Moonflower Murders

by Anthony Horowitz

Libby audiobook 18 hours

Read by: Lesley Manville and Allan Corduner

Published: 2020

Genre: murder mystery

I re-listened to Magpie Murders to be ready for this second book in the series. Again, it was a story-within-a-story. We start in Crete with Susan Ryeland and Andreas running the hotel. Susan is invited back to England to try to find Cecily Trehearne at her parents' request. Right before disappearing, Cecily had read an Alan Conway book loosely based upon a murder that had happened at the Trehearnes' hotel on Cecily's wedding day. She called her parents to tell them she knew what happened. The novella-length book Atticus Pund Takes the Case, is embedded within the larger story.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as Magpie. I don't really care for Susan as a protagonist that much. Conway's clever wordplay and the many, many clues (find the lions!) doesn't outweigh the negatives of the story. The bonding over cigarettes and smoking (in the first book and this one) is unappealing. The idea of a place retaining a "feel" or "aura" after a violent crime is interesting, but also creepy. The idea of a detective novel without a detective . . . is frustrating. Though technically, Miss Marple isn't a detective either and I like her! 

The more the story built up Conway's book about the murder eight years earlier, the more frustrated I got. Why on earth did Susan wait so darn long to re-read the book and try to figure out what Cecily saw?!

I'm glad Susan and her sister Katie finally talked, but I misunderstood what Katie had seen in Martin and Joann Williams . . . I was certain that Joanne and her brother Frank had killed her pathetic husband Martin and bashed his face in so people mistook him for Frank. Why did Martin's personality change so much? Susan's assumptions were wrong, too . . . 

There is commentary on the penal system and the pointlessness of locking people up. Just like with the first book, many characters, many clues, many connections. I think I'll go back to Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.