I really enjoyed this book!!

Susan Ryeland has had enough of murder.

She’s edited two novels about the famous detective, Atticus Pünd, and both times she’s come close to being killed. Now she’s back in England and she’s been persuaded to work on a third.

The new ‘continuation’ novel is by Eliot Crace, grandson of Miriam Crace who was the biggest selling children’s author in the world until her death exactly twenty years ago.

Eliot believes that Miriam was deliberately poisoned. And when he tells Susan that he has hidden the identity of Miriam’s killer inside his book, Susan knows she’s in trouble once again.

As Susan works on Pünd’s Last Case, a story set in an exotic villa in the South of France, she uncovers more and more parallels between the past and the present, the fictional and the real world – until suddenly she finds that she has become a target herself.

Having watched and enjoyed the tv versions of the first two books in the series, I was intrigued to read this one to see how Horowitz had managed the juxtaposition of the ‘real life’ and fictional characters on the page. It didn’t disappoint, although strangely the book was less complex than dramatisations. But hugely enjoyable nonetheless.

When you try to milk a template, it loses it's novelty. Now the pun was unintentional, but then the series is a force fit, the way probably, publishers try to build on the fame of a hit.

For this book, Susan's life and relationship in Greece has to end and she has to come back to her familiar surrounding of publishers to even the same people. She has been asked to edit a continuation novel of Atticus Pund to be written by a character from the previous novels. The book then builds the mystery within the book format revealed in multiple tranches till a real murder happens. Susan has to solve both the mysteries to keep herself out of jail.

I had multiple problems with this book in particular - both the crimes were actually solvable and the clues were not so ingeniously hidden. There are obvious misses when she is set to be framed which I found logically faulty. The book also tests your patience since the story buildup is needlessly slow and there are too many arbitrary characters. Aside, the main mystery lacks any character you can feel sorry about.

Overall, this was an effort to finish since it loses an interest.

I absolutely loved the previous books in this series so was thrilled to see a third instalment. Our protagonist Susan has left her idyllic Greek island and returned to her life in London once more. However, she needs to establish herself once more in the publishing world. She is given an opportunity to freelance for Causton Books and edit the final Atticus Pund novel which is being written by Eliot Crace who is the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace, who died some fifteen years ago—murdered, Elliot insists, by poison. And so the adventure begins with the usual premise of this series of a novel within a novel. Atticus must solve the murder of Lady Margaret Chalfont and Susan must work to discover if Marian Crace really was murdered.

This is a gripping read and like the earlier books drops clues as to the perpetrator of the crimes liberally, although there are lots of red herrings and attempts to mislead the reader. There are even puzzles to test the reader's ability to observe clues! Susan is a remarkable main character with her tenacity and willingness to confront some evil people but she always gets it right in the end. This novel deserves to be considered among the greats of the genre with a modern twist. You must read the two previous books to really understand how the story has progressed. Keeping my fingers crossed that we get another mystery for Susan to solve. With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book.

In The Marble Hall Murders, Anthony Horowitz delivers another masterclass in classic crime fiction, once again stepping into the shoes of golden-age greats with elegance and flair. The novel brings back the charming yet enigmatic detective Daniel Hawthorne, paired with Horowitz’s own fictional alter ego, in a metafictional twist that fans of the series will instantly recognize and enjoy.

A fiendishly clever and layered mystery once again from Horrowitz as expected from the Susan Reyland/ Atricus Pund series. This time solving the Pund case did not necessarily mean the real life case was solved, so a lot to sink your teeth into in terms of sleuthing whilst reading. Really enjoyed getting stuck into this hefty mystery.

Susan is back in London and freelancing when she is called on to carry on with the Atticus Pund books with a new author, Eliot Crace grandson of a very famous childrens author who everyone loved. It doesn’t take Susan long to realise that Eliot like Alan Conway has scores to settle and he is doing so with Atticus. After three books I’m now used to the Atticus Pund book running alongside Susan’s story with all the usual twists and turns expected almost until the end

Another great puzzle of a book from Anthony Horowitz. Thoroughly enjoyable. Can’t wait for the next one!

Having watched and enjoyed the TV series of Moonflower Murders and Magpie Murders I was familiar with the characters in Marble Hall Murders. Looking forward to watching the TV version of Marble Hall Murders. As with all TV or film versions of books I could hear the main characters voices when reading this book. A very long but most enjoyable book. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

I have read the previous books and enjoyed them, more because of Susan than Atticus but I found this one harder to get into once it's switched to Atticus. It took so long for anything of note to happen.

