Marble Hall Murders

Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel, and her Greek boyfriend Andreas in search of a new life back in England.

Freelancing for Causton Books, she’s working on the manuscript of a novel, Pund’s Last Case, by a young author named Eliot Crace, a continuation of the popular Alan Conway series. Susan is surprised to learn that Eliot is the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace, who died some fifteen years ago—murdered, Elliot insists, by poison.

As Susan begins to read the manuscript’s opening chapters, the skeptical editor is relieved to find that Pund’s Last Case is actually very good. Set in the South of France, it revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, who, though mortally ill, is poisoned—perhaps by a member of her own family. But who did it? And why?

The deeper Susan reads, the more it becomes clear that the clues leading to the truth of Marian Crace’s death are hidden within this Atticus Pund mystery.

While Eliot’s accusation becomes more plausible, his behavior grows increasingly erratic.. Then he is suddenly killed in a hit-and-run accident, and Susan finds herself under police scrutiny as a suspect in his killing.

Three mysterious deaths. Multiple motives and possible murderers. If Susan doesn’t solve the mystery of Pund’s Last Case, she may well be the next victim.

I always enjoy Anthony Horowitz‘s mysteries, and particularly like the book-within-a-book aspect of the Susan Ryeland series.

I thought this book brought Alan Conway and his Atticus Pund books back in a fun, clever way and although it took me a few chapters to be pulled into the mystery (or mysteries, I should say), once I was in I couldn’t put the book down! Horowitz writes clever mysteries that have me examining things from all angles and yet still keeps me guessing, and this was no exception.

I so enjoyed reading this and highly recommend the series if you love a clever whodunit and a dash of metafiction!