CBR 17 BINGO: Red (see cover)
Anthony Horowitz is back with what is most likely the last Susan Ryeland/Atticus Pünd mystery. I’m sad to see the series wind down, but how many times can a person get involved with the same franchise to disastrous results without breaking the audience’s suspension of disbelief? (This isn’t Jurassic Park for heaven’s sake.)
If you’re a fan of Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, you might be wondering how Horowitz could squeeze another novel out of this premise, what with the original Atticus Pünd creator being dead and all. (That’s not much of a spoiler as it’s the central mystery in the first novel. That being said, be sure to read Magpie Murders before you start this one. Marble Hall Murders is a stand-alone novel, but the solution to the first mystery is all over these pages.)
The answer to how the series can continue is simple: continuation novel! Publisher Michael Flynn of Causton (caustic?) Books has found a writer to pick up where deceased author Alan Conway left off–never mind that Conway had given his detective an “unarguable” brain tumor in an effort to be rid of him. Flynn comments, “It worked out very well for James Bond and Sebastian Faulks. . .Then there are the new Hercule Poirot novels, Sherlock Holmes, Jeeves and Wooster, Hitchhiker’s Guide. . .” You’ll notice that Horowitz continues his track record of self-mockery by sprinkling two of his own accomplishments in that list (he’s written three James Bond novels and two Sherlock Holmes novels).
Our protagonist, Susan Ryeland, is hired as freelance editor on this new endeavor. She’s back from Greece, having found that she misses London too much, and paradise just didn’t suit her (alas, she and her Greek boyfriend Andreas have parted as friends). She desperately wants (needs) to get back into the publishing industry, so she takes what immediately appears to be the nightmare job of babysitting Eliot Crace, the writer hired for the continuation series. Eliot is the grandson of an uber-famous children’s author named Miriam Crace, who died in her sleep twenty years previously. Susan enjoys the first chapters of Eliot’s manuscript, but she notices that he seems to borrow from real life, like, a lot. The victim in his novel (tentatively titled Pünd’s Last Case) is poisoned, something Eliot has implied (without evidence) happened to Miriam. Now Susan is faced with a manuscript that might at best be considered libelous, considering the massive power of Miriam Crace’s estate, and at worst might get someone killed.
As always, I enjoyed Horowitz’s mystery-within-a-mystery framework; how can you not love two mysteries for the price of one? The Pünd novel isn’t as sharp as in the previous installments, which makes sense given that it’s written by a different fictional author and isn’t even finished when we’re experiencing it. I couldn’t help being exasperated with Susan in this novel, though. Sure, she’s in a tough-ish spot, but she repeatedly shouts down her own instincts and common sense. Having been embroiled in deadly situations multiple times already, you’d think she’s have a better sense of self-preservation. Granted, she is dealing with some undeserved yet understandable residual guilt from the events of Magpie Murders, but I had a hard time believing the way she seemed to be actively looking for trouble at times.
Marble Hall Murders is a page turner and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it’s definitely the weakest of the series. I worked out huge swaths of the mystery, particularly in the Susan Ryeland “real life” timeline, to the point where I was hoping Horowitz had a last-second surprise for me just when I was sure I had solved it. And, although, the novel introduces a new romantic interest for Susan, I’m missing Andreas, Susan’s steadfast support through these ordeals.
In the acknowledgements, Horowitz indicates that the book wouldn’t have happened if not for Lesley Manville, the actress who plays Ryeland in the two television series, mentioned she’d like to do it one more time. So it appears this is an instance of a television contract prompting the final novel, which makes me think it was rushed. It’s a fun read and worth your time, but a little piece of me wishes we had left Susan on Crete. I’d be up for a fourth novel if we could get her back there!