ARC Review: Susan Ryeland #3

Marble House Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Publication Date: May 13, 2025

Summary from Netgalley:

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel and her Greek boyfriend, Andreas, in search of a new life back in England.

Freelancing for a London publisher, she’s given the last job she wants: working on an Atticus Pünd continuation novel called Pünd’s Last Case. Worse still, she knows the new writer. Eliot Crace is the troubled grandson of legendary children’s author Miriam Crace who died twenty years ago. Eliot is convinced she was murdered—by poison.

To her surprise, Susan enjoys reading the manuscript which is set in the South of France and revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, days before she was about to change her will. But when it is revealed that Lady Margaret was also poisoned, alarm bells begin to ring.

The more Susan reads, the clearer it becomes that Eliot has deliberately concealed clues about his grandmother’s death inside the book.

Desperately, Susan tries to prevent Eliot from putting himself in harm’s way—but his behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic. Another murder follows . . . and suddenly Susan finds herself to be the number one suspect.

Once again, the real and the fictional worlds have become dangerously entangled. And if Susan doesn’t solve the mystery of Pünd’s Last Case, she could well be its next victim.

ARC provided by Harper via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

I have not yet read the first two books in this series, but I have watched the TV show, so I was pretty comfortable picking up with this third story. If you haven’t read the other two or seen the show, you probably should start at the beginning and work your way to this one.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It has a great cast of characters, especially the two main ones, a really interesting story within a story with two mysteries that were hard to solve and I loved the way that the author was able to write with totally different styles. It is masterfully done and really makes you think.

I really adored Susan Ryeland’s character. She is an older woman, finding herself at a crossroads in her life. She is working on editing a story with an author she doesn’t particularly like, but feels compelled to help. She is smart and really good at her job which comes across in her thoughts and the criticisms she gives the author. But once again she finds herself solving a real life mystery that has been fictionalized for revenge. I loved how the two stories were woven together to help her solve the real life murder.

Atticus Pund is a great character as well. He is a character similar to both Holmes and Poirot, but totally with his own style. He is also finding himself at a crossroads in his life, but decides to take on one more case. I really enjoyed reading that story and how he solves the crime.

There are lots of secondary characters in both stories that are involved in the book, but the most important one is Eliot Crace. He is a very troubled young man, who has had a very tragic life. He is depicted quite realistically and even though you don’t want to like him, you do become very sympathetic to him and his life.

The best part of this novel, and the series, is the fact that there are two stories being told. You have the present day ‘real life’ story of Susan and all that is happening to her, and the ‘fictional mystery’ that Atticus is trying to solve. Both stories are separate but rely on each other to tell the whole story. The author does a great job of writing the stories like he is two different authors. The Atticus story is obviously being written by a novice, and I loved how Susan is able to point out the flaws to the author within that story.

The two very connected mysteries were well done and I really enjoyed trying to solve them both. I was pretty surprised at the big reveal for the real life murder mystery, I had only put it together about the same time that Susan did. I also liked that there were some little mysteries throughout the story that needed solving as well. Lots of twists and turns and red herrings which are always enjoyable in a well written mystery.

If you are a fan of the series, I think you will enjoy this one. It is probably the last in the series, but never say never. I certainly hope to see another book with these characters at some point in the future. I am also looking forward to seeing this story on the screen sometime soon. If you are not familiar with the series, you should probably start at the beginning, or at least watch the TV show like I did. Some background information will give you insights into the characters and the style of the book.