There were plenty of twists in the tale and I enjoyed the book but I am going to buy the audio book and listen to it as that is my preferred mode currently.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC

The sands of time are running out for Susan and Atticus but in very different ways. Their past & presents are about to intersect for possibly the last time with the Marble Hall Murders.

Horowitz’s writing is so addictive, you are lured in with his ever-increasing inventive twists as he weaves the two stories together in such as satisfying way. The layers in this series are just a delight, you devour the reveals with relish, especially if you had been able to work them out. However, he’s one of the few authors that you don’t feel annoyed at when you can’t anticipate the truth of the mystery as the secrets are finally laid bare. Spending time with the charming Atticus is always worthwhile, and I’m so glad Horowitz found a way to share his creation with us once more.

Susan Ryeland used to be the editor of the famous Atticus Pünd novels. But after the author's murder and her own attempted murder, she moved to Greece with her boyfriend. But she never felt at home there and missed her life in London. Back home and looking for a new job, she is offered the chance to edit a new Atticus Pünd novel by a young, unknown writer. Eliot Crace is the grandson of the beloved author of a series of children's books. Eliot is a troubled young man. He believes his grandmother has been poisoned and tells Susan that clues to the culprit are hidden in his book. Susan is intrigued and begins to investigate.

This is the third book with Susan Ryeland. I like Horowitz's writing but I am not the biggest fan of Susan anymore. I found her very annoying and her actions often very stupid. The first two books were very cleverly written. This book feels a bit too long. Not much happens except Susan snooping around in other families business. Yes, maybe there was a murder, but she is no detective and I did not understand her moroseness. The whole story felt forced and not as smooth as the others. I also have to admit that I am not a fan of books within books. I was never a fan of the Atticus Pünd chapters in the previous books and here it was the same. Matters were further complicated for me because I am bad with names (as soon as I finish a book I forget every character's name and have to look them up to write a review) and I got confused as to who was who in these two stories.

I do not dislike the book, but I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It took me three weeks to read it and that is not a good sign. I will read books by Anthony Horowitz again, but probably not another one about Susan, if there is one.

Having decided that her life in idilic Greece is not working for her, Susan Ryeland returns to London and once again she is persuaded to edit an Atticus Pund mystery. Despite enjoying the manuscript, alum bells start to ring as she realises that there are a lot of similarities between it and the real life where the author grew up.
Another winner from the superb Anthony Horowitz. Again there is a mystery within a mystery which adds an enjoyable twist to the book. An excellent read.

Before I started Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz I re-read my reviews of Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders and realised this review was going to be similar. Firstly it's very long. And though I LOVED the book within a book theme again, I feel like Horowitz spends too long in the fictitious inner novel before getting back to real life. Here—we get so embedded in the fictional Pünd plot I thought maybe there wasn't going to be a real-life mystery— but was again being jolted out of the book within a book and and reminded there was another layer to come. I realise that sounds as a criticism but it's really more that I was quite contented, completely lost in the Pünd account so would have happily stayed there.

Horowitz knows the literary (and television) industry well so he's easily able to place readers amongst it. Here through editor Susan who worked with Pünd's original creator - Alan Conway, an antagonistic type who came to hate his literary creation and developed great disdain for his work and the world in which it sat. Horowitz (through Susan) does however, reflect on his brilliance and ability to hide clues and little puzzles [in his work] to entertain himself and have a little joke at readers' expense.

Here Eliot Crace is recruited to recreate Pünd. Despite his literary legacy Eliot had no success with his own attempt at crime fiction. His new publisher thinks he can nail the voice and writing style of Conway, and if not, Conway's original editor (Susan) will help. Susan is a tad reluctant but needs the money so begrudgingly starts reading his half-finished manuscript.

And there we spend a lengthy amount of time in the mid 1950s as Pünd is beseeched by [a character who'd featured in a previous novel] to visit her in southern France on an urgent matter. But of course, when Pünd arrives, she's already dead (Horowitz again showing some deference to Dame Agatha!). The victim was wealthy, but diagnosed with a terminal illness so in many ways it makes no sense that she's murdered - although we learn her adult children and second husband and step-son all had financial issues.

And in the present Susan meets Eliot, as an editor she tells us she feels a level of responsibility for her author. She realises then that Eliot has emulated Pünd's original creator (Conway) by putting a number of his own extended family in his novel - taking minimal care in hiding their identity. Which is problematic because (as per the backcover blurb) Eliot believes his own grandmother was murdered and is unveiling her killer through his novel... putting his life at risk. Dum-dum...

It has to be mentioned that Eliot is not particularly likeable and we learn life with his famous grandmother was unpleasant for the whole family and (in person) she was far from the beloved children's author worshipped by strangers.

