Not my favorite of this series, but it was okay. I really enjoy Leslie Manville's narration. I did not like the lack of "communication" between Susan and Atticus. I really enjoyed that in the prior titles and it is lacking here. I think fans of the series will like this one fine, just nothing spectacular.

Not 100% sure why I listened to this one, as I'm kinda blah about this series. A blah Horowitz series is still a pretty decent book, though. Susan gets more annoying in every book in this series, unfortunately. It was fine. If you're a fan of the series, pick it up, otherwise, it's eminently skippable.

4.5

If I was going to worship another God, it would be Anthony Horowitz. He’s one of those people who’s genius and ingenuity never ceases to amaze. He is behind shows like “Midsomer Murders” and “Foyle’s War” and several other books and TV mysteries. This series isn’t my favorite of them, but it is still both clever and engaging.

The creativity of “Magpie Murders” (and definitely NOT “The Magpie Murders”) with a book within a book is back with some slight variation. It was great to be reminded of the original format, unlike the television series, where Susan Ryland is reading and solving muders in the present reality based on clues written into a mystery set in the 1950s. Then, we switch completely to that mystery in the form of an Atticus Pünd book as if we are both in that story as well as experiencing the story in real time as Susan reads it. The television series bounces back and forth and completely loses that fourth wall, metafiction element, thogh its still a decent mystery show.

Note: The first book, “Magpie Murders”, is referenced constantly in this book, so read this first and then go and tell a bunch of little kids that there is no Santa Claus because you obviously have no respect for proper order or spoiling secrets.

I started reading this as a book, but just couldn’t get it through it all. It’s a long one at about 550 pages and more than seventeen hours. My brain finds audiobooks easier, but also, this, as with all of the Horowitz audiobooks, is very well done. Lesley Manville, who also plays Susan Ryland in the television series, reads Susan’s first-person narrative. She also provides the fantastic voices for the first two books in “The Thursday Murder Club” series—one I constantly recommend listening to over reading—and my mind kept expecting her to switch in the slower, more thoughtful voice of Ibrahim. Tim McMullen narrates the Atticus Pünd stories with a classic aristocratic voice. I even recommend having book the audiobook and the book at hand because both have something to add to the storytelling.

Ironically, even though I just explained that the format is set in present day and the 1950s via Atticus Pünd, the murder being solved “in real life” has actually taken place somewhere in between the two timelines, not that there isn’t room for murder in the present time as well. Meanwhile, Atticus Pünd is in the south of France, though still dealing with the British aristocracy. <spoiler>Alan Conway is still dead, but the new author is so has even more baggage than Allen. </spoiler>

This book is like a gymnastics routine, and not just because your eyes are following in wonder, but because the extra complexity gives it a higher base score. It was a bit long, but is packed with more mysteries than any of Midsomer villages.

And for the record, my favorite Horowitz series is the Hawthorn series. An actor impersonating Anthony Horowitz narrating a fictional mystery about a fictional detective he’s following in his current life while he talks about episodes of series I had already seen blows my mind. I can’t even begin to understand on what metaphysical plane the books contract is taking place.

Thank you to Anthony Horowitz, NetGalley, Harper and HarperAudio Adult for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book and audiobook for my unbiased review.

#MurderAtMarbleHall #NetGalley #bookreview #ADHDreader #historicmystery #AnthonyHorowitz #murder #mystery #AtticusPund #MagpieMurders #Harper #HarperAudio #metafiction #bookwithinabook

MARBLE HALL MURDERS is the third book featuring book editor Susan Ryland. Things didn’t work out in Greece as Susan had hoped and she has returned to England. Still working as a freelance editor for Causton Books, Susan is assigned to help Eliot Crace who happens to be the grandson of the late Marian Crace a beloved and successful children’s author. Eliot is writing a novel featuring Alan Conway’s detective Atticus Pund.
Eliot’s previous two mystery novels were unsuccessful so Susan was pleasantly surprised to find she was enjoying what Eliot had written so far. Soon Susan finds that there is a connection between the novel Eliot is writing and his own family history.
I listened to the audio version of MARBLE HALL MURDERS. Lesley Manville and Timothy McMullen are the narrators and both actors star in the television adaptations of the previous Susan Ryland books. Both narrators were excellent and added a richness to an already engaging mystery novel.
Thank you to HarperAudio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to MARBLE HALL MURDERS by Anthony Horowitz.

