Two murder mystery books for the price of one! Once again, Horowitz gives us two mystery books; one set in present day England, one set in 1950s, both somehow related (and both between the covers of Moonflower Murders) as the "author" of the historical murder mystery based his murder on a contemporary event (part of the mystery is determining how, if at all, they murders and suspects line up). Former publisher Susan Ryeland is hired to investigate and find the links between the book she edited and the more recent murder at the hotel and hopefully find a missing person who claimed to have discovered the identity of the current murderer based on her reading of the book. Lots of suspects, some humor, and some foreshadowing that may give the game away to careful readers without taking away any enjoyment they will get out of reading this book.

Horowitz uses a mystery novel to give clues necessary to solve another mystery. Revisiting characters introduced in the Magpie Murders, the Moonflower Murders allows the reader to enjoy solving the disappearance of an innkeeper that may be linked to a murder at the hotel years prior. Atticus Pund has his own story within the modern one. I thoroughly enjoyed both stories and found the conclusions credible.

I am such a fan of Magpie Murders and I couldn't wait to get my hands on the next Atticus Pund/Susan Ryeland book Moonflower Murders. This book is everything I hoped for...the classic British village mystery inside the contemporary murder mystery. I loved the tribute to the "Golden Age" of mystery writers. Horowitz came up with another brilliant plot where a woman, Cecily Trehearnes part owner of high end hotel in Sussex, has gone missing. Her parents are desperate to find her and the only clue is that right before she disappeared she had called them to tell them that she had found out who the real murderer was to a murder that had taken place eight years ago at their hotel. She had found the clue in an Atticus Pund novel. Alan Conway the writer of the Atticus novels had gone to their hotel eight years ago and had loosely based his third novel around that actual murder. Susan Ryeland, former publisher, who is now the half owner of a small hotel in Greece with her partner Andreas is asked to solve the mystery. Susan is having second thoughts about her life choices and the hotel needs money. They offer her $10,000 pounds if she can find out what happened to their daughter. Susan agrees and tries to find out what really happened eight years ago at the hotel and if Alan Conway had really solved the murder and put the clue in the book Atticus Pund Takes the Case and if the truth can help her find their missing daughter.

I love the throwback feel to this book, and Horowitz makes the novel within a novel fun rather than confusing. This was my least favorite of his books and I found myself bored with the Pund novel in the middle and ready to get back to the main storyline. But all in all, I enjoy the whodunit and he writes a good one! 3.5 stars

I adored Anthony Horowitz's last novel Magpie Murders. The writing is not something you see every day. (Think Riley Sager's HOME BEFORE DARK.) This was a wonderful novel that gives shades of Agatha Christie and a wonderful murder mystery and detective story. If you liked Home Before Dark, you simply must read this book!

Nothing ruins your wedding day quite like a brutal, messy murder. Years afterward, the bride goes missing under suspicious circumstances and Susan Ryeland has been asked to help. It seems an Atticus Pund novel may have been the catalyst for her disappearance. Fun and twisty.

I loved this book! The story-within-a-story, the detailed crafting of both (all 3?) mysteries, the characters and worlds jumped off the page.

This book is a good follow-up on the first book, and readers who liked the first book will likely enjoy this one as well. Like Magpie Murders, Moonflower Murders is a book within a book, with Alan Conway/Atticus Pünd being the internal book. However, since it reprises the same format as Magpie Murders, much of the delight and surprise of discovering that new format is gone. It is still a good murder mystery that hearkens back to the golden age of detective fiction, and readers will likely enjoy returning to Susan's voice and the ghost of Alan Conway.

Too clever, too long.

I love allusions and little easter eggs in a novel, but not when they are as contrived as the ones in this one. Horowitz did a great deal of research and planning to fit them all in, but will you recognize any of them? No, because each one is part of the puzzle the author builds.

While it is fun to search for easter eggs someone, even if not you, might recognize, it is annoying to have to have each one explained to you in a lengthy dissection at the end of the book.

I can admire the Horowitz's planning all of the details with extensive research of anything that could possibly amplify the lion/leo trope he has decided to use, the technique is more self-promoting than needed to advance the plot.

Most reviews are extremely positive, but I found the book manipulative and the pacing slow and a bit disjointed.

Read in Sept. Blog review scheduled for Oct. 22.

NetGalley/Harper Collins
Mystery/Thriller. Nov. 10, 2020. Print length: 608 pages.

I’m a huge fan of Horowitz’s last book Magpie Murders. This is a sequel to it, featuring Susan Ryland, former publisher of the slain mystery writer Alan Conway, featured in the previous story. Ryland is hired to look into the disappearance of a young woman who claimed she knew who murdered a man in her parents’s hotel, once she had read one of Conway’s books. On this thin premise, the action starts. I don’t think this story works particularly well, even though the writing is as sharp as ever. By the time I was halfway into it, though, I was getting tired of this device - Conway, his writings, and these characters. I surely hope that the author has played out the seams of this mine and will turn his huge talents to yet another puzzle.

