Anthony Horowitz (Magpie Murders; The Word Is Murder) has created an astoundingly clever mystery in Moonflower Murders. The book opens with Susan Ryeland, a former editor, who now runs a small hotel on Crete. She's approached by the Trehernes, a wealthy couple who are alarmed by the sudden disappearance of their daughter Cecily. Cecily had called to tell them she found a clue to a murder that took place at the family's exclusive hotel eight years earlier. She found this hint in a book by Alan Conway, a dead author whom Susan represented. Immediately after the phone call, Cecily disappeared.
The Trehernes have a proposal for Susan: come back to England, stay at their hotel, and see if there is a connection between Conway's book Atticus Pünd Takes the Case, the earlier murder and Cecily's disappearance. Susan needs the money, so she agrees.
The true brilliance of Moonflower Murders lies in its book-within-a-book status, as Susan rereads Atticus Pünd Takes the Case, looking for clues to her dual investigations: into the murder of a hotel guest named Frank eight years earlier and the recent disappearance of Cecily. Horowitz does an excellent job of layering clues within the fictional Pünd's investigation, which Susan in turn uncovers in her investigation and which will keep Horowitz's readers guessing until the very last page. Reminiscent of Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and John Buchan, Moonflower Murders is golden age detective fiction at its finest. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.