So again Susan's placed amidst two murders for the price of one, initially relying on the book for clues, but when Eliot dies before finishing she's forced to insert herself into the investigation into his death. I have to admit I didn't really understand why Susan didn't walk away at some point, given she's treated very poorly... but it was interesting she still wanted to know whodunit - in real life and in the novel. 

At almost 600 pages this is loooooong but I again loved Pünd's story and investigation—Horowitz again demonstrating his crime fiction and story-telling prowess—ensconcing me in 1955 where I was happy to stay. But the 'real-life' investigation is excellent here as well, with old Crace family secrets revealed and some of Susan's own past revisiting in a not-pleasant way. And happily this ends in a way that makes me think there will be more in this series despite the fact that Pünd is edging closer to the end of his life.

Having only watched the television dramatisation of the first two Susan Ryeland novels, I was excited to get to this one before it comes to TV!

Anthony Horowitz crafts another powerful and gripping mystery, flitting between the narrative of Susan, editor of the famous Atticus Pund detective novels, and the narrative of the story of Atticus Pund's final case.

As with the other novels, the Atticus Pund story mirrors a real-life murder mystery, and Susan must assemble the clues to work out what's really going on, all while ending up in danger herself.

Highly recommended, this is a great mystery read.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. I am familiar with Atticus Pund, from the television series., so was keen to read this book. I loved it. The author does a very good job of setting puzzles among the anagrams etc. Susan Ryland is asked to help Elliott as he completes a novel series begun by an author who met an untimely end. His story resembles his own family background, with similarities displayed by the names of the characters or their qualities. Susan struggles to control Elliott 's excesses. Who can she trust to help her? I enjoyed the book and particularly liked him the murders were uncovered and died, along with who wrote the final part of the book.
I can recommend this book to all who enjoy crime fiction

I had eagerly awaited this novel, having read the previous 2 in the series, and it did not disappoint. Susan Ryeland has returned to the UK and has been given the job of editing a continuation novel by Eliot Crace, a previously undistinguished crime novelist who has been chosen to write a new Atticus Pund novel. Susan suspects that Eliot's plot is a deliberate mirroring of the murder of his grandmother, a world-famous children's author, by one of Eliot's family. Ever the glutton for punishment, Susan sets out to investigate Crace's past. When things turn nasty, Susan leans on the wife of the man she helped to put in prison as she battles forces that she has awoken through her efforts to find the truth. Things build to a dramatci and highly satisfactory finale which rounds of the trilogy is fabulous style. This book is simply brilliant and highly recommended for anyone who enjoys skilful plotting and great writing. I'd give it 6 stars if I could!

I hadn’t read the previous books (though I will now!) and I didn’t feel it detracted from my enjoyment at all. This was a cleverly plotted mystery and I really enjoyed the two stories- great characters and a great story.

EXCERPT: ' . . . they needed the money. I wouldn't say no to twenty thousand pounds myself! But they were going to get it anyway. Maybe in a few days. Maybe in a few weeks. All they had to do was wait.'
Pünd smiled. 'Ah, yes. It is the question that comes up again and again.'
'Why murder a woman who is already dying?'
'Exactly, James. And I will give you the obvious answer, because it is, I believe, the key to everything that has happened.'
'Why, then?'
'Because, my friend, it does not matter.'

ABOUT 'MARBLE HALL MURDERS': Susan Ryeland has had enough of murder.

She’s edited two novels about the famous detective, Atticus Pünd, and both times she’s come close to being killed. Now she’s back in England and she’s been persuaded to work on a third.

The new ‘continuation’ novel is by Eliot Crace, grandson of Miriam Crace who was the biggest selling children’s author in the world until her death exactly twenty years ago.

Eliot believes that Miriam was deliberately poisoned. And when he tells Susan that he has hidden the identity of Miriam’s killer inside his book, Susan knows she’s in trouble once again.

As Susan works on Pünd’s Last Case, a story set in an exotic villa in the South of France, she uncovers more and more parallels between the past and the present, the fictional and the real world – until suddenly she finds that she has become a target herself.

It seems that someone in Eliot’s family doesn’t want the book to be written. And they will do anything to prevent it.

MY THOUGHTS: As with the first two books in this series, we have another book within a book to enjoy and ponder over. It's a read where you have to keep your wits about you; it can be a little difficult to remember which timeline and which story you are in. But, as with the first two books, Marble Hall Murders (encompassing Pünd's Last Case) is a superb read.

