Anthony Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland books combine classic British detective fiction with a clever modern mystery. Each installment essentially gives readers two novels at once: a present-day investigation led by editor Susan Ryeland and an old-fashioned Atticus Pünd mystery hidden inside it.
The series begins with Magpie Murders, continues with Moonflower Murders, and concludes its current three-book story with Marble Hall Murders. Although the central case changes in every novel, the books should be read in publication order to follow Susan’s career, relationships, and increasingly dangerous connection to the fictional detective she helped bring to readers.
Here is the complete Susan Ryeland reading order, along with a spoiler-free look at what each book is about.
Susan Ryeland Books in Publication Order
The Susan Ryeland books by Anthony Horowitz should be read in this order:
Magpie Murders was first published in the United Kingdom in 2016 before arriving in the United States in 2017. The two later books received releases on both sides of the Atlantic during their respective publication years.
1. Magpie Murders
Magpie Murders introduces Susan Ryeland, a book editor who has spent years working with successful, but notoriously difficult, crime writer Alan Conway.
Conway is the creator of Atticus Pünd, a brilliant German-born detective who investigates murders in seemingly peaceful English villages during the 1950s. When Susan receives the manuscript for Conway’s latest book, she initially believes she is dealing with another conventional entry in the popular series.
She soon discovers that the manuscript is incomplete. Even more troubling, clues buried within Conway’s novel may be connected to events in the real world.
That premise creates the structure that makes the Susan Ryeland series so distinctive. Readers are given an Atticus Pünd mystery written in the style of a Golden Age detective novel, but that fictional story is surrounded by Susan’s contemporary investigation.
Horowitz uses the novel-within-a-novel format to explore how mystery writers construct their puzzles. Names, anagrams, literary references, character details, and seemingly harmless passages can all carry more than one meaning.
According to Anthony Horowitz’s official description of the novel, another story is hidden inside Conway’s manuscript, one involving jealousy, ambition, greed, and murder.
For readers who love Agatha Christie-style mysteries, Magpie Murders is the obvious place to begin. It establishes Susan, Atticus Pünd, Alan Conway, and the unusual relationship between the fictional mystery and the real crime.
2. Moonflower Murders
Moonflower Murders takes place after the events of Magpie Murders. Susan has left her publishing career behind and is running a hotel on a Greek island with her longtime boyfriend, Andreas.
Her new life is not as peaceful as she expected.
Susan is approached by Lawrence and Pauline Treherne, the owners of an English hotel where a guest was murdered on the day of their daughter Cecily’s wedding. A man was convicted of the crime, but years later, Cecily read an Atticus Pünd novel inspired by the hotel and became convinced that the police had arrested the wrong person.
Shortly after revealing that she had solved the murder, Cecily disappeared.
Susan returns to England and begins examining the case. To understand what Cecily discovered, she must reread Alan Conway’s fictional mystery, Atticus Pünd Takes the Case. Once again, readers encounter two connected investigations: the murder inside Conway’s book and the real mystery Susan is attempting to solve.
The author’s official synopsis for Moonflower Murders confirms that the clues to both the old murder and Cecily’s disappearance are hidden somewhere inside the Atticus Pünd novel.
The second book expands the series’ central idea rather than merely repeating it. Susan already understands that Conway enjoyed hiding messages and private jokes in his books. The difficulty lies in separating meaningful clues from the writer’s many distractions.
Moonflower Murders can technically be understood without remembering every detail from the first novel, but it should still be read second. The book reveals major developments from Magpie Murders and continues Susan’s personal story.
3. Marble Hall Murders
Marble Hall Murders is the third Susan Ryeland novel and brings Susan back into the publishing world.
After editing two Atticus Pünd books and nearly being killed during both experiences, Susan has every reason to avoid murder mysteries. Nevertheless, she agrees to work on a new continuation novel featuring the famous fictional detective.
The manuscript, titled Pünd’s Last Case, was written by Eliot Crace. Eliot is the grandson of Miriam Crace, an enormously successful children’s author who died twenty years earlier. He believes his grandmother was poisoned and claims he has hidden the killer’s identity somewhere inside his book.
The assignment forces Susan to examine another manuscript for concealed evidence. As she reads Eliot’s mystery, set at a villa in the South of France, she begins noticing connections between the fictional crime and the real Crace family.
