This is the third book in the series (and apparently the last one sadly!) and Susan Ryeland is back and in more ways than one - she is back living in the UK having realised that life in Greece wasn’t really the life for her. She is back working as a freelance editor for a small publishing company and hoping to move forward with her life following the events of the previous books (if you haven’t read them, then the events and spoilers are mentioned in this book!) and also looking forward to life without Alan Conway who although dead, seems to continue plaguing her from beyond the grave!

However, this is easier said than done and when she is asked to edit the last book in the Atticus Pund series (created by the aforementioned Conway) she isn’t sure she wants anything to do with it all but is persuaded to read the first part of the book, written by a young author called Eliot Crace. He is the grandson of an incredibly famous children’s author, Marian Crace who had died some years ago.

When Susan meets with Eliot she is perplexed to hear that he thinks his grandmother was actually poisoned and that the Atticus Pund novel he has penned is actually based on this. Although the names have been changed, the characters are actually based on his family.

I absolutely loved how this was written and the plot within a plot kept me fully invested, despite the book actually being over 600+ pages long. We read the Eliot Crace book along with Susan (and I have to admit I didn’t really pick up the red herrings, clues or anagrams!) and learn more about his family through the characters he portrays them. There are quite a few characters to get used to and a nasty bunch of people they are too!
When Eliot himself is killed in a hit and run before he can finish the book, Susan starts to think that maybe the sometimes odd ramblings of Eliot are actually true and when she is framed, she realises she has to solve the case and almost become Atticus Pund herself.

I couldn’t put it down and I think I was nearing the end and still completely unsure about how things would turn out – the big reveal at the end completely surprised me!

Thoroughly enjoyable!

This is the third book in the series of fiendishly clever detective novels featuring Susan Ryeland, the editor of a series of novels about a fictional detective Atticus Pünd. The stories were written by Alan Conway, who was knocked off in an earlier instalment, Magpie Murders. After the cataclysmic ending to that book, Susan has returned to London from Crete where she is asked to edit an “continuation” novel, Pünd’s Last Case, written by a protégé of her former editor Charles Clover. Eliot Crace is a troubled soul, the grandson of the famous children’s writer Miriam Crace, whom he believes was murdered 20 years earlier. Susan soon realises that Eliot’s novel is a thinly disguised retelling of the suspicious circumstances surrounding Miriam’s death and someone in his family will go to any lengths to ensure the story doesn’t see the light of day. Susan soon finds herself in mortal danger and the victim of a stitch-up that could see her sent to jail for years. Can she unpack the novel’s clues in time to save herself and unmask a ruthless killer. Agatha Christie fans will be in seventh heaven reading this hugely enjoyable page-turner.

Marble Hall Murders is the third book in the series featuring Susan Ryeland and the fictional detective Atticus Pund. This time she is tasked with editing a book called Pund’s Last Case by Eliot Crace which is to be a continuation of the books of Alan Conway with the famous detective and of course she ends up trying to solve a real-life murder mystery involving the Crace family who bear a resemblance to characters in the fictional book she is editing.
I liked it a lot and I think it may in fact be the best of the series so far. It’s difficult to describe the plot without including spoilers but suffice it to say that there’s extracts of the Pund book interspersed with Susan’s dealings with the members of the Crace family and both parts involve mysteries. It was very enjoyable to see how the two narratives worked together and the character of Susan is terrific. Of course the TV dramatisation with Lesley Manville in the role means that Susan is always as portrayed by Manville in my head but this is no bad thing and I can clearly visualise her in the adaptation of this book, which no doubt will also appear on TV screens soon.
Both the plots are well worked with twists and interesting characters which kept me reading to find out the solutions to both mysteries. The Pund plot is set in the south of France, in and around Nice and the Susan part is in London.
It will be interesting to see if the series can continue beyond this book which may be difficult unless Pund disappears as this one was to be his last case. But I’m sure the author has some good ideas how it can be achieved!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Penguin Random House for an ARC in return for a fair and honest review.

Anthony Horowitz has transformed from a children's author of long-standing through his Sherlock Holmes books, Daniel Hawthorne and the Magpie Murders series. All are well written, traditionally styled great stories.

Marble Hall Murders is the the third Magpie Murders book, and possibly the final one. I read it over tree days, staying up late one night to finish it, which shows how good the writing it. There are two main stories running through the book, with several sub-plots which switch from past to present.

