Review: Marble Hall Murders

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Plus ca change!

Susan Ryeland has returned to England after her romance in Crete had run its course. She is freelancing as an editor when she is asked to assist a writer with a continuation of the Atticus Pünd series, originally penned by the loathsome Alan Conway. Susan is reluctant, not just because her last involvement with the series almost got her killed by her then boss/business partner, but also because the young author, Eliot Crace, is known to be a party-boy, drug addict, and drunk whose previous literary attempts sank without trace. In fact his only merit is that he is the grandson of one of the world's most beloved children's' authors (think Enid Blyton/Beatrix Potter) Miriam Crace.

However, Susan is desperate for a permanent job, not least to pay the mortgage on the flat she has bought in Crouch End, so she agrees to read the first 30,000 words Eliot has produced. Despite herself, Susan is impressed. Eliot has captured Alan Conway's writing style effortlessly and the plot draws Susan in, however, she is suspicious that (much like Alan Conway's books) some of the characters may bear a striking resemblance to people close to Eliot and the book may indeed be a thinly veiled story about his grandmother, alleging that she was murdered.

I haven't read either of the two previous books but I watched and enjoyed both the TV series, although I did find them somewhat confusing at times. I found reading this novel much easier than watching the TV series, whether that is just because I found it easier to distinguish between Susan reading the novel and 'real life' in print I just don't know.

There was a lot of self-referential inside jokes/snide comments about authors who continue series after the original author's death - because of course Anthony Horowitz has done just that with Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, I don't know if that is a feature of previous novels or just this one - I did worry that the novel might disappear up its own posterior but luckily point made he moved on.

I feel very proud of myself for guessing whodunnit, both in Eliot's book and in real life, although I didn't necessarily have the how I definitely got the why - yay me!

Anyway. Kept me enthralled right to the end, thoroughly satisfying.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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