Who Lawrence Treherne is
Lawrence Treherne owns Branlow Hall with his wife Pauline. Their daughter Cecily’s disappearance brings them to Susan Ryeland in Crete, hoping that the editor of a book Cecily had been reading can understand what she discovered. Lawrence’s appeal begins the contemporary investigation that drives Moonflower Murders.
Role in Moonflower Murders
The hotel is both a business and a family home. Lawrence must speak about an old murder on the property while worrying about his daughter, and those responsibilities do not always produce the same priorities. His account of the hotel’s employment practices also changes under questioning. Susan has to listen sympathetically without accepting that a parent’s distress makes every account complete.
Key relationships
Pauline Treherne is his wife; Cecily and Lisa Treherne are their daughters. Aiden MacNeil is his son-in-law. Susan Ryeland arrives at his invitation but gradually asks questions that the family finds less comfortable than the original request for help.
Played by Adrian Rawlins
Adrian Rawlins plays Lawrence Treherne. His paired role is Lance Gardner. The two hotel managers illustrate how Conway rearranges the people he interviews into a new hierarchy for his own mystery.
Their story and fate — spoilers
Lawrence describes employing former offenders, including Stefan, as giving people another chance. Liam’s account exposes a harsher side of the arrangement, involving low wages and vulnerability. The discovery makes the family’s benevolent self-image harder to accept. Lawrence is not the killer, but Susan’s solution exposes Aiden and the wrongful conviction of Stefan, bringing consequences directly into his household.
Books and television — book spoilers
Rawlins also plays Lance Gardner, who manages The Moonflower in Conway’s novel. Both men help run a hotel, but the fictional counterpart is not an exact transcription. Television makes the resemblance visible and lets the audience compare how each responds to questions about money and management. That structural echo is useful without turning every fault in Lance’s conduct into a fact about Lawrence.
Role in the story
Lawrence brings Susan a question that conventional police work has not answered: what did Cecily discover by reading a novel? His journey with Pauline to Crete connects a family emergency with Susan's professional knowledge. She understands Conway's writing and had encouraged him to use the earlier murder as material, which gives the request a particular claim on her attention.
Once she reaches Branlow Hall, Lawrence is also her guide to the place and its history. He can explain the rooms, family arrangements and old investigation, but his role as owner means he is not simply an observer. Susan's task becomes harder when sympathetic parental concern sits alongside information that reflects less well on the way the business operates. Trust and careful questioning have to coexist.
Key scenes by episode
Follow the linked episodes as you watch. Open the scene notes when you want more detail.
Episode scenes (full spoilers)
Episode 1: Lawrence and Pauline ask Susan to investigate Cecily’s disappearance. His account of Frank’s stay introduces the wedding, the murder and Stefan’s conviction, supplying the history Susan will have to examine for herself.
Episode 2: Lawrence shows Susan the room where Frank died, now used for storage. After Lisa’s difficult lunch, he explains the childhood incident behind her scar. The tour and conversation introduce both the building and the family tensions within it.
Episode 5: Under questioning, Lawrence identifies Liam as another employee recruited through his scheme for former offenders. Liam’s account of low pay and exploitation challenges the benevolent description of giving people a second chance.
Episode 6: Susan’s explanation brings the crime into Lawrence’s immediate family by exposing Aiden. Stefan’s wrongful conviction is no longer a closed episode in the hotel’s past. The resolution also changes the account of Cecily’s relationships and Roxana’s parentage.
In the book
Book and screen comparison (book spoilers)
Lance Gardner, the manager of The Moonflower in Conway's manuscript, is Lawrence's counterpart. Adrian Rawlins plays both men. Their shared connection with hotel management lets the adaptation move quickly between corresponding social positions, but Conway has rearranged the people he met. Lance's conduct should be understood within his own plot before it is compared with Lawrence's. The connection also invites a comparison between the hotels themselves. Both are businesses where personal relationships affect the work, and where the person in charge cannot explain every employee's experience simply by describing the intended arrangements.
What to notice on a rewatch (spoilers)
A useful second-viewing question is who gets to describe the hotel's employment arrangements. Lawrence begins with the owner's account; Liam and Stefan bring experiences from the other side of that relationship. Listening to the accounts in sequence explains why Susan cannot finish her investigation using only the welcome she receives from the family who hired her.
Sources (checked 19 October 2026): PBS: Moonflower Murders cast and characters, PBS: Moonflower Murders, episode 1, PBS: Moonflower Murders, episode 3, PBS: Moonflower Murders, episode 5, PBS: Moonflower Murders, episode 6
Read or listen to the book
Moonflower Murders (2020)
Anthony Horowitz’s novel behind the second television mystery.
Waterstones · print Audible · audiobookPaid links may earn commission, at no extra cost.
Adrian Rawlins plays both Lawrence Treherne and Lance Gardner, connecting the two story worlds.