I loved Magpie Murders , Anthony Horowitz’s 2022 adaption of his novel of the same name, even if the proximity of its title to Midsomer Murders did have my domestic colleague openly laughing at me as I settled down to gorge on another episode, eager to know whether Atticus Pünd and Susan Ryeland could solve their respective cases, she in the present day and he in the 1950s. “No, it is NOT Midsomer Murders ,” I would insist, crossly. “It is a superb and highly intricate homage to Golden Age crime fiction, written to appeal to more intelligent aficionados of the genre.
” But it was no good. “You enjoy it,” he would reply indulgently, amused I’d developed this harmless but somewhat embarrassing new vice. Anyway, I’m thrilled Horowitz has now adapted its sequel, Moonflower Murders : what a treat.
Naturally, I worried I would miss nasty Alan Conway (Conleth Hill), the writer who created the fictional German detective, Atticus Pünd, who of course died in the last series. But, thanks to the fact that a lot of Moonflower Murders involves flashbacks, the excellent Hill appears once again, his fountain pen scratching away at the story within a story that’s central to the construction of Horowitz’s scheme. Tim McMullan also returns as Pünd, a refugee from Nazi Germany and the greatest detective in the world, as does Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland, Conway’s delightfully liberated former editor (and the link between the two narratives).
Basically, fellow fan.
