PBS Books Readers Club welcomes bestselling mystery author Anthony Horowitz to discuss his latest novel and the PBS Masterpiece series Marble Hall Murders. The episode premieres October 29 at 8 PM ET as a PBS Books Facebook Live event and will also be available on the PBS Books YouTube channel, pbsbooks.org, and the PBS app.
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Marble Hall Murders is the third and final novel in Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders series, which follows book editor Susan Ryeland and detective Atticus Pünd in a mind-bending mystery that links the past and present.
In Marble Hall Murders, Susan Ryeland is back in London, working as a freelance editor when she is assigned the last job she wants: another Atticus Pünd novel. Even worse, the continuation is written by Elliot Crace, a troubled young author who also happens to be the grandson of legendary children’s author Miriam Crace.
As Susan reads the manuscript, Pünd’s Last Case, she begins to uncover startling connections between Lady Margaret Chalfont and her extended family and the Crace family. When both women appear to have been poisoned, Susan realizes the manuscript may hold the clues to a real-life murder. As she follows the trail Elliot has concealed within his story, Susan once again finds herself in grave danger. And when another murder occurs, she becomes the number-one suspect.
If Susan can’t crack the case, she could end up behind bars — or become the next victim.
Part of what keeps Horowitz’s mysteries so unpredictable is his approach to the characters themselves. Rather than relying on familiar archetypes, he creates characters with unexpected quirks, contradictions, and personalities that feel true to life — keeping readers guessing about who they can trust and what they might do next.
As Horowitz explains: “Even Agatha Christie, whom I worship, tended to stick to the same sort of cast of characters. I try to avoid that as much as I can to make the characters a little bit different, a little bit more quirky. That’s the most important thing for me— to make them believable, to make them true.”
Marble Hall Murders is a brilliantly constructed dual-plot murder mystery that might just be Horowitz’s most extensive and intricately plotted book in the series. With characters readers have grown to love and new characters who leave us with trust issues, it’s quite possibly Horowitz’s best book in the series.
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PBS Watch-Alike: Marble Hall Murders on Masterpiece Mysteries
Anthony Horowitz’s mystery series returns to the screen this September with Marble Hall Murders, starring Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan as Atticus Pünd. Adapted from the third and final book in Horowitz’s bestselling Susan Ryeland series, the new MASTERPIECE mystery follows the acclaimed fan-favorites Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders. Marble Hall Murders premieres Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, at 9/8c, only on PBS MASTERPIECE. Stream previous seasons now on pbs.org and the PBS App.
Available to stream now on pbs.org and the PBS App.
