Marble Hall Murders
By Anthony Horowitz
(Harper, 583 pages, $31)
The prolific and multi-talented Anthony Horowitz is back with a very readable third novel featuring the full-time professional editor and part-time amateur sleuth Susan Ryeland and the legendary fictional detective Atticus Pünd. As in the first two books, Horowitz uses a clever whodunit-within-a-whodunit device, whereby the fictional mystery supplies the needed clues to sorting real murders.
The first two installments in this series, Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders were popular both in the book stores and in the TV series made from them and shown on Masterpiece, where Marble Hall will soon be available. Marble Hall can be read as a stand-alone. But greater pleasure comes from reading the Ryeland/Pünd novels in order as there are continuing elements to this intelligently wrought saga.
The many who enjoy detective fiction out of the justly celebrated English tradition will roll and snuffle in Marble Hall. It contains those elements that make readers turn to detective fiction — a well wrought mystery with engaging characters who are faced with challenging practical and moral choices. Through their eyes we can examine and criticize our world. Marble Hall is a long and complexly plotted story full of suspense, red-herrings, unexpected twists, and no shortage of suspects.
It features murders and rumors of murders over two generations of a family that the adjective dysfunctional falls well short of describing. There’s a large cast of characters with a host of motives, some noble others malign, and various agendas that have to be unpacked before the murderer is named, cuffed, and jugged.
As Marble Hall opens, Susan has come to realize that life with her restaurateur boyfriend on Crete is not for her, even though the setting is beautiful and she has real affection for Andreas. What seemed idyllic has gone off the boil and Susan gives in to the pull of London and her desire to resume her book editing career. Understandably, the last thing she wants is to tackle another Pünd mystery, as her last two editing projects have had her wrestling with a Pünd book and nearly being killed both times. Alas, to resume her interrupted book editing career, she will have to wrangle yet another Pünd story. No surprise that this assignment is not a box of chocolates either.
Pünd’s creator, Alan Conway, was himself murdered in Magpie Murders. So this book is being written by an unreliable member of the hapless Crace family, all of whom have been damaged by an imperious matriarch who died 20 years back of natural causes. But were those causes all that natural? Someone doesn’t want the world to know the answer to this question, and puts Susan and others in peril before all is sorted.
The book in question, Pünd’s Last Case, finally makes it to the book stores. Horowitz assures us that this is also Susan Ryeland’s last case. Those who’ve enjoyed the trilogy might urge him to go for four. But it’s a safe bet that Susan Ryeland has had all she wants of Herr Pünd.
Many readers will recognize Anthony Horowitz as the creator and screen writer of the excellent Foyle’s War series. This period piece gives viewers an authentic look at war-time England through the eyes of a Hastings detective superintendent, Christopher Foyle, played pitch perfectly by Michael Kitchen. He and the members of his appealing team deal with garden variety crime as well as with war-related offenses such as black marketeers, spies, and German sympathizers. If you haven’t had the pleasure…
Horowitz also wrote the early episodes of Midsomer Murders (entertainment comfort food), as well as adaptation scripts based on Agatha Christie’s novels for episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot. In this last, David Suchet plays the most authentic and amusing Poirot on the large or small screen.
A talented fellow, our Anthony Horowitz. A name for fans of intelligent mystery fiction on page or screen to be on the lookout for. His work doesn’t disappoint.
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