The third ‘book in a book’ of this series. It can get a little confusing, but it’s such a clever device to be able to weave two stories together that the additional thought required from the reader is worth it. Can be read as a standalone, but it does reveal spoilers to the earlier books.
I’m a fan of Susan and her independence - although the victim blaming aspects from her towards herself and others towards Gillian are frustrating and disappointing. The book felt quite mysogynistic at times, but not in a deliberate way.
I would recommend the book and would certainly read more in the series.
I am grateful to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for this honest review.

In Marble Hall Murders, Susan’s back in England after separating from Andreas and leaving him behind in Crete. Now freelancing as an editor, she gets an interesting proposal from Michael Flynn, the publisher of Causton Books. They’ve commissioned three new continuation novels in the Atticus Pünd mystery series, and since Susan worked with the late Alan Conway on the originals, she’s the obvious choice to edit them. She’s keen on the idea at first, but when she finds out Eliot Crace will be writing the books, her enthusiasm wanes. Eliot’s previous works didn’t do so well, and she remembers him as unreliable and unpleasant. Still, that was a long time ago—perhaps he’s changed.

When Susan receives a manuscript from Eliot for Pünd’s Last Case, the first of the continuation novels, she’s pleasantly surprised. It’s better than she expected and perfectly captures Conway’s style. But soon enough, she realizes something else—Eliot seems to be including coded messages in the manuscript, much like Alan Conway did: anagrams, characters based on real people, and perhaps even clues to a crime that happened two decades ago.

The plot of Pünd’s Last Case itself is set in 1955 in the South of France, where the brilliant private detective Atticus Pünd and his assistant James Taylor are investigating the death of Lady Margaret Chalfont. She drank poisoned tea just before her lawyer was meant to arrive to discuss her will. At first glance, the case seems straightforward, but Pünd senses there’s more to the story than meets the eye. As Susan digs deeper into Eliot’s manuscript, she becomes convinced that the mystery bears a striking resemblance to the death of Eliot’s own grandmother, the famous children’s author Miriam Crace. Wanting to uncover more, she visits Miriam’s former home, Marble Hall, which is now a popular tourist spot. But what she uncovers is a secret that everyone seems eager to keep hidden.

I enjoyed this book just as much as the first two. The Atticus Pünd story alone is so compelling that I’d have happily read it on its own, without the surrounding narrative. I loved the dynamic between Pünd and Frédéric Voltaire, the Parisian detective investigating the case, and the French setting was delightful—though Susan Ryeland wasn’t too keen on it and hoped Eliot would switch the setting back to England. She has her reasons, of course, as both an editor and a reader, and Horowitz takes this opportunity to explore the nitty-gritty of the editing and publishing world, which was a nice touch. The mystery surrounding Miriam Crace and her family was also intriguing. Miriam’s a fictional character, but her story seems inspired by Enid Blyton—a beloved author whose books have enchanted generations of children, yet she was seen as cold and distant by her own family.

Atticus Pünd returns with another tricky case, and Susan Ryeland is back in London working as a freelance editor. It is mind-blowing the skill that goes in to writing these two mysteries together.

I adores this book and read it in two days as I couldn't put it down. I love the main characters, and the clever plots, and I am amazed at the skill with which the two stories are blended together. I would happily read more books about Susan Ryeland and Atticus Pund, but I suspect this won't happen. I will definitely be recommending this book widely.

My favourite part of the Magpie Murders series is definitely how unique and well-executed the premise is, and how each book in turn has a slightly different twist on the original - and this one was no exception.

Susan Ryeland is back, and as a freelance editor has been given the job of working with Eliot Crace, who is writing the next novel in the Atticus Pund series. Eliot Crace has fully embraced Alan Conway's writing style and has left his own clues to his real-life growing up with his family at Marble Hall. Susan then find herself caught up in another mystery within a mystery.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, both mysteries were compelling and I loved getting to have another book with Susan. Overall, I'd give this 4.5 stars and would highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Susan Ryeland finally decided where she wanted to be, and it wasn't in Crete with Andreas. Back in London, and living alone, she's found herself back in the world she loves, publishing, but Atticus Pünd is never far away. Alan Conway may be dead, but that's never stood in the way of publishers. Holmes, Poirot, Bond and many other literary characters have lived on long after their creator's deaths and Pünd is no different. The publisher she's freelancing for has picked up the option for three continuation novels and wants her to edit the first, Pünd's Last Case, which is being written by an author she has history with: Eliot Crace. Reluctantly she agrees, but as she reads what Eliot has written notices striking similarities between the characters in the book and Eliot's family. Including the murder victim and the death of his grandmother. Investigating his family's history, it becomes clear that Eliot, like Conway before him, is hiding clues to what he perceives to be a real-life murder, but before long Ryeland yet again finds her own life under threat.

