Marble Hall Murders

“When I think about the books I’ve loved throughout my life, it’s always the final chapter that has left me with a sense of completeness, that has made the whole story worthwhile.”

This foreshadows how Blakeney completes Pund’s Last Case after Eliot dies. Only when Susan sees Blakeney write the ending Eliot planned is she certain that the novel is good. The man she ends up loving writes an ending that she loves.

“It is astonishing how many thieves and murderers do not resemble thieves and murderers.”

Here, Atticus notes that criminals do not have a certain look; they are diverse. This develops Horowitz’s idea that murder mysteries illuminate how anyone could become a murderer.

“Madame Dubois had shipped paintings and sculptures all over Europe. Now she would do the same for his stepmother.”

Robert compares moving delicate pieces of art with moving a human corpse. This develops the symbolism of art. It is as precious as life but lives on after humans die.

“Wealth is a great blessing, but it is my opinion that it can be destructive, if placed in the wrong hands.”

Margaret wrote this passage into her will before her death. It foreshadows how all her children are involved in her murder, developing the theme of The Toxic Weight of Family Secrets. Her family’s desire for her wealth destroys them.

“Doesn’t every author base some of their characters on people they know in real life?”

This dialogue from Eliot develops the theme of The Weaponization of Blurring Fiction and Reality. Most authors draw upon their real lives for inspiration. Eliot’s blurring is vengeful like Dante putting his enemies in hell in his Inferno.

“Alan had terminal cancer. It was one of the reasons he had decided to kill off Atticus Pund, taking his much-loved detective with him.”

This is another example of The Weaponization of Blurring Fiction and Reality. Both Alan and Eliot base characters on themselves. However, Eliot gives Atticus one more job after Alan decided to kill him off.

“Forget Sherlock Holmes and his ratiocination or Hercule Poirot’s little grey cells. We have all the information in the world at our fingertips and there’s no longer any need for deduction.”

Here, Susan contrasts the methods of fictional detectives from eras before the internet. Technology does some of the work for her; she can use a search engine to look up Miriam’s doctor’s location instead of looking through old newspapers.

“There was an Edgar Degas ballet dancer—a pastel—hanging in my nursery!”

Elmer put a famous piece of art in Robert’s room when he was just a baby. This develops the symbolism of art. Elmer approves of Robert appreciating and selling art, but forbids him from being a painter, and this is one reason why Robert frames Elmer for Margaret’s murder.

“The empty bottle of shoe polish that was left in the bedroom of the Hotel Lafayette. It tells us almost everything we need to know and soon, very soon, the puzzle will be solved.”

Eliot ends his manuscript on this cliffhanger before his death. Cliffhangers are a popular literary device used in mysteries and thrillers. Everything after this point in Pund’s Last Case is written by Blakeney, who figures out the significance of the shoe polish, not Susan. This develops the theme of Power, Control, and the Editorial Gaze; writers create and solve puzzles while editors polish those puzzles.

“It was early evening by now and I was beginning to think about what I was going to do for the next five hours. This was the part of the day I found hardest, when I was most aware of living on my own.”

This passage develops Susan’s character. After leaving Andreas and before meeting Blakeney, she is lonely. Work can be a good distraction during the day, but being single is strongly felt when work is over for the day; this makes her character relatable.

“Pund’s Last Case—or whatever he was going to call it—wasn’t just a cheerful murder mystery bringing back a much-loved character. It was a bubbling cauldron in which Eliot’s unhappy childhood, the death of his grandmother, the suicide of his cousin, the issues with his father and now his wife’s infidelity had all been stirred together. And they were giving off noxious fumes.”

Horowitz uses a metaphor (comparison) between Eliot’s novel and a toxic smelling witches’ brew. The phrase “bubbling cauldron” alludes to the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn and caldron bubble.” Eliot puts negative portrayals of his family members in his caldron (his book), instead of newt’s eyes and frog’s toes.

“It reminded me of a book I’d once edited, written by a woman who’d spent ten years working on a television soap opera. It had been a litany of affairs, betrayals, surprise revelations, confrontations and fist fights until I’d almost dreaded turning the next page. I’d been put in my place when sales reached five figures.”

This is Susan’s meditation on Eliot and Gillian’s love life. It also develops the theme of Power, Control, and the Editorial Gaze. She didn’t think the tawdry story was compelling, but the public disagreed. Susan is a strong editor because she doesn’t let her personal dislike of drama get in the way of the book’s publication.

“With Eliot Crace and Atticus Pund both out of my life, I suddenly felt very alone.”

Here, Susan’s character developed by not having Eliot’s novel to work on. She realizes she is structuring her life solely around work, and losing it causes her to be even more lonely than she was before. Her whole life becomes those lonely evenings she experiences in Chapter 32.

“Nobody who has entered a prison can ever forget the experience and any politician who has ever called for more prisons to be built should come and visit one. It’s an exercise in hopelessness.”

Susan visiting Charles in prison highlights the conditions there. Prison changes people by making them hopeless. Later in the novel, Elaine tries to use that fact to convince Susan to die by suicide.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who was so dedicated to books—even at the expense of their own life.”

Charles says this to Susan, developing her character. She doesn’t let her life revolve around just any job, but specifically a job creating books, which is what she is most dedicated to in life. Later, she is able to combine her love for books with her love life by publishing her boyfriend’s books.

“I’m the only person I know who still likes paper.”

This develops Susan’s character by showing how she is somewhat old-fashioned. She demands that the pages she edits be printed out and writes with physical media. Most people in her industry use computers or other digital devices.

“Why did Bruno leave?”

This is a question that Eliot wrote in his notes about Pund’s Last Case, and Horowitz repeats this question on Pages 554 and 568. Eliot noticed that Miriam’s chauffeur, Bruno, left, but didn’t know why. Susan discovers that Miriam had an affair with Bruno, got pregnant, and fired him when the baby was born. Bruno dying in poverty is why Frederick, Bruno and Miriam’s son, killed Miriam.

“Every single member of this family has been an actor, a participant in what followed. All of you worked together to convict Elmer Waysmith of a crime he had not committed.”

This is the conclusion to The Toxic Weight of Family Secrets in the book-within-a-book. In the parlor scene, Atticus reveals that Robert is the mastermind, but his whole family is in on the murder. They want Margaret’s legacy, that is, her money, but have to get Elmer the death penalty for murder in order to inherit.

“Murder, blackmail, larceny, revenge…they become what you would call our raison d’etre. That is our life. The detective has no escape. Without evil, there is no reason for him to exist.”

This is Atticus’s explanation for why is ready to retire and has accepted that he is dying. He reflects on his life’s work: many years spent studying crimes and criminals. He is ready for his mind to be clear of these demons.

“ROBERT WAYSMITH […] IT WAS MY BROTHER.”

This is Eliot’s third anagram in Pund’s Last Case. He believes his brother, Roland, killed Miriam, so he embeds that secret in the language of his book. However, this is not a moment of blurring of fiction and reality; Frederick killed Miriam and then also killed Eliot for claiming (wrongly) that he knew the identity of Miriam’s killer.

“She looked as immaculate as ever—her clothes, her jewelry, hair that looked fresh from the hairdresser’s. She really was a lady who lunched.”

This develops Elaine’s character. She appears collected and tidy, while Susan always looks messy, but inside Elaine is a wreck. Elaine’s true self, under the civilized exterior, is violent and vengeful.

“He’d joked that he might come back to haunt the place, but in a way he already did.”

This is another example of Horowitz’s use of repetition; this repeats Frederick’s dialogue about haunting on Page 215. Haunting is a repetitive act; Horowitz’s form and content work together.

“I’m not saying that you are only complete if you have a job and a relationship, but unfortunately this was what I had learned from the moment I moved back to Crouch End. I needed them both and I’m afraid all the charms of Hugo, along with the two goldfish, Hero and Leander, hadn’t been nearly enough for me. I had Ian and I had Nine Lives. My first book was out and I had never been happier.”

This is the end of Susan’s character arc. She loses Andreas at the beginning of the novel, feels lonely, and ends the novel not only with a new boyfriend, but also with a new job as her own boss. She finds success in both work and love.