Review: Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
I received a free ARC of the book. Many thanks to Netgalley and to Random House for the opportunity.
Before picking up this book, I hadn’t read any Anthony Horowitz before, and that includes book #1 of this series, Magpie Murders. Moonflower Murders is book #2 in the Susan Ryeland series. As a reviewer it is sometimes helpful not to start at the beginning of a series. You can tell prospective readers whether this particular story can be read as a stand-alone. In this case it presented no difficulties, there appeared to be no crucial backstory missing. The murderer from book #1 was not outed, though I suspect that if you read Magpie Murders afterwards, your pool of suspects my be narrowed purely by their presence in Moonflower.
An elderly couple approach Susan Ryeland, formerly a publisher, now a hotelier in Greece. They want her to investigate the disappearance of their daughter. They believe it is related to a possible miscarriage of justice, eight years previously, that was hinted at in a fictional book based on a real murder. The author of that book is now dead, but Susan, as the publisher, may have inside knowledge. She agrees and returns to England to begin stirring up the past.
Horowitz’s writing is intelligent without being pompous. The plot is interesting and this book includes the full text of the whodunnit within, so it’s kind of a two for one. I became so engrossed by the book within the book, I was a little disoriented when the narrative returned to the original story. In the best tradition of the murder mystery, I attempted to spot the clues myself and identify the murderer before the narrator. I could say I succeeded but actually I suspected almost everyone at some point, which is, of course, a sign of a truly rip roaring whodunnit.
This is the kind of book that makes you instantly plan a reread to spot all the clues that the author dangled in front of you while you were looking the other way. There won’t just be a reread for me though. I felt that thrill a reader feels when they realise they have found a great new author to obsess over and immediately checks what other books they have written. I foresee many more Horowitz mysteries in my future.
Moonflower Murders is out 20th August 2020. Magpie Murders is out right now.
