Moonflower Murders
A Novel
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4.2 • 75 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From New
York Times–bestselling author Anthony Horowitz comes a new novel featuring ex-editor
hero Susan Ryeland, set to solve another murder mystery
Farlingaye Hall is a beautiful hotel in Suffolk on the
east coast of England. Unfortunately, it is also the site of the brutal murder
of Frank Parris, a retired advertising executive. Stefan Codrescu, a
Romanian maintenance man, is arrested after police discover blood spatter on
his clothes and bed linen. He is found guilty and sentenced to eight years in
prison. It appears to be an open-and-shut case, but there is more to it than
meets the eye.
Alan Conway, the late author of the fictional Magpie
Murders, knew Frank Parris and once visited Farlingaye Hall. Also,
the third book in Conway’s detective series, Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, was based on the hotel.
Cecily Treherne, the daughter of Farlingaye Hall’s owner, has read the book and
believes the proof of Stefan’s innocence can be found in its pages.
But now . . . Cecily Treherne has disappeared. So Conway’s
former editor, Susan Ryeland, leaves her own hotel in Crete and travels to
Suffolk to investigate the murder and Treherne’s disappearance.
Masterfully intriguing, brilliantly clever and
relentlessly suspenseful, Moonflower Murders is a deviously dark take on
vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Horowitz's masterly sequel to 2017's Magpie Murders finds Susan Ryeland, who misses her previous work as a London book editor and publisher, discontent in her new life running a struggling hotel in Crete. Then she's visited by Lawrence and Pauline Treherne, the owners of Branlow Hall, an upscale Suffolk hotel, who think she can help in finding their missing daughter, Cecily. Cecily disappeared shortly after calling her parents to say that an injustice had been done. At the time of Cecily's wedding at Branlow Hall a decade earlier, Frank Parris, a hotel guest, was bludgeoned to death in his room. One of the staff, Stefan Codrescu, was convicted of the murder based on powerful circumstantial evidence. Cecily told her parents on the phone she was convinced of Stefan's innocence after reading a mystery inspired by the Parris murder by the now deceased Alan Conway, one of Susan's authors. Susan accepts the Trehernes' generous fee and travels to Branlow Hall to investigate, which involves looking into Parris's death and rereading the Conway novel for clues. Horowitz, who matches a baffling puzzle with a sympathetic, flawed lead, has never been better at surprising the reader and playing fair. This is a flawless update of classic golden age whodunits.
Customer Reviews
Liked it a lot
Great read
What good fun!
I really enjoy Anthony Horowitz; He’s extremely talented and his stories pull you in. He also did a terrific job on the Sherlock Holmes stories that he wrote for the Doyle family/foundation.
A smart unique mystery within a mystery
Two narratives co-exist in this unique murder mystery…one fictional, one “real” — linked through the fictional book’s editor. Totally enjoyable.