I enjoyed both facets of the storyline: Susan Ryeland in the present time editing a 'continuation' novel of the Atticus Pünd series penned by Eliot Crace; and the story of the Chalfont family and the murder of the matriarch, Lady Margaret set in France in 1955. There is a rather useful character list for this family just as there is a family tree for the Crace family.

It's not always easy to like Susan. She can be quite sharp and tends to speak before putting her brain into gear. This tends to get her into rather a lot of trouble, and I would have thought that by now she would have learned to temper her impulses.

Actually, to be quite honest, while there aren't a lot of likeable characters in this novel there are characters, like Susan, that you will want to root for. There are characters I felt sympathy for, sometimes somewhat misguidedly, and characters that are simply so awful that you want them to be guilty.

We do have a wonderful new character, DI Blakeney, who Susan thinks is like one of those Edwardian heroes created by Erskine Childers or John Buchan, dragged into an adventure without quite wanting to be there. Of course, that opinion is only valid when he's not trying to prove her guilty of murder!

The plot is intricate with a good number of both red herrings and valid clues (none of which I picked up on). Marble Hall Murders is a compelling blend of Cluedo and Agatha Christie and I loved it. The bonus is that with two mysteries set in two different time periods, there are two endings plus a sort of epilogue which updates us on Susan's life which was, let's face it, (view spoiler)

⭐⭐⭐⭐.3

#MarbleHallMurders #NetGalley

MEET THE AUTHOR: Anthony Horowitz's life might have been copied from the pages of Charles Dickens or the Brothers Grimm. Born in 1956 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a family of wealth and status, Anthony was raised by nannies, surrounded by servants and chauffeurs. His father, a wealthy businessman, was, says Mr. Horowitz, "a fixer for Harold Wilson." What that means exactly is unclear — "My father was a very secretive man," he says— so an aura of suspicion and mystery surrounds both the word and the man. As unlikely as it might seem, Anthony's father, threatened with bankruptcy, withdrew all of his money from Swiss bank accounts in Zurich and deposited it in another account under a false name and then promptly died. His mother searched unsuccessfully for years in attempt to find the money, but it was never found. That too shaped Anthony's view of things. Today he says, "I think the only thing to do with money is spend it." His mother, whom he adored, eccentrically gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. His grandmother, another Dickensian character, was mean-spirited and malevolent, a destructive force in his life. She was, he says, "a truly evil person", his first and worst arch villain. "My sister and I danced on her grave when she died," he now recalls.
A miserably unhappy and overweight child, Anthony had nowhere to turn for solace. "Family meals," he recalls, "had calories running into the thousands. I was an astoundingly large, round child." At the age of eight he was sent off to boarding school, a standard practice of the times and class in which he was raised. While being away from home came as an enormous relief, the school itself, Orley Farm, was a grand guignol horror with a headmaster who flogged the boys till they bled. "Once the headmaster told me to stand up in assembly and in front of the whole school said, 'This boy is so stupid he will not be coming to Christmas games tomorrow.' I have never totally recovered." To relieve his misery and that of the other boys, he not unsurprisingly made up tales of astounding revenge and retribution.


Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. He writes in a comfortable shed in his garden for up to ten hours per day. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he has also written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and Murder Most Horrid. He has written a television series Foyle's War, which recently aired in the United States, and he has written the libretto of a Broadway musical adapted from Dr. Seuss's book, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. His film script The Gathering has just finished production. And, oh yes, there are more Alex Rider novels in the works. Anthony has also written the Diamond Brothers series.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone, Century for providing an e-ARC of Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

The author has a highly original approach to his novels that keeps a reader on their toes throughout. The story is told across different timelines, which is not unusual, but encompasses two sets of characters with links to each other that only become apparent as the story progresses. For readers unfamiliar with the two previous books in the series, the present day protagonist is Susan Ryeland, a literary editor. Her most famous author, who is now deceased, created a series about a 1950s private detective named Atticus Punt. Susan is asked to work with another author, who is taking over the series. As with the earlier books, the present day and the storyline of the book co-exist, with contemporary characters being portrayed under different names. Like his predecessor, the present author has an axe to grind and is using the book format to do just that. When this, Inevitably, leads to disaster, Susan and Atticus becoming involved in solving separate crimes in separate eras, the solution of the earlier crime leading directly to that of the later one.
Both stories move along at an energetic pace and character description is remarkable. Atticus for example, draws immediate parallels with the inimitable Hercule Poirot. But is he inimitable? Horowitz makes Pund such a well-drawn, three-dimensional character that comparisons between the two famous detectives do not lead to Punt's detriment.
As a third novel, this one follows the formula of the previous two quite closely but because of the author's imaginative presentation, this is an endorsement not a criticism. A very enjoyable read. Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin.