74 pages • 2-hour read
Marble Hall Murders
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Themes
Content Warning: This section contains discussions of death, graphic violence, substance use, and addiction.
The Weaponization of Blurring Fiction and Reality
Putting real life figures in fiction is dangerous. It gets both Alan and Eliot killed. Horowitz presents these extreme examples, but also considers how fiction can reveal truths about humanity generally.
In Horowitz’s previous Susan Ryeland novel, Alan blurs fiction and reality in the real-life murder of Frank Parris. His novel-within-a-novel is titled Atticus Pund Takes the Case. Alan went to Branlow Hall in Suffolk and “recognized the killer as someone he knew, but instead of calling the police, he strung a whole lot of clues through the novel he was writing” (393). In the end, writing about the crime, rather than reporting it, got him killed. Alan’s writing also mirrored real life in how he “distorted people he knew, turning them into often unsympathetic caricatures” (469). This can be compared to Dante putting his enemies in hell in The Inferno. Horowitz uses Marble Hall Murders to illustrate a tendency of many authors, but in the extreme.
Eliot continues Alan’s extreme and dangerous blurring of fiction and reality. He says Pund’s Last Case is “inspired by what [he] saw at Marble Hall and if you read it carefully, [he’s] put in a secret message. That’s what Alan Conway used to do” (363). The secret message is his incorrect assumption that his brother Roland killed their grandmother, Miriam, at Marble Hall. Eliot wants to get back at Roland for having an affair with Gillian; “Pund’s Last Case wasn’t just a book. It was an act of revenge” (208). However, publicly declaring that he knows the identity of Miriam’s murderer, long before the book is finished, gets Eliot killed. Roland isn’t the only one with a literary alter ego. Most people associated with Marble Hall become characters. For example, the real murderer, Frederic becomes a detective, Frederic, in Eliot’s novel. In a metatextual sense, this speaks to the connection between murderers and criminals. Atticus, the fictional detective, speaks about this connection. Horowitz uses the weaponization of blurring fiction and reality to comment on real life investigators and murders.
Horowitz also comments on what the murder mystery genre reveals about human nature. Susan wonders:
Given the right circumstances, are we all potential killers? Was that the ultimate appeal of murder stories, that they reveal not just the facts of a particular crime but the truth about all of humanity, that civilization and decency are only skin-deep and just beneath the surface we are potentially monsters? (452-53).
Her concern is that fiction reflects deeper, unacknowledged realities about humans. Most people want to think of themselves as incapable of murder and above resorting to violence. Murder mysteries challenge this notion by turning seemingly ordinary people into killers.
The Toxic Weight of Family Secrets
Both Marble Hall Murders and Pund’s Last Case examine secrets that wealthy families keep. The Crace family’s legacy of secrets is longer and more expansive. Their literary counterparts, the Chalfonts, only conspire to frame Elmer for Margaret’s murder. These two fictional families illustrate how wealthy families in the real world, outside of Horowitz’s fictions, use their power to keep legacies of secrets.
The Crace family not only hides the murder of Miriam, but also hides her true nature. Roland admits that he spends “every day of the week keeping alive the big lie that Miriam Crace was an angel when in fact she made all our lives a misery” (251). The estate maintains her positive reputation in order to continue to make money off her intellectual property, the Little People children’s books. Jonathan and Roland negotiate deals for a Netflix series and movie, as well as new Little People books published by Causton Books. These deals hinge on the popularity of Miriam Crace’s books. Once the public discovers Miriam was a “cruel” (202), “vile” (250) “tyrant” (190), her books and estate lose public favor. People getting rid of Miriam’s books can be compared with people getting rid of J. K. Rowling’s books after she lost some of her popularity in the real world.
On the other hand, the fictional Chalfonts, based on the Craces, collude to murder Margaret in a way that would keep Elmer from inheriting her money. They are upset that she is leaving almost everything to Elmer and “using her death to rid themselves of Elmer” (519). Unlike Miriam, Margaret is truly kind and loving. The family absolves themselves of feeling guilty for killing Margaret because she is dying. Her death is reconfigured for their financial benefit. However, Atticus reveals the Chalfont’s secrets at the end of Pund’s Last Case.
Horowitz uses both of these families to reflect how generational wealth causes people to behave in the real world. Eliot says taking Miriam’s “money was like taking drugs. You know it’s going to kill you eventually, but you can’t stop yourself” (344). In his case, threatening to reveal a secret got him killed. In the real world, benefiting from corrupt people and estates can destroy people’s self-image and lead them to engage in drug use. Wealthy people often put their financial interests above morality. Even if they aren’t aristocrats, like the Chalfonts, they behave as if they are. The Craces acted like they were “the royal family. All that wealth and comfort. My mother was famous the world over and her books were our crown jewels” (412). Feeling like royalty means they feel like they are above the laws that govern middle-class and poor people.
Power, Control, and the Editorial Gaze
In Marble Hall Murders, Susan reflects on her role as Alan’s editor in Horowitz’s previous novels. She compares and contrasts this with how she and Eliot work together. The best situation for an editor, in the end, is to be their own boss and run a publishing house. Horowitz uses the character of Susan to reflect how the publishing industry works in the real world.
Susan is haunted by her experiences with Alan when she enters into her working relationship with Eliot. When Alan “started selling in large numbers and had his awards […] he decided that Cloverleaf needed him more than he needed Cloverleaf” (159). Alan was so unpleasant to work with that Susan had Charles work with him instead. Working with Alan is an extreme example of what happens in the real world. Authors are more likely to cause lawsuits, rather than murders, for their publishing houses.
However, as a part of the murder mystery genre, Marble Hall Murders focuses on another extreme example: Eliot and Susan. Susan was hired to babysit Eliot. When she figures this out, she says to Michael, “You didn’t really want me to edit the book. You wanted me to keep him under control” (405). Editing the book is discussing its structure, details, characters, and other elements of craft. Susan is asked to keep Eliot from embarrassing the Crace family, so Michael gets a deal for a new Little People book. This is not a normal relationship.
Susan escapes toxic work dynamics by creating her own publishing house: Nine Lives Books. She is able to edit books by her boyfriend, Ian Blakeney, including Pund’s Last Case, which Blakeney completed under a pseudonym. In this working relationship, Susan is able to focus on craft. She notes how Blakeney “almost perfectly captured the voice of Alan Conway—or perhaps the voice of Eliot Crace imitating Alan Conway. The first continuation continuation novel?” (531). Voice is one element that editors discuss with writers in the real world. Also, Horowitz is subtly alluding to the fact that he is the author of continuations of the Sherlock Holmes series.
Marble Hall Murders offers some accurate reflections of the publishing industry. Writers in Horowitz’s fictional world, and the real world, “aren’t like other people. All those hours spent alone, obsessing about every word, can make them neurotic, nervous, needy or—like Alan Conway—plain nasty […] the odds are stacked against them” (157). It’s hard to break into the writing industry, and this can affect the personalities of writers. Editors can discover new talent or commission works from wealthy and famous people. Overall, success as a writer is rare.
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