Who Max Ryeland is
Max Ryeland is Susan and Katie’s father. His place in the television story brings a difficult family history into Susan’s present life. She can be decisive when editing a book or challenging a suspect, but contact with Max exposes feelings that cannot be organised as neatly as a plot.
Role in Magpie Murders
Katie’s news that their father has suffered a stroke forces Susan to confront a visit she would rather avoid. The hospital setting removes the distractions of her professional world. Their conversation concerns the damage of old choices and the presumptions a parent can continue to make about an adult child. Max’s role gives the investigation a personal background without making every painful family event a clue to Alan’s murder.
Key relationships
Susan Ryeland and Katie Williams are his daughters. Katie pushes for contact while Susan resists, reflecting different responses to the same family history. His screen counterpart is Sir Magnus Pye, played by the same actor, though the characters belong to separate worlds.
Played by Lorcan Cranitch
Lorcan Cranitch plays Max Ryeland. Cranitch also plays Sir Magnus Pye. The contrast lets the adaptation connect patriarchal authority across the two stories without making the two characters literally related.
Their story and fate — spoilers
The visit does not provide an easy reconciliation. Max links Susan’s unmarried life to his own conduct, assuming that he understands what it has meant for her. Susan rejects that interpretation. The scene matters because it allows her to question a story told about her, just as she questions the stories told by witnesses. Recognising the limits of Max’s account does not make the pain surrounding their mother disappear.
Books and television — book spoilers
Horowitz expanded Susan’s family history for the Magpie television adaptation. The father storyline gives the contemporary investigation an emotional counterpart to the damaged families in Conway’s manuscript. Cranitch’s casting as both Max and Magnus makes that echo visible, but it should not collapse the men into one biography. Max’s scenes concern Susan’s memories and present choices; Magnus’s death belongs to Pünd’s fictional case.
Read or listen to the book
Magpie Murders (2016)
Anthony Horowitz’s novel behind the first television mystery.
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Lorcan Cranitch plays both Max Ryeland and Sir Magnus Pye, connecting the two story worlds.