What happens

Susan Ryeland has exchanged publishing for the practical problems of a small hotel in Crete. Life with Andreas offers sunshine and a beautiful view, but neither pays the bills or repairs the kitchen. When Lawrence and Pauline Treherne arrive with a proposition, they appeal to the part of Susan that still thinks like an editor. Their daughter Cecily has disappeared after reading a novel Susan knows intimately: Alan Conway’s Atticus Pünd Takes the Case.

The Trehernes’ story takes Susan back to a wedding at their Suffolk hotel, Branlow Hall, and the death of an unwelcome guest. Conway later borrowed from those events, turning acquaintances into characters and a real tragedy into entertainment. In his fictional Devon village, retired film star Melissa James owns the Moonflower Hotel and finds herself surrounded by people who want something from her.

The opening question is wonderfully specific: what can a reader recognise in a detective novel that its editor has missed? Watch the two hotels as separate businesses, with different owners and different troubles. Their resemblance is a starting point for the puzzle, rather than permission to treat every character as an exact copy.

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Who’s in this episode

Susan Ryeland

Played by Lesley Manville. Susan must decide whether a return to England is duty, escape, or both.

Andreas Patakis

Played by Alexandros Logothetis. Andreas shares the hotel and Susan’s life in Crete, but approaches their problems differently.

Lawrence Treherne

Played by Adrian Rawlins. Lawrence brings the family’s account of the wedding and its terrible interruption.

Pauline Treherne

Played by Pooky Quesnel. Pauline wants Susan to find the meaning Cecily saw in Conway’s novel.

Frank Parris

Played by Mark Gatiss. Frank is the difficult guest at the centre of the older Branlow Hall mystery.

Melissa James

Played by Rosalie Craig. Melissa anchors the fictional story, where fame has not protected her from resentment.

Where it was filmed

Filming: Crete hosts Susan and Andreas’s hotel. Dublin locations supply the English settings.

Clues to watch for

The names Branlow and Barn Owl: Conway’s world rewards attention to how names are constructed.
Frank’s response when Aiden offers another room, including the familiarity of their conversation.
The difference between who possesses a room key and who is actually seen using one.
Which Treherne family members recognise themselves in the novel, and who seems to be missing.
Melissa’s hotel accounts and the competing demands made on her money and professional reputation.

Full recap (spoilers)

A wedding celebration is interrupted when a terrified maid arrives with blood on her hands. The story then returns to Susan and Andreas in Crete. Their hotel has unhappy guests, staffing difficulties and an increasingly disastrous kitchen. Susan is already looking towards her old working life when the Trehernes find her. They have not come for a holiday recommendation: they want her to investigate their daughter’s disappearance.

Lawrence describes the events eight years earlier. Frank Parris arrived from Australia and complained about his room at Branlow Hall. Although the wedding had filled the hotel, Aiden found him a better room in the Moonflower wing. The exchange placed the bridegroom in the awkward position of managing a demanding guest immediately before his own wedding. Later, a staff party allowed employees to celebrate before working at the reception the following day.

Frank was killed that night. His body remained undiscovered until the maid entered his room during the wedding festivities. Locke investigated and focused on Stefan Leonida, the maintenance worker whom Lisa had dismissed following accusations of theft. Stefan had a criminal record, access to the rooms and an apparent financial motive. Blood and money discovered in his room strengthened the case against him. He subsequently confessed and received a life sentence.

For the Trehernes, that should have closed the matter. But Conway visited their hotel and transformed its residents into the people in Atticus Pünd Takes the Case. Cecily recently read the book, called her father and said that it identified the real murderer. Someone interrupted her before she explained herself. Her disappearance followed. Her parents offer Susan £10,000 to spend a week at Branlow Hall, reread the novel and find what their daughter found.

The adaptation enters Conway’s story in 1954. Melissa James, whose acting career ended after an accident, has invested in the Moonflower Hotel. She challenges its managers, Lance and Maureen Gardner, over the business’s poor returns and proposes an audit. Producer Oscar Berlin wants her to commit to his film, while financial adviser Algernon Marsh faces her demand to withdraw an investment. These encounters establish a circle in which professional requests carry intensely personal consequences.

Algernon’s journey includes a hit-and-run, while his sister Samantha’s inheritance introduces another financial pressure. Melissa’s marriage is also strained. By the end of this opening movement she has been murdered, creating the fictional case that Susan must read alongside the Trehernes’ history. Back in Crete, Susan recognises her own connection: she encouraged Conway to see Frank’s death as material for a novel. Her decision to pursue Cecily’s disappearance therefore carries an uncomfortable sense of responsibility.

Book vs TV (book spoilers)

The novel calls the imprisoned maintenance worker Stefan Codrescu; television uses Stefan Leonida.
Susan’s conversations with the imagined Pünd are a television device, absent as dialogue from the novel.
Television intercuts the investigations; the novel contains a substantial, uninterrupted Pünd book.

The book handles this differently. Read or listen to Moonflower Murders.