“Marble Hall Murders:” Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz isn’t afraid of using a literary stunt to tell a story.

But who can blame him? He does it so well.

For his Detective Hawthorne book series, Horowitz inserts himself as something akin to a reluctant Dr. Watson into each of the mystery novels. He’s written himself into each one of the Hawthorne books.

With his other series, book editor Susan Ryeland solves crimes that have been planted in the stories of fictional detective Atticus Pund. Readers get a mystery within a mystery and a book within a book. 

When Ryeland sits down to read/edit a Pund manuscript, so does the reader. 

“Marble Hall Murders” is the third book featuring Ryeland and Pund. The first two volumes were “Magpie Murders” and “Moonflower Murders.”

Here, the original Pund author is dead. Susan Ryeland’s publisher is out of business and she is unemployed. Another publishing house hopes to resuscitate the bestselling Pund series with another author – the grandson of a world-famous children’s author. The new publisher hopes Susan can work the same best-selling magic with this new author that she did with the original Pund author.

While Susan likes the start of this new Pund manuscript, she soon realizes that the new author is doing the same thing as the original author. He’s using the Pund story to exact revenge on people by leaving clues, anagrams and other hints within the manuscript’s characters and plot.

Susan is soon entangled in a mystery reflected both in the manuscript and in her life.

Horowitz does double duty in these Ryeland/Pund books. He writes in two different styles. Susan Ryeland’s story is set in the contemporary world of 21st century Britain. Pund is a Hercule Poirot-style of character whose world is set in mid-20th century Europe. Ryeland’s story is written in a contemporary style, complete with texts, smartphones and other devices of our times. Pund’s story is written in the style of an Agatha Christie whodunit. 

In “Marble Hall Murders,” readers are fully involved in one world then Horowitz yanks readers into the other world — back and forth as Ryeland receives more of the Pund manuscript.

As with past books in this series, Horowitz is more fun writing as the Pund author than he is writing as himself. Horowitz is accustomed to the role of writing in styles that pay homage to others. He’s penned three James Bond books after the Ian Fleming character and two Sherlock Holmes-related books after the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters.

If it sounds complicated, it’s not. “Marble Hall Murders” is easy to follow once entering its pages – even though at one point there is a book within a book within a book. And readers should be able to follow this story without having to read the other two books.

“Captain America”

Michael Straczynski referred to his 16-issue run as writer of “Captain America” as a “diversion.”

Diversion likely has two meanings here. 

A diversion for Straczynski, who is known as a writer of comic books but more famously as a screenwriter and creator of the classic science fiction television show, “Babylon 5.” 

A diversion for Captain America. 

Straczynski covers familiar ground with the character. Readers see scrawny Steve Rogers’ willingness to transform into Captain America during World War II, but also more information about Rogers’ mother and Steve’s childhood. 

Straczynski also covers less familiar territory. In a move to connect to his past, Cap moves into the old building where he spent his childhood nearly a century earlier. He ends up owning the building.

Writers have long explored Cap’s feeling of isolation. After all, he is a man raised in the Depression, who fought in World War II, spent decades in suspended animation, only to awake to a world far different than the one he knew. Straczynski digs deeper, explaining that he is loved and respected by his fellow Avengers but he’s not really close with any of them. 

Captain America is a man out of time and he is alone.

He encounters a group that gives him a sense of belonging but a group that faces absolute annihilation. It is a threat that would not only physically destroy everything but kill the idea of hope.

Straczynski wraps his Cap run with a three-issue team up with Thor and Spider-Man that’s great fun.

And though Straczynski refers to his “Captain America” run as a “diversion,” he continues writing for Marvel with a series of one-shot team-ups that pair unexpected characters: Dr. Doom and Rocket Raccoon, for example. Or Captain America and Volstagg, Thor’s Falstaffian comrade. The Captain America/Volstagg issue may be more fun than Straczynski’s entire Cap run.