5 stars for Moonflower Murders (Magpie Murders book 2) by Anthony Horowitz.
I like book 1 Magpie Murders so much that I am super glad to be able to continue with this book 2 right away after the first one.
As with the earlier book, Moonflower Murders is also told from the first person perspective of editor Susan Ryeland. The story opens with Susan in a family-run hotel called Polydorus which is located in Cete, a Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean. But no sooner have we make acquaintance with the hotel, we see Susan returning to the UK to solve a case. The mystery is as complicated as the Atticus Pünd series written by one of her former writers, Alan Conway, whose work she used to edit. But this time, there are no hints and tips from the author to help Susan solve the mystery. And to make matters worse, depending on who Susan speaks to, there are different versions of events. She knows not who is lying and who to trust.
Moonflower Murders is another excellent murder mystery that keeps you guessing and wondering. The book mentions the Atticus Pünd series right from the start and the moment it zoom in on book 3 Atticus Pünd Takes the Case, I get really excited because I know without a doubt that I will get to read it. The only thing is I have no idea when that will be. So when the time has finally come to confront the text, even though I do not have with me a mug of coffee, or a club sandwich held together by a cocktail stick flying a miniature stars and stripes, or even a bowl of chips, I am more than ready to read one murder mystery while going through another one. I have the book within a book with me. And that's all that matters.
It sure feels real. I mean the book within a book. There is even a book cover, about the author, a listing of books in the Atticus Pünd series, praise for book 3 Atticus Pünd Takes the Case, title page, copyright page, dedication page and table of contents before I can plunge headlong into the story; a story set in a small community where no one tells the truth. It seems a lot of efforts to me, the extent to which the author goes into for putting up a book within his book. It is amazing.
Once again, in reading this series, one has the feeling of value for money. It is a book that contains not one, not two, but three mystery crimes with three sets of solutions. One book, three mystery cases. What a steal! I will say that many of the incidents in the book as well as the book within, are quite imaginative. But there is something very satisfying about a complicated whodunnit that actually makes sense at the end of the day when all is revealed.
This is a terrific story that will leave you guessing all the way. Everyone is a suspect. To get the book to unlock the secrets, you will want to keep reading, without stopping. It has been a long time since I stay up late into the night to read. But that's what this book does to me. I give up my sleep hours in exchange for finding out who the perpetrator is. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication date: 30 Nov 2021
@}--->>--->>-----
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.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
Add to:
Links to purchase:
No comments:
Post a Comment