There was always the possibility that Anthony Horowitz would write a third Susan Ryeland/Atticus Pünd mystery, but I always imagined it would involve one of the Alan Conway books we were already aware of. That he chose to use the concept of continuation fiction, something he's more than familiar with, cleverly allows for the introduction of a different authorial foil for Ryeland, one who's more sympathetic to the reader. It's a pity the threat to Susan's life this time around is as predictable as it is, but the Atticus Pünd mystery at the heart of Marble Hall Murders is as enjoyable as those in Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders before it.

I wouldn't say no to more of Pünd and Ryeland were Horowitz to write more, but there is a very real sense of closure for both characters. Something we never really got from either of the preceding volumes.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Random House UK and the author for an advance copy.

This is the third book in the Susan Ryeland series by author Anthony Horowitz. I have read the previous two novels in the series which were excellent reads. This series is a little different to the normal mystery thrillers in that it is a mystery story within a mystery novel. Well written, interesting characters and a clever plot.

Susan Ryeland the editor is once again the main character, having moved to Greece with her husband she decides to return to England and take up freelance work for Causton Books. She is tasked with editing the latest novel in the Atticus Pund detective series written by Eliot Crace, the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace. Eliot believes that his grandmother was poisoned years ago and he suspects the truth is buried within the pages of his own novel.

Susan begins reading the novel and finds herself caught in a real-life murder mystery. Eliot’s erratic behaviour, charged by his gambling and drinking addictions shocks others until he is suddenly killed in a hit-and-run accident. Susan is under suspicion from the police and she believes solving the mystery in Pünd’s Last Case may be the way to save herself.

Anthony Horowitz writes so well, which made it easier to follow the mysteries between the Atticus Pund novel and Susan’s own conundrum. The novel moves from the fictional world of Atticus Pünd and the real-life mystery surrounding Susan seamlessly and kept me guessing throughout. In the Atticus Pünd novel we have a poisoned aristocrat in the South of France, and a family with dark secrets which matches the intricacies of Marian Crace’s mysterious death in the real world.

This is an excellent whodunnit, full of mystery, intriguing characters and suspense. A must read for readers who enjoy Agatha Christie style novels.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Random House UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Marble Hall Murders is the third novel featuring Susan Ryeland and Attikus Pund. The unique feature of all these books is they are a novel within a novel which is not as confusing as it sounds. Susan edits the Attikus Pund crime novels and despite the original author, Alan Conway being murdered, the publisher has enlisted another writer, Eliot Crace to continue the series. This time Attikus travels to the South of France to solve a murder while Eliot has decided to base many characters on his own dysfunctional family with a hidden message within the pages.
I thoroughly enjoy these novels and find them engaging and good fun. They are full of red herrings and twists that keep you guessing with a Agatha Christie vibe.

Anthony Horowitz is amazing. This is another of his wonderful two books in one. Atticus Pünd returns with another tricky case, and Susan Ryeland is back in London working as a freelance editor. It is mind-blowing the skill that goes in to writing these two mysteries together.

Marble Hall Murders delivers a compelling blend of mystery, intrigue, and meta-fiction. This third (and final?) installment in the series provides a classic whodunit and also skillfully weaves a complex narrative about the process of writing mysteries and the darker undertones behind them.

The protagonist, Susan Ryeland, a former editor turned freelance worker, is a strong and relatable character. Her journey from the Greek islands back to England sets the stage for a fresh start, but her involvement in the case of Eliot Crace and his grandmother’s death soon pulls her back into a world of suspense and danger. The setting of Causton Books adds a meta-layer, as Susan works on Eliot’s "continuation" novel, Pünd’s Last Case, which is itself a mystery novel, allowing Horowitz to play with narrative structure.

Eliot Crace is an interesting character, whose personal turmoil and compulsive behaviors mirror the chaotic, often destructive energy of his late grandmother, a literary titan. His growing instability adds tension to the story, especially as his suspicions about his grandmother’s death begin to unfold. His sudden and violent end heightens the stakes for Susan, who finds herself entangled in the resulting conspiracy.

What makes Marble Hall Murders particularly engaging is how it layers multiple mysteries on top of each other. The case within Pünd’s Last Case and the death of Marian Crace bleed into the present-day mystery involving Eliot’s murder, creating a twisty and unpredictable plot.

