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gadrake 's review for:
Moonflower Murders
by Anthony Horowitz
In the style of a classic whodunit from the golden age of mysteries, this second entry into the Susan Ryeland series is, in the words of a passage in the book, a "complicated mystery."
As in Magpie Murders, there is a similar yet separate novel within the original novel. That right there is the complicated part, i.e., keeping track of the huge cast of characters with one half being based on the other half.
Susan, an editor, has been asked to help solve a murder that was allegedly based on a novel written by the now deceased author Alan Conway, a man Susan could not stand. Susan returns to the genteel English countryside from Crete where she has tried to create a new life without books. She is not exactly content. What follows is a nonviolent mystery where just about every character could have committed both the first and the second murder, which are eight years apart. This is true in both novels in this one book.
This is intelligent writing of the highest degree, but it is truly confusing. Anyone who reads for just 20 min each night will spend half that time trying to remember who is who. In the conclusion, it gets even more detailed where we learn Alan Conway had matched initials of characters in each story. So the doctor in the main story may have had the initial LC and so does the doctor in the 'novel' within. Lots of other symbolism too and that started to become overwhelming.
Such a great idea to embed one novel within another. These are puzzles requiring solving. All the traditional motivations are present: greed, jealousy, lust, racial prejudice and even a touch of fanaticism. Looking back, there are signposts along the way. Very, very clever stuff.
As in Magpie Murders, there is a similar yet separate novel within the original novel. That right there is the complicated part, i.e., keeping track of the huge cast of characters with one half being based on the other half.
Susan, an editor, has been asked to help solve a murder that was allegedly based on a novel written by the now deceased author Alan Conway, a man Susan could not stand. Susan returns to the genteel English countryside from Crete where she has tried to create a new life without books. She is not exactly content. What follows is a nonviolent mystery where just about every character could have committed both the first and the second murder, which are eight years apart. This is true in both novels in this one book.
This is intelligent writing of the highest degree, but it is truly confusing. Anyone who reads for just 20 min each night will spend half that time trying to remember who is who. In the conclusion, it gets even more detailed where we learn Alan Conway had matched initials of characters in each story. So the doctor in the main story may have had the initial LC and so does the doctor in the 'novel' within. Lots of other symbolism too and that started to become overwhelming.
Such a great idea to embed one novel within another. These are puzzles requiring solving. All the traditional motivations are present: greed, jealousy, lust, racial prejudice and even a touch of fanaticism. Looking back, there are signposts along the way. Very, very clever stuff.