Moonflower Murders episode 1 sees Lesley Manville return as editor-turned-sleuth Susan Ryeland for another time-hopping whodunnit.
Susan was first featured in 2002’s Magpie Murders, which also introduced us to fictional 1950s detective Atticus Pünd (Timothy McMullan), the creation of author Alan Conway (Conleth Hill).
Here's what happens in episode one of Moonflower Murders, based on Anthony Horowitz's hit book.
The series opens at a posh wedding with the groom, Aiden (Will Tudor) complimenting his wife in a speech. Everyone looks happy, apart from one guest. He passes the microphone to his "all-powerful wife" Cecily MacNeil (Amy Griffiths). Outside the marquee, a maid looks frightened and we get tense music. She anxiously walks into the marquee. Eventually, she reaches the bride and shouts: "He's dead, he's dead, he's dead" while covering the bride's lovely wedding gown in blood! And we get the titles…
We go forward in time eight years later. We see Susan taking a stroll. She's running a hotel with her partner, Andreas, and deals with a couple of awkward guests. At the hotel, the chef complains to Andreas that he needs to be paid and then they have a leak. Susan mops up in the kitchen and complains to Andreas they have no electricity but a lot of water.
She goes on another walk and in the haze sees Atticus Pünd, who doffs his hat to her. Later, she browses some editing jobs online. She tells Andreas that Crete, the hotel and everything aren't working for her. She complains they have no money, Andreas tells her to admire the view and to get some sleep.
A taxi pulls up at the hotel with the mother and father of the bride from the wedding. We see Pünd again. They introduce themselves to Susan as Lawrence (Adrian Rawlins) and Pauline (Pooky Quesnel) and ask if they can speak to her on a personal matter. They then drop the bombshell that their daughter has gone missing in England and they think it’s because of one of Susan’s books! The wife appears to be a total snob, telling Susan they also run a hotel but a much grander one!
Lawrence, who seems a lot nicer, says they believe Susan is the only one who can help them. He asks if she ever read about the murder of Frank Parris in their hotel in Suffolk. Susan says she did read about it.
We go back in time and see Frank Parris (Mark Gatiss) check into the hotel. Lawrence says the moment Frank arrived he knew he was going to be trouble.
"If I wanted to stay in a shoe box with a view of a car park I would have stayed in Ipswich," complains Frank about his room. Lawrence's son-in-law, Aiden, says they might have something in the Moonflower wing, room 12. Frank takes the room. He spots Chase the dog, who belongs to Cecily.
Back in the present, Lawrence comments that Aiden had a talent for dealing with tricky customers. Frank had come from Australia and was visiting his sister who lived nearby. The night before the wedding, Lawrence, explains there was a staff party. We see Stefan at the party. Lawrence says they had to get rid of ex-prisoner Stefan, the head of maintenance, due to his thieving.
Frank was murdered on the night of the party and Lawrence explains that Stefan was the main suspect. The body was discovered the next day by the maid, Natasha, seen at the start of the episode. She found Frank in his bed bludgeoned to death by a hammer. The police arrive including Detective Inspector Locke (Daniel Mays). Locke gathers the family together and points out the door wasn't forced. "Who had a spare key he asks?" Lisa (Rosalie Craig), the bride’s sister, points the finger at Stefan, saying he was among those who had a key. She says Locke should talk to him as he has a criminal record and has just been fired.
Locke interviews Stefan, who says he was asleep at the time of the murder. But Locke has a witness who can place him in the Moonflower wing at the time of Frank’s death. Stefan says he was fired for theft, but that he took nothing. Locke says Frank’s wallet was empty and theft is the motive. Locke searches his room and finds blood on Stefan’s sheet and the money. Stefan has clearly been set up. Lisa looks on as he's taken away by the police and we discover he was later found guilty of murder. He confessed and was given a life sentence and remains behind bars.
Back in the present, a confused Susan asks how this connects to their daughter’s disappearance and one of her books. Pauline says they believe it connects to "Atticus Pünd Takes the Case" and she produces a copy of the book. The writer, Alan Conway, came to the hotel and based the story on real events. "We’re all in the book, Laurence and I, for example, he calls us Lance and Maureen. He turns us into crooks," explains Pauline. "The hotel becomes The Moonflower while Frank becomes Oscar Berlin."