This was a fun follow-up to Magpie Murders. Susan is back drawn into an old murder and a new disappearance. Are they related and what does Alan's book have to do with it. Another book in a book, both mysteries are good reads. With the Atticus Pund story very Agatha Christie. I did have a little trouble with the shear number of characters between the two stories, but i sorted it out. A really fun read

I picked up Magpie Murders solely because I love Midsomer Murders and figured that anything
Anthony Horowitz wrote would be enjoyable. This turned out to be one of my favorite reads of 2017, and when I saw that the second book would be published in 2020, I was excited. Getting approved for a DRC meant I finished my current read, pushed everything aside, and dug into Moonflower Murders over Labor Day weekend.
Atticus Pund is the fictional detective made famous by Alan Conway's books. While most editors and authors maintain a fine working relationship, Susan Ryeland knows firsthand that working with certain authors can be murder. Alan Conway was one of those authors, and even though she has left the publishing world far behind, it seems that Alan is not quite done with her.
Susan is approached by Cecily MacNeil's parents. Their daughter is missing and they have only one clue that might lead to her whereabouts. Cecily told them that after having read Atticus Pund Takes The Case, a book written by Alan Conway, she knew who really killed Frank Parris on her wedding day, eight years ago. She was certain that the man convicted, Stefan Codrescu, was in fact innocent, but before she can explain, she disappears. Susan agrees to try and decipher Alan's book in the hope that it will lead them to Cecily.
Told from a book within a book perspective, we have Susan's current investigation, along with the entire Atticus Pund story. Both are equally engaging, but alas, even though I attempted to use all of my little grey cells, the connection between Alan's book and the murder of Frank Parris eluded me. I'm fine with failing though because both stories are full of potential suspects. I cared as much about what happened to Cecily and Frank Parris as I did about the murder victim in Alan Conway's book. So many secrets and lies, red herrings, and head-scratching whodunit moments kept me glued to this book until the last page.
The complexities of writing a story within a story must be challenging, but the author manages to do it seemingly effortlessly. I couldn't find any part, piece, puzzle, or clue that didn't work together, and all I can say is that I loved this book.

Susan Ryeland has moved to Crete with her finance, Andreas. Things are not going well, the hotel is wonderful, but money is always a big issue. A couple arrives from London and offer her £10,000 to travel to England and find out who killed their daughter. It is eight years after the fact, but now someone else has disappeared at the Moonflower Hotel and Susan may hold the key in the form of another Atticus Pund novel she edited. Horowitz has discovered an interesting formula of writing a book inside a book; it was not quite as interesting this time as it was the first in time, in Magpie Murders. The plotting is quite intricate, but I was not as engaged this time.

Susan Ryeland is back on the trail of another Alan Conway mystery. Horowitz is almost too clever in this book-within-a-book mystery filled with clues and puzzles.

This is the second in the series; the first is The Magpie Murders. In the first book of the series, the author of the famous Atticus Pund mysteries, Alan Conway, is killed. In this second entry, the parents of a missing woman, Cecily, come to Crete to see Conway's publisher, Susan Ryeland, because their daughter thinks a Pund mystery proves that the wrong person was convicted of a murder at their hotel several years ago. After sharing this revelation with her parents (but not who did it), Cecily disappears during an afternoon walk.

I enjoy Anthony Horowitz's books because he creates intricate and complicated plots, books within books (this one has the Pund mystery included in the book), and enough twists and turns in the story to have you completely confused as to who is good and who is not.

Susan has her own difficulties, as well, as she and her partner feel they are drowning running their hotel in Crete, and she uses the excuse of this case to run back to England (and the 10,000 pound reward for solving the case will certainly help their finances). But she also feels an obligation and a curiosity to figure out what Cecily saw in the Pund novel to lead to her revelation that the wrong person was convicted, to find out who was really guilty of the crime, and to find out what happened to Cecily.

I loved this mystery from Anthony Horowitz! It was told in a "book within a book" style, which was fun. Admittedly, I did find the "clues" to the present-day mystery that were hidden in the book-inside-the-book to be a bit of a stretch. However, this really didn't mar the book or my enjoyment of it.. Horowitz sticks to the old-fashioned mystery "formula" just enough to give a classic mystery feel. The plot moves along at a decent pace and the characters are likable... except for the ones who aren't supposed to be likable. There is not a lot of violence, sex or language. I would definitely recommend to mystery fans.

The marvelous Moonflower Murders is further proof positive that Anthony Horowitz doesn't disappoint his readers. It is as captivating as Magpie Murders was (and that's saying a lot)! The reader will be pleased by the return of both Susan Ryeland and Atticus Pünd. Yes, once again, Horowitz gives us two compelling tales in one book. Former editor Ryeland discovers the tentacles of the late crime writer, Alan Conway, reach far beyond the grave. This intriguing story finds Ryeland trying to solve a murder based upon clues Conway may or may not have hidden in one of his Pünd novels. What follows is an absolutely delightful read in the style Horowitz has perfected. It is as well crafted as those the golden age mysteries it pays tribute to. Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy.

Having read and loved Magpie, I was very excited to start Moonflower. I do enjoy the book-inside-a-book premise, and I appreciated how Moonflower introduces the people of the modern case before jumping into the text of Alan Conway’s book (the opposite of Magpie).

The second murder mystery featuring erstwhile editor Susan Ryeland is such a treat -- Horowitz is one of the great mystery writers of his generation, crafting intricate stories full of intrigue, humor, and vivid characters. I loved reading the novel-within-a-novel, Atticus Pund Takes the Case, as well. Perfect pandemic escape reading -- I'm already recommending it to mystery-loving friends and patrons.

I always love Anthony Horowitz's mystery novels and I feel this is one of his best thus far. This novel is another two-for-one deal with an Atticus Pund novel embedded in the main novel and both being intertwined. This novel will give your brain a real workout as you try to make the connections between the two novels to solve the cases in both story lines. A real treat for fans of the genre!