Moonflower Murders was published by Century in 2020. Susan Ryeland, having left London publishing after the events of Magpie Murders, is running a hotel in Crete with her partner Andreas when she is approached by a couple whose daughter has disappeared. The daughter, Cecily, had been reading Alan Conway’s novel Atticus Pünd Takes the Case and claimed to have found evidence within it that the wrong person was convicted of a murder at a Suffolk hotel. Then Cecily vanished.
The structure mirrors the first book: the reader experiences both the fictional Atticus Pünd mystery and Susan’s real-world investigation, with the clues to the real crime embedded within the fictional one. Horowitz refines the technique, making the connections between the two narratives more subtle and the final revelations more surprising.
Collecting Moonflower Murders
First edition (Century, London, 2020): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $20–$40
- Very good: $10–$20
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate to strong appreciation. The Ryeland novels are increasingly recognised as major achievements in the mystery genre.
The Continuation
The challenge for any sequel to Magpie Murders was matching its structural ingenuity without repeating it. Horowitz solves this by making the connections between the two narratives less obvious — the reader must work harder to identify which fictional character maps onto which real person, and the solution requires a completely different type of clue than the first novel deployed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Moonflower Murders adapted for television? Yes. A BBC/PBS adaptation aired in 2024, continuing the Susan Ryeland series with Lesley Manville in the lead role. The adaptation condensed the dual-narrative structure while preserving the core mystery and its resolution.