There’s a whole lot going on in this new Susan Ryeland novel, starting with Susan’s dumping of her Greek boyfriend, subsequent return to London, and taking on a freelance editing gig. But if only things were that simple. The book Susan finds herself editing is a new novel featuring Atticus Pünd, a fictional detective from decades ago and the star of the Alan Conway books. (Many readers will be familiar with the two preceding books and if they aren’t, they should be: Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, written by the now deceased Conway and edited by Susan.) In this novel, Susan is caught up in a metafictional mystery, in which the novel from decades ago, featuring Pünd, becomes all tangled up with the contemporary story, which is written by Eliot Crace—whom Susan actually knows!—and again edited by Susan. Horowitz’s (Close to Death, A Line to Kill) whole book-within-a-book thing is wonderfully smart, and the onslaught of twists and red herrings moves the stories along briskly. Susan’s voice dominates: it’s funny, sarcastic, anxious, and tough. It would be foolhardy to try to recount this book’s plotting. Just be assured that this book is brilliant, sure to be one of the best crime novels of 2025.
