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‘Moonflower Murders’: First Images Sees Lesley Manville on a New Case!! Check It Out!!

After solving the murder of fictional writer Alan Conway in last year’s Magpie Murders for Masterpiece, the always-excellent Academy Award nominee Lesley Manville is one step closer to getting back on the case as Susan Ryeland. Filming has officially wrapped on the sequel series, Moonflower Murders, and Masterpiece commemorated the moment with a set of photos that return Manville to the thick of a case with Conway’s legendary Hercule Poirot-like detective Atticus Pünd (Timothy McMullan). With the new images came the announcement of additional cast members joining Manville and McMullan in the series.

Moonflower Murders picks up in the aftermath of Magpie Murders – Susan has left the vicious world of publishing behind to enjoy life in Crete with her boyfriend, Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis). Her idyllic life is interrupted as another murder from eight years ago comes back to haunt a British country hotel, a case which coincidentally served as inspiration for an Atticus Pünd whodunnit after Conway spent some time there. A young woman named Cecily Treherne believes the book points to a different killer than the one arrested, though she disappears before she can make anything of it. In need of money, Susan accepts an offer to head back to London to solve the case and find Cecily before it’s too late.

Much like the first season, two narratives will unfold at once between Susan’s exploits in the real world and Pünd’s sleuthing in the novels. The two detectives are shown riding together in one image, presumably making for London where they can continue working as an unconventional crime-solving duo. Other shots showcase some of the new cast members sharing the screen with the investigators, including Mark Gatiss, Rosalie Craig, Pippa Bennett-Warner, and Adrian Rawlins. Manville and McMullan won’t be the only returning cast for Moonflower Murders though, as Logothetis, Daniel Mays, Claire Rushbrook, Conleth Hill, Matthew Beard, and Sanjeev Kohli are all set to reprise their roles.

Anthony Horowitz’s ‘Moonflower Murders’ Has a “New Box of Tricks” for Fans

Moonflower Murders is adapted from the second novel in Anthony Horowitz‘s acclaimed Susan Ryeland mystery series and brings back much of the same team that helped the first to be a massive success. The Magpie Murders set records in terms of reviews for an Eleventh Hour Films production, and the company is once again teaming with Masterpiece to guide the franchise to another hit. Manville was quite pleased with what Horowitz has in store for her editor-turned-detective in the follow-up, saying, “I had an incredible time returning to the role of the smart and feisty Susan Ryeland. Anthony Horowitz has written another ingenious adaptation and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”

The author, meanwhile, promised plenty of new twists and turns that should keep even fans of the original Masterpiece series guessing:

“I’ve been watching the filming of Moonflower Murders with joy. We’re back with the same cast, including Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan and Danny Mays – but this time we’ve got a whole new box of tricks to present as literary editor Susan Ryeland untangles another book within a book and another series of unfathomable murders. I can’t wait to show it to our audience.”

There is no premiere date yet for Moonflower Murders. Stay tuned here at Collider for more information on the sequel series. In the meantime, check out our review of the first series, Magpie Murders, here and get your first look at Manville‘s return above.

 

via Collider

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