A review by unsponsoredbookreviews
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

4.0

I read the first Susan Ryeland book, Magpie Murders, and I really enjoyed the structure of it with a standard murder mystery with a second in-book fictional mystery nested within. It is a truly novel idea that made it stand out above other run-of-the-mill mysteries. I don't know why it surprised me when Anthony Horowitz immediately went back to that proverbial well with Moonflower Murders, but it did. For the most part, the schtick still works because it gives two types of mysteries in one book and they both tie together. The Susan Ryeland side of things provides a more meta and modern take on the murder mystery and the Atticus Pund a more classical Agatha Christie one.

I'm not typically one who guesses a twisty murder book correctly more than maybe a third of the time but I did manage to guess both eventual outcomes presented in Moonflower Murders. That may mean it is a bit more solvable than normal but it still remains well-written and enjoyable throughout. The one true weakness is the extraneous stuff around Susan's life that tends to pad out some of the extra pages, I just do not find it that compelling and wish it was kept a bit tighter.