Marble Hall Murders: The Best Susan Ryeland Mystery Yet
Fans of amateur sleuths, golden age detectives, writer Anthony Horowitz, screen icon Lesley Manville, anagrams, easter eggs, and delightfully cunning whodunits, rejoice: Marble Hall Murders is coming to MASTERPIECE Mystery! on Sunday, September 6 at 9/8c! Read on to get ready for the premiere—and to find out why this third and final installment of the Susan Ryeland mystery series is quite possibly the best of all.
You don’t need to have watched Magpie Murders or Moonflower Murders before watching Marble Hall Murders, but with PBS Passport, you can binge both right now, and all six episodes of Marble Hall Murders after the September 6 premiere.
Same Detective Series, New Author
Marble Hall Murders follows Horowitz’s devilishly clever format of a mystery-within-a-mystery, as Susan takes on the commission of an Atticus Pünd “continuation novel,” Pünd’s Last Case, which places the famed detective in Corfu. It’s all very vintage Christie, Evil Under the Sun, people in hats and white linens doing wicked deeds. Meanwhile in present day London, Susan’s young, troubled author brings a fresh infusion of mayhem to Susan’s world…and our screens!
Fresh Detective Duos
Marble Hall Murders’ 1955 mystery finds Atticus Pünd in Corfu, hoping to reconnect with his familial roots during the last months of his life, but inevitably getting sucked into an intriguing case—this time involving Nazi art theft, yet another hotel, and a family of the absolute worst people ever, blood-relations or otherwise! And while the previous two seasons featured Pünd teamed up with (and Susan against) Detective Inspector Chubb and Inspector Locke, respectively, Marble Hall Murders pairs Pünd with an entirely new sidekick, the eyepatch-wearing Albanian police lieutenant, Achilles Vassilikos. Susan, too, meets a new detective—the only problem is that he’s convinced she’s a murderer!
Captivating Cast & Characters
With the incredible Lesley Manville (Susan Ryeland) and Tim McMullan (Atticus Pünd) returning to their respective helms, it’s a genuine thrill to crack new cases with them, be it 2026 or 1955. And while the Susan Ryeland series has always featured a veritable murderers row of British talent, Marble Hall Murders’ cast may just be MASTERPIECE fans’ favorite. A few include:
Mark Bonnar: Loved him Guilt and World on Fire? Wait until you see him chewing scenes in Corfu!
Patricia Hodge: All Creatures Great and Small’s spirited and eccentric mum to Tricky astounds with a character who couldn’t possibly be more different…
Claire Rushbrook: Did you fall in love with Claire Rushbrook in Homefires, so that every time you see her on screen (most recently alongside David Tennant and Aidan Turner in Rivals), you giddily exclaim, “Oh, it’s that Homefires actress!” Get ready: She’s back as Susan’s sister.
Harry Lloyd: Harry Lloyd may be most famous for his work on Game of Thrones (or for being Charles Dickens’ great-great-great grandson), but if you ever saw MASTERPIECE’s 2011 Great Expectations, his Herbert Pocket will still own part of your heart.
As with Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, we are treated to a number of dual characters/roles. And be on the lookout: Some of these actors get to play a very tiny* third role!
(*More than just an adjective, “tiny” is a clue to an utterly pleasing, slightly bonkers sequence in the series!)
Location, Location
While Susan is jetting around London in her vintage red MG and her chic leather jacket, the 1955 cohort on the island of Corfu is either conniving or sleuthing against the pure azure backdrop of the Ionian sea—think ouzo and coffee and fresh seafood…and murder!
There’s another location sure to captivate viewers, and that is Pünd’s world itself. The world of the book is slightly heightened, ever so faintly off-kilter, or in Tim McMullan’s words, “slightly unhinged.” This makes the humor even more fun, the emotional moments even more powerful, and all of it pure pleasure.
