Book Title: MARBLE HALL MURDERS
Character Name: Susan Ryeland
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I had an ordinary childhood, damaged by a promiscuous father who, unbelievably, ran off with our nanny when I was nine years old. This made me very close to my sister, Katie, who – though very different to me – is still my best friend.
What was your greatest talent?
I loved books from the earliest age. I didn’t just read; I devoured stories. As I grew up, I began to see the building blocks of fiction, what makes it work, how it’s created. I knew when I was in my teens that although I can’t write myself, I would be an editor and a publisher.
Significant other?
A Greek by the name of Andreas Patakis was the love of my life. He was a teacher at the school where my niece and nephew were taught. Sadly, our relationship didn’t work out and we broke up – but we had some wonderful times.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
I suppose it’s the work-life balance. I love publishing and books and sometimes I’ve allowed that to overwhelm me.
Where do you live?
I have an apartment in a place called Crouch End in the North of London. It’s a friendly, leafy suburb with plenty of parking for my old MG. Trivia note: the great American writer, Stephen King wrote a short story about Crouch End. He described it as a portal to another dimension although I have no idea how he’d heard about the place.
Do you have any enemies?
I’ve almost been killed three times so the answer is most certainly yes. Do I deserve them, though? I don’t think so.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
What do you mean by the place where I am now? Physically, I still like Crouch End. In terms of my career, publishing is going very well. I’m in a new relationship. I’m attached to my sister, my work, my friends. Nothing repels me except bad writing and I manage to avoid most of that.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I have a cat called Hugo. He was given to me by my sister, Katie.
What do you do for a living?
I am an editor.
Greatest disappointment?
I suppose I’m most disappointed that my time in Crete with Andreas didn’t work out. We were running a hotel, the Polydorus, and it was chaotic, frustrating, demanding, financially challenging, often nightmarish…but a lot of fun. I loved Crete: the people, the landscape, the Aegean and the sunshine. But this was the Shirley Valentine quadrant of my life and I think I always knew it had to come to an end.
Greatest source of joy?
I think there is nothing more satisfying than discovering new talent, publishing a new author and seeing him or her succeed.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I read. I go to the cinema and the theatre. I probably drink too much (usually white wine). My job is a very social one and I love being with other people.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I work too hard! I’m disorganised and I’m impulsive. This is why I always seem to be getting into trouble.
What keeps you awake at night?
I have the same problems as everyone else: too much work, the state of the world. I worry about my nephew and niece and the issues faced by the next generation. Also, Hugo climbs onto the bed.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
I’m writing this a week before the Frankfurt Book Fair. I have far too many meetings in my diary, I’m not sure what to wear, the hotel has just told me they can’t find my booking and my number one author – the main reason I’m going – has just come down with Covid. Why do I do this?
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I suppose the one thing I never have is time. It’s not just my job, although that keeps me busy enough. Perhaps I’m too impulsive. I’m always rushing towards the next book, the next meeting, the next party. Somehow I find it impossible to slow down.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
I love what I do! I don’t want to stop!
Murder links past and present once again in this mind-boggling metafictional mystery from Anthony Horowitz featuring detective Atticus Pünd and editor Susan Ryeland, stars of the New York Times bestsellers Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders.
Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel and her Greek boyfriend, Andreas, in search of a new life back in England.
Freelancing for a London publisher, she's given the last job she wants: working on an Atticus Pünd continuation novel called Pünd’s Last Case. Worse still, she knows the new writer. Eliot Crace is the troubled grandson of legendary children’s author Miriam Crace who died twenty years ago. Eliot is convinced she was murdered—by poison.
To her surprise, Susan enjoys reading the manuscript which is set in the South of France and revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, days before she was about to change her will. But when it is revealed that Lady Margaret was also poisoned, alarm bells begin to ring.
The more Susan reads, the clearer it becomes that Eliot has deliberately concealed clues about his grandmother’s death inside the book.
Desperately, Susan tries to prevent Eliot from putting himself in harm’s way—but his behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic. Another murder follows . . . and suddenly Susan finds herself to be the number one suspect.
Once again, the real and the fictional worlds have become dangerously entangled. And if Susan doesn't solve the mystery of Pünd’s Last Case, she could well be its next victim.
Mystery Amateur Sleuth [Harper, On Sale: May 13, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780063305700 / eISBN: 9780063305717]
Anthony Horowitz is one of the most prolific and successful writers working in the UK – and is unique for working across so many media. Anthony is a born polymath; juggling writing books, TV series, films, plays and journalism.
Anthony was awarded an OBE for his services to literature in January 2014.
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