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Wall Street Journal

Mysteries: ‘Marble Hall Murders' by Anthony Horowitz

Fans of the inventive English author Anthony Horowitz have reason to celebrate the arrival of 'Marble Hall Murders,' the third entry in a terrific series started in 2016. This book, like the earlier two, is partly narrated by Susan Ryeland, a London editor who had coaxed the crime writer Alan Conway—a bitter, malicious man who was eventually murdered—through a popular series of detective novels set in the 1950s. After adventures in marriage and hotelkeeping on the Greek island of Crete, Susan is back in London, solo, working for another publishing house and helping a young writer named Eliot Crace continue the series Alan started. Alan based his characters on real-life people in ways meant to expose their most shameful secrets. This led to his death and, for Susan, near-fatal injuries. Eliot is the grandson of Miriam Crace, a phenomenally successful children's author whose books are available in 47 languages, 'including Latin and Welsh.' Contrary to her public image, Miriam, who recently died of an apparent heart attack, was a despicable matriarch who ruled her extended family with an iron claw. Susan detects that Eliot, in his work-in-progress, is mimicking Alan's method of depicting real crimes and scandals. The editor foresees big trouble for Eliot and herself: 'When was I ever going to learn?' she wonders. Few other writers combine suspense and satire as smoothly as Mr. Horowitz, a writer who specializes in clever literary devices. As with its predecessors, 'Marble Hall Murders' is told half in Susan's first-person voice and half in the third-person voice of the manuscript under her purview. Thus we get two separate mysteries, twice the surprise—and double the payoff.