Marble Hall Murders is the perfect conclusion to the Susan Ryeland series by Anthony Horowitz -- though I would happily read/listen to more in the series if he changes his mind and writes another one! This series is so clever, and the dual mysteries are always woven together so skillfully. The joint narration was wonderfully done as well.

Another hit from Anthony Horowitz. As a fan of the Hawthorne and Horowitz mysteries, I was immediately drawn to the Magpie Murders, and now Marble Hall Murders. Horowitz's knack for snappy and believable dialogue, combined with excellent narration, made this a perfect mystery for the spring.

Thanks to HarperAudio & NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is just a flat-out great series. I enjoyed hearing Lesley Manville perform the role that she was cast in for the series, and I like that the character is a 55 year old woman! Tim McMullen also does a fine job (although it's tough to beat Allan Corduner).

This time around, Susan has just returned from Crete, where she had been running a hotel with her BF Andreas, but she never really felt at home there, and she and Andreas broke up. Back in London, Susan starts work as a freelance editor and is quickly put in charge of a new Atticus Pünd novel, now being continued by a spoilt rich-kid-now-adult, previously published by Cloverleaf Books/Susan's old boss & attempted murderer/current guest of HM Prison after throwing Alan Conway off a turret. The author, Elliot Crace, is the grandson of a classic children's author who was extremely prolific and was a household name in many countries.

Things go haywire fast, as while Elliot is talented, he is also very troubled, with a history of substance abuse issues and alcoholism. He's been sober for awhile, but has gone off the rails, as Susan sees when she finds herself tricked into a dinner with him and his wife at Charles Clover's wife's house. Things escalate from there, because as Susan reads the novel-within-a-novel, it becomes clear that Elliot has recreated his childhood, spent living at his famous grandma's mansion, Marble Hall, using his family members as thinly-veiled versions of characters in the story of his grandmother's death. She was ill and not expected to live much longer, but did someone hasten her exit from earth? Certainly, her public image as a sweet old lady seems to have been entirely fictitious, and a lot of money was and still is at stake. Susan is keen to make the book a success (she feels her performance is tied to a vague promise of a "real job" at the publishing house who have taken on the project), and goes on an expedition to find out what happened 20 years previous so she can get a handle on Elliot, who is defensive and very tetchy when Susan even attempts to give him notes on his work.

Horowitz's gift is making it seem reasonable for an editor/amateur sleuth to go looking for answers in this way. Writing out the brief summary of Susan's activities makes them seem a trifle absurd, but it never feels that way in the book (not too much, anyway). Susan is a mostly relatable character and one roots for her to find a happy ending.

This might be the final outing for Atticus Pünd, but I'm hopeful that Horowitz will keep writing them. Lesley Manville evidently encouraged this title; maybe she can put a word in for just one more?

I was so excited to see that we would be returning to the world of Susan Reyland and was not disappointed! I got sucked into this book so quickly. My attention span of a moth doesn’t generally enjoy 600 page books but I devoured this one and couldn’t wait to get back to it each day. I bounced back and forth between the digital copy and the audiobook - the audiobook featured the same narrators as the first two in the series and it was wonderful to return to old friends. However, I do have some complaints with the development of Susan’s character and her increasing moments of stupidity in this book that really clash with her personality of previous books. Most notably, her repeated guilt over putting Charles in jail - he murdered someone and tried to kill her! I feel like the Susan that had been previously developed would not have the levels of guilt that consistently showed up throughout this story. Likewise, she got way too invested in Eliot way too fast - and he seemed like a true butt 95% of the time, yet she still was attempting to take care of him because of that guilt. It just didn’t quite add up. I did quite enjoy the subtle commentary on separating an author from their works and how do we reconcile that - I feel like parts of this had to be written with JK Rowling in mind. Overall, I really enjoyed reading and listening to this classic murder mystery in a murder mystery and would highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley for the digital and audio arcs!

I have been a huge fan of Anthony Horowitz's Susan Ryland series since I picked up Magpie Murders several years ago. I was completely sucked in. In this third novel, we see the return of editor Susan Ryland and another author taking up writing mysteries and cases of infamous detective Atticus Pund (ala Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie) after Alan Conway's death. The author coming in to write is Eliot Crace-grandson of beloved children's author Marian Crace. Only we discover that Marian was a horrible and cruel matriarch who Eliot claims was poisioned--just like the mysterious death and circumstances in his Atticus Pund novel.

Everything, including Susan's life, is on the line as she rushes to solve the case of Marian's murder using Eliot's book as a guide.

