 Susan Ryeland Series: Book 3
Publication Date: May 13, 2025
Murder links past and present once again in this mind-boggling metafictional mystery from Anthony Horowitz featuring detective Atticus Pünd and editor Susan Ryeland, stars of the New York Times bestsellers Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders.
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 a London publisher, she’s given the last job she wants: working on an Atticus Pünd continuation novel called Pünd’s Last Case. Worse still, she knows the new writer. Eliot Crace is the troubled grandson of legendary children’s author Miriam Crace who died twenty years ago. Eliot is convinced she was murdered—by poison.
To her surprise, Susan enjoys reading the manuscript which is set in the South of France and revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, days before she was about to change her will. But when it is revealed that Lady Margaret was also poisoned, alarm bells begin to ring.
The more Susan reads, the clearer it becomes that Eliot has deliberately concealed clues about his grandmother’s death inside the book.
Desperately, Susan tries to prevent Eliot from putting himself in harm’s way—but his behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic. Another murder follows . . . and suddenly Susan finds herself to be the number one suspect.
Once again, the real and the fictional worlds have become dangerously entangled. And if Susan doesn’t solve the mystery of Pünd’s Last Case, she could well be its next victim.
Susan Ryeland is back, and murder and Atticus Pund seem to haunt her every move in Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz.
Susan Ryeland has packed up her life in Crete and returned to London, newly single and unemployed. Finally, after getting freelance work with a large London publisher, Susan sees an opportunity to return to what she loves. Her new publisher has assigned her to a huge potential three-book deal that could give her the desperately needed job security. One problem: the three-book deal is a continuation of the Atticus Pund series with a new author, Eliot Crace.
Having met Eliot while investigating the death of the author of the original Pund novels, Alan Conway, Susan knows he can be a loose cannon. But the offer is one she can’t refuse. A choice that comes back to haunt her quickly. Eliot took a page out of Alan’s book, bringing his own life into the pages of Atticus Pund. Solving the Pund mystery leads to more questions about Eliot Crace and the very famous Crace family and puts Susan right in the middle of danger.
My favorite part of this series is the way Horowitz is able to blend his own voice and unique writing style with another style reminiscent of Agatha Christie. It is a blast to try and solve the mystery in the Pund novels, but also thrilling to try and solve the other mystery Susan finds herself in. It balances the love of detective fiction with the reality that while these mysteries are fun, real life is much more dangerous.
The story is done so well to give you just enough to figure out the mystery without making it too easy or just too unbelievable. For me, the ending of this book is so incredibly perfect that if this is the last book in the Susan Ryeland series, I could say goodbye with peace, knowing that every story needs an end, and a satisfying one is so much better than a drawn-out one. This series is how I got into reading Anthony Horowitz, and now I will pick up everything he does.
Marble Hall Murders is a thrilling third installment of the Susan Ryeland series with shocking twists at every turn.
ANTHONY HOROWITZ is the author of the US bestselling Magpie Murders and The Word is Murder, and one of the most prolific and successful writers in the English language; he may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author. His novel Trigger Mortis features original material from Ian Fleming. His most recent Sherlock Holmes novel, Moriarty, is a reader favorite; and his bestselling Alex Rider series for young adults has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. As a TV screenwriter, he created both Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle’s War on PBS. Horowitz regularly contributes to a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines, and in January 2014 was awarded an OBE.