Lisa becomes Melissa James, a Hollywood actress, while Aiden turns up as an idiot swindler, Algernon Marsh. Pauline says Cecily isn't in the book, but she read it and now she's vanished. Cecily, it's explained, always believed Stefan was innocent but she’d accepted the evidence until she read the book. We see Cecily ring her father and say they’ve made a terrible mistake. She says Stefan wasn’t the killer and the Atticus Pünd book has the answer. "The real killer is named in the book," she says.
But before she could say who it was someone came into her room and she vanished. They ask Susan to come to the hotel, to read the book and work out what their daughter has discovered. They offer her £10,000 for one week of her time as she rushes away to fix another problem at the hotel.
Later, Susan looks at the novel and we go back to Conway trying to write the book. The book opens in the summer of 1954 in Devonshire with actress Melissa James, who’d found fame in Hollywood before an accident on the set of a Hitchcock film ended her career. She used the insurance to buy a small hotel, which she named The Moonflower after the film for which she received her first Oscar nomination. Melissa (based on Lisa) goes to the hotel where we meet Lance and Maureen (based on Lawrence and Pauline). Lance is caught off guard listening to the horse racing. Melissa asks how they're losing money even when they’re full. They’re clearly swindling her and look worried when she says her financial advisor is about to arrive from London to do an audit.
We see Algernon (based on Aiden), the financial advisor, drink driving and he hits someone crossing the road. He goes to check on the man, dropping a cigarette. The man isn't moving and he drives off.
As Melissa prepares to leave the hotel she runs into Oscar (based on victim Frank). They know each other and he asks why she’s not contacted him. She says they should talk in the bar. He asks why she won't sign up for his film, they have everything ready. She says she’s decided not to do it. He’s furious and says it will ruin him.
Back in the present, Susan is interupted by Andreas and lashes out at him for not giving her any time. She begins chapter two of the book. Melissa drives past the local church, which is close to Dr Leonard Collins, her personal physician. As it turns out, says our author-narrator, he'd be one of the last people to see her alive. Lenoard has just found out his wife, Samantha, has inherited a huge sum of money. He's worried her brother will try and swindle it out of her. It turns out her brother is Algernon. Leonard warns her not to say a word about her inheritance.
Melissa returns home and is disgruntled to see her husband’s car in her drive. Her mood darkens when her housekeeper Phyllis reminds her she has the evening off. She’s heading out with Eric, who we then see polishing the silver.
It's clear Phyllis doesn't like Melissa. She talks to Eric, who has something to hide.
Melissa tells her husband she doesn’t want to go to the opera. She adds that she’s waiting for Algernon and that unlike him she’s had to earn her money. He hits back that his parents cut him off when he married her. She snorts that he’s said that a thousand times. She then says he’s banished to the spare room. Algernon arrives. Melissa tells Phyllis she’d like a word with her and Eric. Melissa tells Algernon she wants to sell her shares. He tries to argue her out of the decision. But she wants her money, it doesn’t look like he has it!
Susan puts the book down frustrated. She comments that Algernon is ripping Melissa off and he's based on Aiden, but what does that tell her? Talking to Atticus Pünd, she says the woman's disappearance has nothing to do with her. But Pünd asks is that true? And she admits to showing Alan a newspaper article about Frank's murder and saying it was a good idea for a story. Susan says she has no idea what connects the story of the strangled actress and a woman’s real-life disappearance. Later at the bar, she tells Andreas she's heading back to England. She explains rather than finding a missing chapter, she's been tasked with finding a missing person. Andreas warns her everything to do with Conway is rotten. She says she's not sure she wants to come back to Crete.
The next day, she reads the next part of the book on the flight to England. It runs through Melissa's enemies: hotel managers Maureen and Lance; film producer Oscar; her dodgy financial advisor Algernon and her husband John. We then see Melissa's body... but who murdered her?
