A review by crafalsk264
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Susan Ryeland was first introduced in Horowitz’s novel, “Magpie Murders”. At the end of that book, Susan had left all her ties to the publishing world and moved to Crete with her long term partner. But now being the on site hotel owners/managers has lost its appeal and Susan is exhausted and missing her life in London. 

A couple (the Trehearnes) are aware of her past as Alan Conway’s editor and that she was mentioned in the reports of the solution to his murder. The daughter is missing. She disappeared immediately after finishing Conway’s last novel (“Magpie Murders”) which is based on a grizzly murder that had occurred at their hotel a few years ago. Trehearne offers Susan $10,000 to look into their daughter’s disappearance. Susan decides that she can spend a few days at their luxury hotel at their expense, talk to a few people about Cecily’s last few days and her disappearance, see her sister, and perhaps look into possible publishing jobs. Since Cecily’s last act was to exclaim that Conway’s novel had helped her solve the murder.

So Susan begins to look into her disappearance by rereading Conway’s novel, “Atticus Pünd Takes the Case”, and here is where the reader gets to enjoy the mystery along with Susan. Once again Susan follows both Conway’s mystery and her information from her queries on Cecily. The two mysteries are both intriguing and I enjoy the format of a book within a book. Horowitz carefully designs each of the mysteries so that they complement each other and intersect in surprising ways. He provides all of the clues but I still didn’t get the kinks out of who the murderers were or exactly what the mystery is or is not. Since this is the second in a series and the fictional Conway wrote nine books in its series, Atticus Pünd, I have hopes for seven more books.