Jackie Pilkington

If you feel your mind needs a good jog during lockdown and you want your little grey cells to have a workout, I urge you to settle down in a comfortable chair and some support for the book (it is quite a tome with two books in one) and read Moonflower Murders. You will have a fishy banquet - red herrings all over the place. And two cunning interlinking plots, two dogs, four murders, literary clues, theatrical references, and an extra bonus in the form of yet another puzzle - a whole chapter devoted to a deviously planned jewellery snatch! I adored Magpie Murders and this latest whodunnit(s) kept me up late for nights on end. I could not put it down. Now that I am party to all the secrets, perhaps I can catch up on some sleep! One thing...Algernon was referenced as a name from a Coward play. At once I thought this must be a deliberate herring or clue, as it is of course well known from Wilde's masterpiece. But no, just a slip of the (fountain) pen? Thank you, Anthony H., you must have spent months and months plotting it all, and have made our 'tiers' more bearable.