The mystery itself is absorbing, and the characters surrounding Susan, including those connected to Eliot and his family, have sufficient depth to keep the reader invested in their fates. The potential danger that Susan faces, adds a sense of urgency to the story.

Overall, Marble Hall Murders is an entertaining and clever mystery with plenty of twists. Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for an advanced copy in exchange for my review.

Following crime author Alan Conway’s demise Susan Ryeland thought she would not be editing any more novels featuring Atticus Pünd but she is engaged by a publisher to edit another Pünd novel being written by a new author, Eliot Crace. His novel, set in the south of France, concerns the death of Lady Margaret Chalfont who is poisoned. Eliot believes that his own grandmother, a famous children’s author, was murdered in the same way fifteen years earlier. He has decided to leave clues and puzzles in his novel which will reveal his grandmother’s killer. Susan is soon drawn in to trying to find the murderer’s identity whilst also putting herself at risk.

Horowitz has written another excellent novel within a novel with a nod to Agatha Christie. It is very clever and a pleasure to read or should I say both of them are equally enjoyable and offer the reader a chance to crack both mysteries before the dénouements.
Highly recommended. Thank you to the publishers for the ARC.

A suggestion - read, remember and revise the Crace family tree at the beginning of the book. Reflections of each individual member play a major part in 'Pund's Last Case'. But more intrigue, subterfuge, murder and attempted murder are all to follow. How Horowitz knits together all the parts of the story and all the various characters (Susan Ryeland from Magpie Murders is a major one) is just brilliant writing, brilliant detective story telling. There may not be more from Pund but let's hope there is more to come from Susan Ryeland editor, and a full of courage detective.

This is the third book in a series featuring editor Susan Ryeland and the detective Atticus Pund. Susan is now back from Greece and is persuaded to edit 'Pünd's Last Case' an Agatha Christie style murder mystery set in the South of France, The writer is Eliot Crace, grandson of a famous children's author. Eliot claims his grandmother was murdered and clues to the identity of her murderer are in the novel.
Like the 2 previous books, this is a novel within a novel, and the parallels between fact and fiction merge and lead to murder.
I loved everything about this book. The pace and style of writing enralled me from the very first page. I also loved the insights into the editing process.
A masterpiece from one of our most talented writers.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I often get annoyed when amateur sleuths get involved in more than one murder, as it isn't plausible - but I can absolutely forgive it when it comes to the Susan Ryeland novels. I just love the character and concept and Horowitz always writes such a good whodunnit. 'Marble Hall Murders' sounds like it's the last of the three, and it's probably the right place to stop although I'd gladly read another if it was written. Plausible? Not even remotely. But I loved it anyway.

Susan Ryeland, the viewpoint character, is living back in London and in need of money. That's why she reluctantly agrees to edit a 'continuation novel' (sequel by a different author) in the 'Atticus Pund' series, despite her traumatic history with the novels and their deceased author. The new author is a troubled soul, grandson of a famous children's author whose legacy is closely guarded. Soon Susan is dragged back into trouble when the new scribe confesses that, like original writer Alan Conway, he intends to fill his manuscript with clues to the identity of real-life uncaught murderer. Can Susan rein him in and prevent another real life tragedy?

The plot is barmy when you think too much about it (or even a little about it) and I did guess the murderers in both the book itself and the book-within-a-book. But I can't deny I really enjoyed it. I always like the insight in this series into how editors work and how books are written - something that as readers we tend not to think much about, but is quite fundamental to our hobby. Susan is a great character - everyone wants to feature 'strong female leads' these days, but Susan manages to fit that box better than most whilst still seeming completely normal. Susan isn't trying to be some sort of hero, she's really just an average person doing a job and trying to live her life. Also she is that bit older than your average 'feisty heroine' type (they tend to be young). As a fellow single professional woman approaching middle age I like to see a character like this - so many female 40/50 something characters in books talk about nothing but the menopause as if that's all there is to life once you get past a certain age. Clearly that's an important topic, but in their eagerness to discuss it and stop it being a taboo subject, authors have gone too far the other way recently I feel. I applaud Horowitz as a male writer in particular for creating this character, and I think that his characterisation has been influenced and improved in this third book by the TV portrayal of Susan by Lesley Manville (a much older actress than the character, and how refreshing that is!). In fact, he credits Manville in the acknowledgements with inspiring him to continue/finish the series.