This is slated as a stand alone, with spoilers for Magpie Murders, which I agree with-having read the other books in the series, I will say that the background of the first two books adds so much depth to it. I found Marble Hall Murders lacking a little from Magpie Murders, but I loved having Susan Ryland and the story of Atticus Pund continue on.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper for access to the advance audiobook in exchange for my honest opinions.

The twists in this book were predictable, and I didn't like how the murderer ended up being a victim of the family rather than one of the snobby family members. It felt slower-paced than the previous two and could use a round of edits. I found Susan to be less likable than in previous books.

Marble Hall Murders marks Susan Ryeland’s third outing as book editor turned amateur sleuth, following the acclaimed Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders. Once again, Anthony Horowitz brilliantly blends the modern publishing world with Golden Age-style mystery, crafting a clever and compelling story.
Following the death of Alan Conway, creator of the Atticus Pünd series, his publisher commissions three new novels to be written by Eliot Crace—an underwhelming writer and grandson of famed children’s author Miriam Crace. Susan, as Conway’s former editor, is pulled back in to manage Eliot, who quickly proves difficult. When she notices parallels between characters in Pünd’s Last Case and members of Crace’s family—especially Miriam, whose death may not have been natural—Susan begins to unravel another layered mystery. Like Conway before him, Eliot seems to be embedding real-life clues into fiction.
Both the present-day and the fictional mysteries are smartly constructed and satisfyingly twisty, delivered in Horowitz’s signature, metafictional style. Lesley Manville, who portrayed Susan Ryeland in the BBC adaptations, returns as narrator for the audiobook, giving voice and familiarity to this final chapter of the Atticus Pünd saga—soon to be adapted for the screen in 2026.

This is my first time listening to this series and I loved it! I know I ruined it for myself but reading it out of order, but I'm still go back and read the other two. Really enjoyed it!

I confess, it took a couple of attempts to get through Magpie Murders years ago, but once I was in, I was hooked. This being the third book in the serious and having an affinity for this author's voice and characters, I knew I had to read it.

This book is somewhere north of cozy and south of thriller, which to me is classic mystery, and fittingly reminiscent of classics. The plot moves slowly but that's needed to establish two full sets of similar characters: the characters in the story, and the characters in the story inside the story. Horowitz does these fun things with narration in his books, and the embedded narration here is brilliantly used to solve layers of mysteries. Some readers may get lost with all the names and characters, but I think there are enough context clues (and the voices the narrator uses in the audio) so that you don't get lost. I love his books and this is no exception.

Love the series but this book was too much as an audiobook for me. The narrotor was great. The premise was fun as always. I love the book within in a book idea that he does so well. However, as an audio there were too many people that didn't match directly with book versions of themselves. It was hard to follow even thourgh they did a great job of explaining each person and how they looked it just didn't click for me in audio.

Freelance book editor Susan Ryeland is hoping for a new start. After leaving Greece, she returns to London to begin work with a young author, Elliot Crase, who's been assigned to write the last book in the Atticus Pund series. As Susan dives deeper into the manuscript, she is skeptical of Crase's true intention of plot, drawing similarities to his own family, which soon becomes deadly for both editor and writer. With it's refreshing brain twisting cleverness, a book within a book, Anthony Horowitz, once again, has written a show stoping whodunit.

Loved this one! I've read several books by this author, including the first two in this series, and this one may be my favorite! There's three mysteries here, and I only figured one of them out on my own. I love the book within a book. Now I can't wait for the mini series to come out! Great job by both narrators! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't mind that the characters weren't likeable, I didn't find the characters of the last one likeable, either, but in both cases I found the plot engaging... Until the Scottish detective showed up. There was something about her personality that kept reminding me I was reading a book, and pulled me out of the story nearly every time she did anything. It was super weird. I'm not going to condemn the whole book for one poorly written side character who showed up 65% of the way through the book, but I'm knocking a star off because of her and the fact that nobody seems to realize defamation of character could be a murder motive, AND my ambivalence towards everyone expecting an editor, who has never successfully babysat anyone, to babysit a rich young man who is mentally ill. The two of them together just pulled me out of the story really abruptly, though I stuck around because I absolutely needed to see how it all ended.

I recommend Anthony Horowitz mysteries to library patrons frequently. This is another great addition to the "Susan Ryeland" series. I would recommend it to patrons looking for clever, cozy mysteries. I've had some patrons find the books by watching the television series first and then coming to the library in search of the books.

Lesley Manville, the actress who plays Susan Ryeland in the television series, narrates the book and does an excellent job.