Do you like cosy crime? How about cosy crime with a dash of magic? That was the strange – but surprisingly charming – stylistic mash-up to be found in BBC One’s Moonflower Murders , the second Anthony Horowitz adaptation in the Magpie Murders series. Lesley Manville returned as book editor and part-time mystery cracker Susan Ryeland, a busybody sleuth who wasn’t happy unless there was an ingenious crime to solve. At the end of the previous series, she had given up her literary life and moved to Crete to run a guest house with her partner Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis) – but you can’t keep a good amateur detective down.
When husband-and-wife hoteliers flew to Greece and begged Susan to help locate their missing daughter, Cecily (Amy Griffiths), she couldn’t resist getting involved. She hadn’t been having much fun catering to demanding guests and bluntly told Andreas she was going to take the couple up on their offer. Plus, Susan had a personal interest in Cecily’s whereabouts.
Her disappearance was seemingly connected to a murder at her parents’ grand hotel, Branlow Hall, and things took a turn for the weird. The killing had inspired a book by Susan’s fêted client, crime writer crime Alan Conway (Conleth Hill), who was bumped off in the previous series. The thriller told the story of an obnoxious guest (a brilliantly slithery Mark Gatiss) who had checked in the night before Cecily’s wedding day.
Did I say it got weird? How about surreal? Alan’s pag.
