This follow-up to the successful Magpie Murders finds former editor and publisher Susan Ryeland running a small hotel on a Greek Island with her long-term boyfriend, Andreas. Susan is seeking a quiet life after the shocking death of one of her authors, Alan Conway, and its consequences. It seems though, that life on the island is not quite as idyllic as Susan anticipated. She is frustrated on a daily basis by the challenges and responsibilities of running a small hotel on the smell of an oily rag.

She is shaken out of her rut by the arrival of two guests from England, the Trehernes, also in the hotel business. The Treherne’s daughter, Cecily, is missing and they fear that her disappearance is linked to a grisly murder that happened years before at their hotel. Before she went missing, Cecily told them that the wrong man had been convicted for that murder and that Alan Conway had based a book on the murder and revealed the real killer. The book is Atticus Pünd Takes the Case and, like Alan Conway’s fictional protagonist, Susan assumes the role of amateur detective.

I enjoyed this rollicking read. There are red herrings galore, misdirection on a grand scale to the final reveal of the killer’s identity in front of the whole cast in the hotel dining room. Having not read the Magpie Murders will not affect your reading of this sequel.

A good old-fashioned whodunnit with a couple of twists in the tale.

Reviewed by Maryanne Vagg