The official synopsis of Marble Hall Murders describes the mystery as another collision between the past and present, fiction and reality. As Susan moves closer to understanding Eliot’s clues, she once again becomes a target.
This installment changes the formula in an important way. Alan Conway is no longer around to write a new Atticus Pünd mystery, so Horowitz explores what happens when another author attempts to continue a famous literary character. That gives the book an additional layer involving authorship, ownership, publishing, and the complicated legacy of successful writers.
Marble Hall Murders was published in 2025 and is the third book in what HarperCollins identifies as the Susan Ryeland series.
Do You Have to Read the Susan Ryeland Books in Order?
Yes, reading the Susan Ryeland books in publication order is highly recommended.
Each novel contains a new central mystery, and Horowitz provides enough context to help readers understand the immediate plot. However, the books also reveal the outcomes of earlier investigations and continue Susan’s personal life.
Starting with Moonflower Murders or Marble Hall Murders would therefore spoil important parts of the previous books.
Publication order is also chronological order, so there is no alternate timeline or prequel placement to consider:
Magpie Murders → Moonflower Murders → Marble Hall Murders
Are the Atticus Pünd Novels Separate Books?
The Atticus Pünd mysteries are complete stories embedded inside the Susan Ryeland novels. They are not additional full-length books that need to be purchased or added to the reading order.
In Magpie Murders, readers encounter Alan Conway’s manuscript about a murder at Pye Hall. Moonflower Murderscontains another Conway novel, Atticus Pünd Takes the Case. Marble Hall Murders includes Eliot Crace’s continuation manuscript, Pünd’s Last Case.
These internal novels imitate traditional British mysteries, complete with isolated settings, suspicious families, hidden motives, and a composed detective assembling the clues. At the same time, details inside them help Susan solve crimes in the present.
The result is a series that works both as an affectionate tribute to Golden Age mysteries and as a more modern examination of how those stories are written.
Is the Susan Ryeland Series Connected to the Hawthorne Books?
The Susan Ryeland series is separate from Anthony Horowitz’s Hawthorne mysteries.
The Hawthorne novels begin with The Word Is Murder and feature private investigator Daniel Hawthorne alongside a fictionalized version of Anthony Horowitz. Those books also experiment with the boundaries between fiction and reality, but they have different characters, cases, and continuity.
Readers do not need to read the Hawthorne books before starting Magpie Murders.
Susan Ryeland Book Adaptations
The first two Susan Ryeland novels have been adapted for television, with Lesley Manville playing Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan portraying Atticus Pünd.
The television viewing order follows the novels:
- Magpie Murders
- Moonflower Murders
- Marble Hall Murders
The third adaptation continues the same characters and story established by the earlier productions. For the best experience, viewers should watch the adaptations in order just as readers should follow the novels in sequence.
Why the Susan Ryeland Mysteries Are Worth Reading
The most appealing part of the Susan Ryeland series is its layered structure. Horowitz does not simply present a fictional manuscript as a novelty. The mystery inside each book actively changes the way readers interpret Susan’s investigation.
Every volume offers two sets of suspects, two carefully constructed puzzles, and two different periods of detective fiction. Readers must pay attention to the internal mystery while also asking why its fictional author selected certain names, settings, motives, and character relationships.
As someone who loves Agatha Christie’s creativity and the enduring appeal of a carefully designed whodunit, I think that is where this series is at its best. Horowitz captures the comfort of the classic English mystery while questioning the writers, commercial decisions, and personal grudges that may exist behind the finished book.
The novels are long, but their unusual structure makes them feel like two interconnected mysteries rather than one stretched-out investigation.
Final Thoughts on the Susan Ryeland Reading Order
Anyone beginning Anthony Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland series should start with Magpie Murders, continue with Moonflower Murders, and finish the current trilogy with Marble Hall Murders.
All three books combine a contemporary publishing mystery with an Atticus Pünd detective story, but the stakes and relationships build from one installment to the next. Reading them in order preserves the surprises and makes Susan’s journey far more rewarding.
For mystery fans who enjoy Agatha Christie, books about books, literary puzzles, and stories in which every word might contain a clue, the Susan Ryeland trilogy offers one of the most inventive reading experiences in modern crime fiction.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
Posts
Discover more from Books of Brilliance
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
