In London, Susan investigates what Alan Conway knew about the Frank Parris murder, but DS Locke warns her to stay away from the case. In Conway's novel, a Ponzi scheme and an affair are possible motives for the murder of Melissa James.

The second of Anthony Horowitz’s adaptation of his own bestselling Susan Ryeland/Atticus Pünd series, Moonflower Murders picks up in the aftermath of Magpie Murder’s riveting finale, as book editor-turned-sleuth (turned hotelier) Susan Ryeland is living in Crete with her longtime boyfriend, Andreas. But her idyll is disturbed by the shadow of a murder committed at a British country hotel eight years ago. Alan Conway, Susan’s prima donna former author, visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there—a novel that later led Cecily Treherne, who helps run the hotel, to believe that the wrong man is behind bars. Now Cecily has disappeared. Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it’s too late?