Moonflower Murders

Moonflower Murders is a 2020 mystery novel by British author Anthony Horowitz and the second novel in the Susan Ryeland series. The story focuses on the disappearance of a hotel employee and uses a story within a story format. The novel received strong positive reviews for its many-layered plot and brisk pace of the prose, “meaning that what we are reading can literally be described as a mystery wrapped in an enigma.” It was termed “a flawless update of classic golden age whodunits.” Plot summary After the events of Magpie Murders, Susan Ryeland is living in Crete with her fiancé Andreas, running a struggling hotel. She is approached by Lawrence and Pauline Treherne, owners of Branlow Hall, a hotel in England, because she was the editor of deceased mystery author Alan Conway. Conway used the people present when a murder occurred at the Treherne’s hotel eight years earlier, and models several characters on those people, in his mystery novel, Atticus Pünd Takes the Case. The Treherne’s daughter Cecily called her parents after reading the book, telling them that the book proves that the man in jail for the murder, Stefan Codrescu, is innocent. Shortly after that phone call Cecily disappears. The Trehernes offer Susan ten thousand pounds to return to England, stay at their hotel, and use any insight she may have by editing the book to find Cecily. Needing the money to help with the struggling hotel, Susan agrees and heads back to England to help. While at Branlow Hall, Susan finds that there are many suspects, as the murder victim Frank Parris was reportedly unpleasant to the point where even his sister Joanne Williams actively disliked him. Further, Alan Conway’s heir James Taylor tells Susan that Conway told him the police had taken the wrong person as killer, yet never told the police. Susan reasons that the same person who killed Frank is responsible for the disappearance of Cecily.