Who Matthew Flynn is
Matthew Flynn is the publisher who offers Susan Ryeland work on a new Atticus Pünd novel. The project would continue the detective after Alan Conway’s death, with Eliot Crace supplying the manuscript and Susan providing the editorial experience. It is a tempting return to familiar professional territory at an uncertain point in her life.
Role in Marble Hall Murders
Matthew frames the assignment as a writer needing guidance and careful handling. Susan’s knowledge of the earlier books makes her valuable, but the job carries complications that extend beyond whether Eliot can reproduce Pünd’s voice. Publishing here is a business of relationships and rights as well as sentences. The person commissioning a book may have objectives that are not visible on its first page.
Key relationships
Susan Ryeland is the editor he recruits; Eliot Crace is the continuation author. Miriam Crace and the estate attached to her books give the project a wider commercial context. Atticus Pünd is the literary property whose established identity Susan is expected to help preserve.
Played by Jorden Myrie
Jorden Myrie plays Matthew Flynn. Myrie plays the publisher with a practical awareness of what a difficult project requires. His scenes are useful reminders that the manuscript enters Susan’s life through a job offer, with obligations and interests attached.
Their story and fate — spoilers
Matthew admits that his interests include a new Tiny People book and that Susan’s appointment was intended to help manage Eliot. The disclosure changes her understanding of the commission. What seemed like a straightforward opportunity to edit has also placed her between an unstable author and people with other publishing ambitions. Matthew’s commercial manoeuvring is separate from Frederick’s responsibility for the murders.
Books and television — book spoilers
Matthew has no separate period counterpart in the principal television cast. His role is to enable the book whose characters carry the more conspicuous doubles. The continuation premise also changes Susan’s relationship with authorship: she is protecting a detective created by Alan while questioning a new writer’s use of that detective to settle family grievances. The screen’s intercutting makes the consequences of that publishing decision immediately visible.
Read or listen to the book
Marble Hall Murders (2025)
Anthony Horowitz’s novel behind the third television mystery.
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