Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

I recently requested “Moonflower Murders” on NetGalley and to my utter surprise, my request was approved!

As soon as I had it on my Kindle, I went on to Goodreads to add it to “Currently Reading” shelf and found out that it was a book 2 in a series!

Well… there was nothing to be done. I had Magpie Murders available at the library and here is my review for it.

Now on to Moonflower Murders

Goodreads synopsis

Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life. She is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her longterm boyfriend Andreas. It should be everything she’s always wanted – but is it? She’s exhausted with the responsibilities of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, and truth be told she’s beginning to miss her old life in London.

And then a couple – the Trehearnes – come to stay, and the story they tell about an unfortunate murder that took place on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was married, is such a strange and mysterious one that Susan finds herself increasingly fascinated by it. And when the Trehearnes tell her that their daughter is now missing, Susan knows that she must return to London and find out what really happened…

 

Rating and Review

It’s 4.5, really.

Moonflower Murders was fast paced and way better than the first one in the series. I started it and before I knew it I was halfway through!

The story was more gripping and I think one of the reasons for it could be my familiarity with the main characters of the novel and the novel in the novel.

The introduction of the various characters and their circumstances kept me on my toes (figuratively) as I tried to make sense of the crime committed and tried to figure out who could have perpetuated it.

As I have mentioned earlier, this book had two mysteries and I am so happy that I was able to solve the one Atticus Pund solved (before it was mentioned who did it) but the one being solved by Susan Ryeland trumped me. It was the character I was a hundred percent sure was innocent!

That makes me happy and sad in equal measure.

You may wonder why a 4.5 if I liked everything, so here is the answer to that.

Introduction of Atticus Pund in the novel within the novel. In my opinion, there was no reason for that because the novel within the novel was midway in the series and this book itself is not a first on the series where a character was being introduced for the first time. A little info seems fine but the introduction here went on and on.

That was the only low point for me in the book.

Because both of Horowitz’s books that I have read yet have kept my mind working overtime, I believe I will be reading more by him.