has to read the book, as do we the readers, in order to find what Cecily had uncovered in the deceased author's book, Atticus Pund Takes The Case. The Conway book is written in quite a Christie Hercule Poirot style and I didn't work out who that murderer was although I did guess who the wedding murderer was by the end of the book.
A quite complicated and long read with two books and so many characters to absorb and get to know but I really enjoyed it and would recommend reading it.

I loved this book! Anthony Horowitz has done it again, a wonderful murder mystery that kept me gasping all the way till the end. I loved the characters, the depth, the world-building. Everything about this book was wonderful!

A story within a story -both very entertaining and well written.
I was enjoying this mystery when suddenly Horowitz introduced a second layer. Once I realised we weren’t going to be returning to the original story very soon I was a little concerned I might forget the initial plot. However, I needn’t have worried. Due to Horowitz’ writing skills I found the transition smooth and the whole reading experience was an absolute pleasure.


Thank you to Century (Penguin Random House Group) and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another visit to Susan Ryeland in Crete where her luck has changed after the Magpie Murders and in need of money she takes a case in England. Alan Conway is making trouble from beyond the grave after it’s discovered the third book in his Atticus Pund series is loosely based on a murder at a country house hotel he visited and Susan is bought in to see if she can find some answers. A great read with plenty of twists and turns where Susan is always putting herself into danger whether she has solved things or not.

I loved the novel-in-a-novel concept. It worked so well even though, and I am ashamed to admit, I have not read Magpie Murders yet. Let's just gloss over that swiftly as reading it before Moonflower Murders might have been helpful but it didn't hinder progress without the previous book's insight.

Susan Ryeland is a terrific sleuth. As a book editor turned private detective (to support her struggling hotel in Greece), she's smart, well read and likeable in pragmatic way. Susan is looking into the disappearance of Cecily and how it might be connected with a murder that took place in her parent's upmarket hotel/spa years ago. This, as it turns out, may also be linked with an Atticus Pund novel written by troublesome author Conway, who starred in Magpie Murder. It seems confusing but it falls into place neatly with brilliant nods to Agatha Christie and other notable authors during the golden age of mystery.

This was an honestly good romp I didn't want to end. The mystery is a cracker and that of the novel within the book is also rich with detail and a ripping good yarn, too. A lot of effort for Mr. Horowitz but it has paid great dividends. I shall go forth and read Magpie whilst anxiously awaiting the next installment in the series.

Horowitz returns with his second book featuring the Atticus Pund novels - a twist on your classic Christie-style whodunit.

The planning and thought process behind these novels must be unreal - in the centre you have a whole Atticus Pund novel - complete with peritext (which could be a crucial clue!) and at each end of the novel we have the ‘real’ mystery, investigated, rather reluctantly, by cash-strapped publisher Susan Ryeland.

I think I can say I’m quite a fan of Horowitz. Although I don’t enjoy his more humorous children’s fiction (The Diamond Brothers for example), and I’m not the biggest fan of Alex Rider either - his writing skill is undeniable. Some of his short stories are masterful, and The Power of 5 Series is one of my all-time favourites. So it’s not a surprise that Horowitz has the skill to carry off the feat of a whodunit within a whodunit. You won’t find the plot holes and unrealistic twists sometimes found in today’s crime bestsellers. Every element has been meticulously planned and thought out. The Atticus Pund novel is just as enjoyable as the ‘real’ story, and both are equally satisfying.

I’d definitely recommend this for anyone who is interested in the structure of novels as well as crime readers. I can’t quite believe it has worked as well as this, as, after reading Magpie Murders I thought it might be a one time thing. I wonder if the next book will be as effective!

Every book by Anthony Horowitz is a real treat that is greatly anticipated by me. Moonflower Murders was no exception. On one hand, I wanted it to last longer and at the same time I had to race to the finish to find out the ending. Each one of my theories about what had actually happened proved completely wrong and the finale was deeply satisfying. I loved the format of a book inside the book and enjoyed trying to work out the links and find parallels between the characters. The writing, the plot, subtle wit, interesting characters, atmospheric settings - everything was first class and I loved every page and every word. Bravo, Mr Horowitz!

Anthony Horowitz has a unique perspective on the classic mystery, his stories are always clever and entertaining. This latest is no exception. I have read the previous title, Moonflower Murders and found it intriguing, this sort of builds on that but in a tangential way. There is a novella in the middle section that breaks up what could otherwise be an overlong book, another example of how Horowitz changes our expectations. I think this can easily be read without the prequel but it's a build up for those who have.