If you've read the first two novels and enjoyed them, I'm sure you will like this one as well - it's a good quality, if daft, story. If you've not read the previous novels, you definitely need to read at least 'Magpie Murders', as this book is packed with spoilers for that one. So it makes most sense to read the three in order - and you're in for a treat if you have all three to read.

I’ve been waiting for this book for five years and here it is at last: the third (and it seems, final) book in Anthony Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland series. Apparently we have the actress Lesley Manville to thank for the fact that it’s been written at all – after starring as Susan in the recent BBC adaptations of Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, she told Horowitz she was desperate for a chance to play the character for a third time! If you haven’t read the previous two books I would recommend at least reading Magpie Murders before this one (there’s a note at the start of the book to warn us that it does contain spoilers).

In Marble Hall Murders, Susan is back in England having separated from Andreas and left him behind in Crete. Now working as a freelance editor, she attends a meeting with the publisher of Causton Books, Michael Flynn, who suggests an exciting new project to her. Three new continuation novels of the Atticus Pünd mystery series have been commissioned and as Susan had worked on the original novels with the late author Alan Conway, she’s the obvious choice to edit the new books as well. She agrees to take the job, but when she hears that Eliot Crace will be writing the novels, she’s less enthusiastic. Eliot’s previous novels were failures and the man himself she remembers as unpleasant and unreliable. That was a long time ago, though, so maybe things have changed.

When Susan receives a manuscript from Eliot containing the first part of the first continuation novel, Pünd’s Last Case, it’s much better than she expected and perfectly captures Alan Conway’s writing style. However, Susan quickly spots another similarity. Like Alan before him, Eliot appears to be putting coded messages into the book: anagrams, characters based on his own family members – and maybe even clues to a twenty-year-old real life crime.

Pünd’s Last Case is set in 1955 in the South of France where private detective Atticus Pünd and his assistant, James Taylor, are investigating the death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, an Englishwoman who drank poisoned tea just before her lawyer was due to arrive to discuss her will. The culprit seems obvious, but Pünd is sure there’s more to the situation than meets the eye. As Susan reads the manuscript and watches Pünd’s Last Case unfold, she becomes convinced that Eliot is drawing parallels with the death of his own grandmother, the world-famous children’s author Miriam Crace. Hoping to find out more, she travels to Miriam’s former home, Marble Hall, now a popular tourist attraction, where she discovers that although Eliot may want the truth about his grandmother made public, everyone else wants it to remain a secret!

I enjoyed this as much as the first two books. As usual, the Pünd story is so good I would have happily read it as a standalone without the framing story around it. I liked Pünd’s relationship with Frédéric Voltaire, the police detective from Paris who is conducting the official investigation, and I loved the French setting – although Susan Ryeland doesn’t and wants Eliot Crace to switch it back to England. She has her reasons for this, as she’s looking at the book from the perspective of an editor as well as a reader (something which gives Horowitz lots of opportunities to explore various aspects of the editing and publishing process). The mystery surrounding Miriam Crace and her family is also fascinating. She’s a fictional character but surely inspired by Enid Blyton – an author whose books (in Miriam’s case a series called The Little People) have delighted generations of children, but who is considered cold and unloving by her own children and grandchildren.

I picked up on some of the clues in both the Atticus Pünd story and the contemporary one before Susan did, but there was still a lot that I didn’t guess and the solutions to both mysteries weren’t quite what I’d expected. I was happy with the way the book ended, but also sorry if this really is the final one! I do love Horowitz’s Daniel Hawthorne series as well, so I hope there’ll at least be more of those on the way. Meanwhile, I’ll look forward to the TV adaptation of Marble Hall Murders, having enjoyed the first two!

I read Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders a while back, and I've literally just finished watching both TV series, so Marble Hall Murders came at the perfect time. (And hurrah for another future small screen outing for the fabulous Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland!)

In the third instalment of Susan's adventures (publishing being a way more dangerous occupation than one might expect), she's not quite done yet with fictional detective Atticus Pünd. Even though author Alan Conway is dead, and Atticus himself was all but killed off in the final book, there's still room for another entry in what we might, but perhaps had better not, call the Pündverse.

Eliot Crace, grandson of the late, legendary, beloved children's author Miriam Crace, has been commissioned to write a new Pünd novel in the style of Alan Conway. And Susan has been asked to be his editor, a much more challenging task than one might think. Because Eliot has his issues, and his own agenda, and characters in his book bear a suspicious resemblance to his troubled family....

Getting mixed up with Eliot and the Craces leads Susan into perhaps more bother than ever before.

Excellent as always, and I look forward to the TV adaptation!