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Author | Anthony Horowitz |
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Language | English |
Series | Susan Ryeland |
Genre | Mystery fiction |
Published | 2020 |
Publisher | Harper |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (hardback, paperback) ebook, audiobook |
Pages | 608 pages |
ISBN | 978-0-06-295545-6 |
Preceded by | Magpie Murders |
Moonflower Murders [1] 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.” [2] It was termed “a flawless update of classic golden age whodunits.” [3]
Susan Ryeland, running a struggling hotel in Crete with her fiancé Andreas, is approached by Lawrence and Pauline Treherne, owners of Branlow Hall, a hotel in England. The Trehernes explain that a murder occurred eight years earlier at their hotel. Susan's former client, mystery author Alan Conway, used the events as the basis for his mystery novel, Atticus Pünd Takes the Case.
The Trehernes' 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 disappeared. Susan accepts an offer of ten thousand pounds to return to England, stay at their hotel, and use any insight she may have gained by editing the book to find Cecily and the true killer of Frank Parris.
Susan analyzes the novel closely and uncovers both the true killer of eight years earlier and where Cecily is. In a meeting at Branlow Hall Hotel, with the Treherne family and the police detective, Susan reveals the murderer as Cecily's husband, Aiden. Aiden had previously been a male prostitute and had left this life after meeting Cecily, who he had married not out of love but because of their home and his job at the hotel. When Frank Parris stayed at the hotel, he attempted to blackmail Aiden about his past. Aiden murdered Parris and, when Cecily discovered what Aiden had done, he murdered her as well.
Soon after confessing every detail, Aiden escapes the police detective and commits suicide by jumping in front of a train.
The novel also contains the complete text of Atticus Pünd Takes the Case, and readers can see where the fictional author Conway left clues throughout pointing to the "real-life" crime.
This novel was well received, with strongly positive reviews from published reviewers.
Michael Dirda writing in The Washington Post calls this novel one of the “metafictional mysteries” by Horowitz. The plot is complex while the writing moves at a brisk pace. The structure of this literal “novel within a novel” is presented clearly in the review, indicating one aspect of complexity of the plot. [4]
Publishers Weekly considered it “a flawless update of classic golden age whodunits.” [3]
Kirkus Reviews noted all the same features of the complex plot and clear prose, yet felt it was “over the top”: “The novel within a novel is so extensive and absorbing on its own, in fact, that all but the brainiest armchair detectives are likely to find it a serious distraction from the mystery to which it’s supposed to offer the key.“ Thus does Kirkus Reviews limit the audience of this novel to only the brainiest readers. [5]
Sarah Lyall writing in The New York Times remarked it as a classic golden-age mystery novel, with a modern or postmodern take, and was impressed by the continual flow of high quality writing from the author. This novel was “a richly plotted, head-spinning novel about a present-day disappearance, a murder eight years earlier and a fictional murder that may be relevant to both.” [2]
Moonflower Murders earned a "Rave" rating from the book review aggregator Book Marks based on six independent reviews. [6] The six reviews include the four highlighted above, plus a review in The Wall Street Journal by Tom Nolan and a review by Beth Kanell in the New York Journal of Books. Extracts from the six reviews are posted, with links to the full reviews. Four reviews were marked Rave, one Positive and one Mixed.
In 2023 BBC began filming a series based on Moonflower Murders, expected to release in early 2024. Lesley Manville and Timothy McMullan reprised their roles as Susan and Atticus from the previous Magpie Murders series. [7]
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Kogoro Akechi, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.
A whodunit is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective.
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has several subgenres, including detective fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.
Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective, who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism.
Atticus may refer to:
Anthony John Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include the Alex Rider series featuring a 14-year-old British boy who spies for MI6, The Power of Five series, and The Diamond Brothers series.
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The Golden Age proper is in practice usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was predominant in the 1920s and 1930s but had been written since at least 1911 and is still being written today.
Kenneth Martin Edwards is a British crime novelist, whose work has won multiple awards including lifetime achievement awards for his fiction, non-fiction, short fiction, and scholarship in the UK and the United States. In addition to translations into various European languages, his books have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese. As a crime fiction critic and historian, and also in his career as a solicitor, he has written non-fiction books and many articles. He is the current President of the Detection Club and in 2020 was awarded the Crime Writers' Association's Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing, in recognition of the "sustained excellence" of his work in the genre.
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The House of Silk is a Sherlock Holmes novel written by British author Anthony Horowitz, published in 2011. This book's publication was the first time the Conan Doyle Estate had authorised a new novel that is not a Sherlock Holmes pastiche.
Francie Lin is a Taiwanese-American novelist, whose debut novel The Foreigner (2008) won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author.
The Mysterious West is a 1994 anthology edited by Tony Hillerman and published by HarperTorch. The book went on to win the Anthony Award for Best Short Story Collection in 1995.
Mycroft and Sherlock is a mystery novel by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse. It is the second novel in their "Mycroft Holmes" series utilizing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's characters of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. Having focused solely on Mycroft in the first novel, Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse were curious about the relationship between Mycroft and his brother and recognized that the sequel would need the introduction of Sherlock.
Susan Dunlap is an American writer of mystery novels and short stories. Her novels have mostly appeared in one of four series, each with its own sleuthing protagonist: Vejay Haskell, Jill Smith, Kiernan O'Shaughnessy, or Darcy Lott. Through 2020, more than two dozen of Dunlap's book-length mysteries have appeared in print. She has also edited crime fiction and has contributed to anthologies, including A Woman's Eye (1991), and to periodicals such as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Her short story "Checkout" won a Macavity Award and an Anthony Award in 1994.
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