Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
I bought Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz with my Christmas money, along with several other books, including Munichs, Us and Small Rain. It was published in 2025. I didn’t realise when I bought it that it is the third book in a trilogy, so it does contain spoilers of the previous books.
Susan Ryeland was the long-term editor of a series of detective books starring a detective called Atticus Pund. After the death of the author, she thought her time with Pund was over. But now a publisher has employed a young author, Elliot Crace, to continue Pund’s story, and wants Susan to be the editor.
Elliot is the grandson of Miriam Crace, a children’s author whose series of books has spawned a multi-million pound industry. But Elliot is a very damaged young man, who makes allegations about his childhood and upbringing, as well as his grandmother’s death.
Elliot says he has hidden clues in his new book about how his grandmother died and who was responsible. But the keepers of her fortune aren’t happy… Susan desperately tries to unravel truth from fiction and keep both herself and Elliot safe…
Marble Hall Murders combines Susan and Elliot’s story with long extracts of his new book. Even before Susan starts to work out the clues, the parallels between the two are clear.
Marble Hall Murders is a long book, at 580 pages, but it is really engaging and I absolutely devoured it. There’s nothing too gruesome about it. It has a slightly cosy crime feel, which reminded me of How to Solve Your Own Murder and How to Seal Your Own Fate.
If you enjoy a murder mystery without too much gore, I would definitely recommend Marble Hall Murders. I will be going back to read the two earlier books – Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders.
I did watch the series The Magpie Murders on television so I’m familiar with Susan Ryland. I don’t know if you’ve seen the series but it incorporated the present day with the story of Atticus Pund from the book. I’ve not read any of the books though.
I haven’t seen the series, but I would love to see it now. Apparently he wrote this one because Lesley Manville wanted to play the part of Susan one more time! I will definitely look out for the series when I’ve read all the books.
I know Anthony Horowitz from reading his horror stories anthologies for kids but, I haven’t read his books for adults.
My kids read his Alex Rider books, but this is the first of his books I’ve read myself. He’s actually written quite a lot of books for adults.