74 pages • 2 hours read
Marble Hall Murders
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Background
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide, death, graphic violence, illness, and sexual content.
Literary Context: Susan Ryeland Mysteries
Marble Hall Murders is the third book in Horowitz’s series based around literary editor Susan Ryeland. The first installment of the series is Magpie Murders. In this first installment, Susan is employed at Cloverleaf Books and works with mystery writer Alan Conway on his series about 1940s detective Atticus Pund. The manuscript of Magpie Murders is missing the final chapter when Susan receives it. Alan supposedly died by suicide, but Susan investigates his death. She discovers that the head of Cloverleaf Books, Charles Clover, has the final chapter of Alan’s novel, and Charles killed Alan. Charles learns that Susan is going to reveal his secret, and he sets fire to the publishing house in an attempt to kill her. Andreas, Susan’s love interest, saves her. They move to Crete together and run a hotel.
Magpie Murders is also the name of the book-within-a-book or embedded narrative. All books in the Susan Ryeland series include an Atticus Pund book, as well as Susan’s narrative. Atticus’s story is set in a small English village, Saxby-on-Avon. There, he discovers that Robert Blakiston murdered his brother and Magnus Pye.
