STILL CLEVER, JUST A LITTLE WEARYING
Anthony Horowitz returns with Marble Hall Murders, the third novel in the Susan Ryeland series and another outing for the fictional detective Atticus Pund. By now, the novel-within-a-novel format has become the defining feature of the series, and Horowitz continues to find different ways of playing with it. Magpie Murders embedded almost the entire Atticus Pund manuscript after only a few pages of the main story. Moonflower Murders placed the contemporary mystery around the Pund novel, effectively bookending it. Here, the two narratives are interspersed, with Susan Ryeland's investigation and the Atticus Pund mystery unfolding side by side. Remarkably, the structure remains easy to follow despite the constant shifts between the two worlds and the plethora of characters.
The main story finds Susan Ryeland reluctantly drawn into yet another literary mystery when events surrounding a new Atticus Pund manuscript begin to have real-world consequences. As always, clues hidden within Atticus Pund’s investigation may hold the key to solving a real crime. Meanwhile, in the embedded novel, Atticus Pund investigates a murder connected to Marble Hall, a grand country house with more than its fair share of secrets and resentments. The two mysteries mirror and complement one another, yet each is satisfying enough to stand on its own.
Despite weighing in at nearly six hundred pages, Marble Hall Murders is a genuine page-turner. The Atticus Pund story is unmistakably inspired by the classic Agatha Christie tradition, with its quintessential English country house, while both narratives feature large casts of characters, each with plausible motives and carefully concealed secrets. Red herrings abound, yet Horowitz also plays fair, scattering enough clues for the attentive reader to feel the solution was always there to be found. As with the earlier books, half the pleasure lies in separating the genuinely significant details from the deliberate distractions.
But the series begins to show signs of fatigue. Ingenious though the concept remains, it is becoming increasingly difficult to accept the central premise when essentially the same extraordinary circumstances have now drawn Susan Ryeland into three separate investigations. The freshness that made Magpie Murders such a delight is inevitably diminished. Both mysteries also reach their denouements more quickly than expected, almost as though Horowitz, after patiently laying out hundreds of pages of clues, was eager to bring everything to a close. Even so, this is a satisfying mystery, cleverly plotted and entertaining. Susan Ryeland's closing words, "Never. Never again.", feel particularly apt. I sincerely hope Horowitz lets them stand, because this would be a fitting place to conclude a fine series.
Pros: Clever structure, two engaging mysteries, classic Christie atmosphere, page-turner
Cons: Formula beginning to feel repetitive, premise increasingly implausible, slightly hurried ending
Important: Please don't read this novel first if you intend to work your way through the Susan Ryeland series – Marble Hall Murders contains the major spoiler for Magpie Murders.
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