Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz Summary

Moonflower Murders is a mystery novel featuring former book editor Susan Ryeland, who runs a hotel in Crete until she's drawn back to England to investigate a disappearance. The Treherne family hires Susan to find their daughter Cecily, who vanished after discovering that a murder mystery novel by the late Alan Conway contains clues proving the wrong person was convicted of murdering Frank Parris at their hotel eight years earlier. The book uses a distinctive story-within-a-story format, embedding the complete text of Conway's fictional detective novel "Atticus Pünd Takes the Case" to create a layered mystery where both past and present crimes must be solved.

Moonflower Murders is perfect for fans of classic Agatha Christie-style golden age mysteries who appreciate complex, multi-layered plots. Readers who enjoy metafictional puzzles and novels-within-novels will find Anthony Horowitz's intricate structure particularly satisfying. This 600-page mystery appeals to patient, detail-oriented readers who relish piecing together clues across interconnected storylines. While it's the second book in the Susan Ryeland series, fans of intelligent detective fiction, literary mysteries, and British crime novels will be thoroughly engaged by its brisk pace and clever construction.

Moonflower Murders earned strong positive reviews and was called "a flawless update of classic golden age whodunits" by Publishers Weekly. The 600-page mystery delivers a brilliantly complex plot that moves at a brisk pace, keeping readers engaged despite its length. Anthony Horowitz excels at creating labyrinthine whodunnits with numerous suspects and clever twists. However, some readers found the complete novel-within-the-novel extensive and potentially distracting from the main mystery. Most reviewers gave it four out of five stars, praising its richly plotted narrative and homage to detective fiction.

Anthony Horowitz is a British author renowned for creating intricate mystery novels that pay homage to golden age detective fiction. His writing style in Moonflower Murders features clear, brisk prose that maintains momentum through complex, multi-layered plots. Horowitz specializes in metafictional mysteries that incorporate stories-within-stories, allowing him to blend classic and contemporary mystery conventions. He draws inspiration from Agatha Christie while adding postmodern touches, creating what critics describe as mysteries wrapped in enigmas. His signature approach involves embedding complete fictional novels within his main narratives to create interconnected puzzles.

The story-within-a-story format in Moonflower Murders features the complete text of a fictional Agatha Christie-style mystery novel called "Atticus Pünd Takes the Case" embedded within Susan Ryeland's contemporary investigation. This 1950s detective novel, supposedly written by the deceased author Alan Conway, contains hidden clues about the real murder that occurred at Branlow Hall eight years earlier. The fictional Pünd story mirrors the present-day mystery—both involve hotels, murder suspects, and parallel characters. Readers must analyze both narratives simultaneously to identify where Conway concealed the truth about Frank Parris's killer within his fictional plot.

While Moonflower Murders is the second novel in Anthony Horowitz's Susan Ryeland series following Magpie Murders, it can be enjoyed as a standalone mystery. The book provides sufficient background about Susan's previous life as a publisher and her relationship with the deceased author Alan Conway. However, reading Magpie Murders first enhances understanding of Susan's character development, her familiarity with Conway's writing patterns, and the "tragic end events" that led her to retire to Crete. Both books utilize the same novel-within-a-novel structure, so experiencing Magpie Murders helps readers appreciate Horowitz's signature metafictional approach.

Susan Ryeland is the protagonist of Moonflower Murders, a former London book editor now running a struggling hotel called The Polydorus in Crete with her boyfriend Andreas. She previously edited mystery novels by Alan Conway, the late author whose work becomes central to the investigation. Susan possesses sharp editorial instincts that make her uniquely qualified to decode hidden clues in Conway's final Atticus Pünd novel. Her publisher background allows her to analyze fictional narratives for real-world truths, though she initially misses London despite her Greek island retirement. The Trehearnes offer her ten thousand pounds to use her insider knowledge of Conway's writing to find their missing daughter.

Atticus Pünd is the fictional detective created by author Alan Conway within Moonflower Murders, clearly inspired by Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. Pünd is described as a half-Greek, half-German Holocaust survivor who came to England after World War II and works as a private detective. He possesses exceptional intelligence and always solves his cases, embodying the classic golden age detective archetype. In "Atticus Pünd Takes the Case," the novel embedded within Moonflower Murders, Pünd investigates the murder of Hollywood actress Melissa James at the Moonflower Hotel in a 1950s Devonshire seaside village. His investigation parallels and contains clues to the real present-day mystery Susan must solve.

In the climactic revelation at Branlow Hall Hotel, Susan Ryeland exposes Cecily's husband Aiden as the killer of both Frank Parris and Cecily herself. Aiden had previously worked as a sex worker and married Cecily not for love but for financial security and respectability. When Frank Parris stayed at the hotel and attempted to blackmail Aiden about his past, Aiden murdered him to protect his secret. Years later, when Cecily read Alan Conway's novel and discovered that Aiden was the real killer, he murdered her to prevent exposure. After confessing all details to the assembled family and police, Aiden escapes custody and commits suicide by jumping in front of a train.

The primary criticism of Moonflower Murders centers on the extensive length of the embedded novel "Atticus Pünd Takes the Case," which some readers found distracting from the main mystery. Kirkus Reviews noted that the novel-within-a-novel is "so extensive and absorbing on its own" that it may overwhelm readers trying to focus on Cecily's disappearance. Some reviewers questioned the plausibility of the Trehearnes hiring a former book editor rather than a professional private detective to find their missing daughter. At 600-plus pages, the book's length tested some readers' patience, though many acknowledged the complexity justified the page count.

Moonflower Murders directly emulates Agatha Christie's golden age detective fiction through its structure, pacing, and puzzle-like mystery construction. Like Christie's work, the novel features a closed circle of suspects at an English country hotel, multiple red herrings, and a climactic gathering where the detective reveals the solution. Anthony Horowitz's Atticus Pünd character deliberately mirrors Christie's Hercule Poirot as an outsider detective with superior intellect. Critics describe it as "a flawless update of classic golden age whodunits" that maintains Christie's puzzle-box approach while adding postmodern metafictional layers through its novel-within-a-novel structure. The main difference lies in Horowitz's contemporary frame story surrounding the vintage-style mystery.

Moonflower Murders spans approximately 600 to 608 pages, making it literally the length of two novels due to the complete embedded story "Atticus Pünd Takes the Case". Despite its substantial page count, many readers report flying through it because Anthony Horowitz maintains a brisk, engaging pace throughout the complex narrative. The writing style lends itself well to sustained reading, with reviewers praising the book's ability to keep readers absorbed in solving the interconnected mysteries. However, the extensive embedded novel may slow progress for readers who find switching between dual storylines challenging. Most readers complete it faster than the page count suggests due to its suspenseful, page-turning quality.