Moonflower murders : a novel

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Title:

Moonflower murders : a novel

Author:

Horowitz, Anthony, 1955- author.

Series:

Susan Ryeland ;

Series Number:

Summary:

"Farlingaye Hall is a beautiful hotel in Suffolk on the east coast of England. Unfortunately, it is also the site of the brutal murder of Frank Parris, a retired advertising executive. Stefan Codrescu, a Romanian maintenance man, is arrested after police find blood spatter on his clothes and bed linen. He is found guilty and spends eight years in prison. It appears an open and shut case, but there is more than meets the eye. Alan Conway, the late author of the fictional Magpie Murders, knew Frank Parris and once visited Farlingaye Hall. Conway based Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, the third book in his detective series, on the hotel. Cecily Treherne, the daughter of the hotel owner, read the book and believes the truth of Stefan's innocence is found in its pages. But now...she has disappeared. Conway's former editor Susan Ryeland leaves her own hotel in Crete and travels to Suffolk to investigate the murder and Treherne's disappearance."-- Provided by publisher.

Edition:

First Harper Large Print edition.

Physical Description:

442 pages (large print) ; 23 cm

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Large type books.

Subject Term:

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Retirees -- Fiction.

False imprisonment -- Fiction.

Hotels -- Fiction.

Disappeared persons -- Fiction.

Authors -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Harper Large Print, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers,

Publication Date:

2020

ISBN:

9780063029736

Publication Information:

New York, NY : Harper Large Print, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2020]

Call Number:

LP HOROWITZ

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003482034	Large Print Fiction	HOROWITZ Anthony	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Featuring his famous literary detective Atticus Pund and Susan Ryeland, hero of the worldwide bestseller Magpie Murders, a brilliantly complex literary thriller with echoes of Agatha Christie from New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz.

Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life. She is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend Andreas. It should be everything she's always wanted. But is it? She's exhausted with the responsibilities of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, and truth be told she's beginning to miss London.

And then the Trehearnes come to stay. The strange and mysterious story they tell, about an unfortunate murder that took place on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was married--a picturesque inn on the Suffolk coast named Farlingaye Hall--fascinates Susan and piques her editor's instincts.

One of her former writers, the late Alan Conway, author of the fictional Magpie Murders, knew the murder victim--an advertising executive named Frank Parris--and once visited Farlingaye Hall. Conway based the third book in his detective series, Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, on that very crime.

The Trehearne's, daughter, Cecily, read Conway's mystery and believed the book proves that the man convicted of Parris's murder--a Romanian immigrant who was the hotel's handyman--is innocent. When the Trehearnes reveal that Cecily is now missing, Susan knows that she must return to England and find out what really happened.

Brilliantly clever, relentlessly suspenseful, full of twists that will keep readers guessing with each revelation and clue, Moonflower Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction from one of its greatest masterminds, Anthony Horowitz.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Bestseller Horowitz's masterly sequel to 2017's Magpie Murders finds Susan Ryeland, who misses her previous work as a London book editor and publisher, discontent in her new life running a struggling hotel in Crete. Then she's visited by Lawrence and Pauline Treherne, the owners of Branlow Hall, an upscale Suffolk hotel, who think she can help in finding their missing daughter, Cecily. Cecily disappeared shortly after calling her parents to say that an injustice had been done. At the time of Cecily's wedding at Branlow Hall a decade earlier, Frank Parris, a hotel guest, was bludgeoned to death in his room. One of the staff, Stefan Codrescu, was convicted of the murder based on powerful circumstantial evidence. Cecily told her parents on the phone she was convinced of Stefan's innocence after reading a mystery inspired by the Parris murder by the now deceased Alan Conway, one of Susan's authors. Susan accepts the Trehernes' generous fee and travels to Branlow Hall to investigate, which involves looking into Parris's death and rereading the Conway novel for clues. Horowitz, who matches a baffling puzzle with a sympathetic, flawed lead, has never been better at surprising the reader and playing fair. This is a flawless update of classic golden age whodunits. Agent: Jonathan Lloyd, Curtis Brown (U.K.). (Nov.)

Library Journal Review

Managing a small hotel on a Greek island, retired publisher Susan Ryeland is getting restless when her new guests announce that their daughter Cecily was married in a Suffolk coast hotel where a notorious murder took place--on the same day as the wedding. Susan's late author Alan Conway based a mystery on the murder, and Cecily, who read the book and is convinced that the wrong person was convicted of the real-life crime, is now missing. Obviously, Susan leaps to investigate. Bringing back characters from the New York Times best-selling Magpie Murders. With a 200,000-copy first printing.