First-look image has been released from Moonflower Murders, an upcoming drama based on the best-selling novel by Anthony Horowitz, CBE, with further cast members also announced today.

The six-part series is written by Horowitz, directed by Rebecca Gatward (Bad Sisters), series produced by Suzanne McAuley (Magpie Murders) and executive produced by Jill Green, Eleventh Hour Films. Moonflower Murders is a sequel to the acclaimed Magpie Murders which launched on BBC One and BBC iPlayer earlier this year to 6.4 million viewers.

Returning in the lead roles they originated in Magpie Murders, are Academy Award-nominee Lesley Manville (The Crown, Phantom Thread, Mum) as book editor turned sleuth Susan Ryeland and Timothy McMullan (Patrick Melrose, The Crown) as famous literary detective Atticus Pünd.

Alongside Manville and McMullan, returning members of the Magpie Murders cast include Alexandros Logothetis (The Island, Exelixi) as Andreas, Daniel Mays (Des, The Long Shadow) as Locke/Chubb, Claire Rushbrook (Sherwood, Wilderness) as Kate, Conleth Hill (The Power of Parker, Game of Thrones) as Alan Conway, Matthew Beard (Vienna Blood, Dracula) as James, and Sanjeev Kohli (River City, Dog Squad) as Sajid Khan.

New cast members include Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Nolly) as Parris/Berlin, Rosalie Craig (Anatomy of A Scandal, The Queen’s Gambit) as Lisa/Melissa, Pippa Bennett-Warner (A Bit of Light, Gangs of London) as Madeline and Adrian Rawlins (Slow Horses, Living) as Lawrence/Lance.

Lesley Manville says: “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.”

Anthony Horowitz says: “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.”

Sue Deeks, Head of Programme Acquisition for the BBC, says: “‘Moonflower Murders is a gloriously entertaining, inventive and original ‘mystery within a mystery within a disappearance’ – it is simply irresistible.”

Moonflower Murders is the second novel in Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland series. Published in 2020, it was lauded as “a richly plotted, head-spinning novel” by the New York Times and picks up where Magpie Murders left off.

Susan has left publishing and is living in Crete with her long-time boyfriend, Andreas. But her idyll is disturbed by the shadow of a murder committed at a British country hotel eight years ago. Alan Conway visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there. Cecily Treherne, the young woman who helps run the hotel, read the book and believed the wrong man had been arrested. Now she has disappeared.

Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it is too late?

Filming on Moonflower Murders took place in Dublin and Crete. Moonflower Murders will be available to stream in the US on PBS.org, the PBS App and the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel. In the UK, the series will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Moonflower Murders is a co-Production of Eleventh Hour Films for MASTERPIECE and BBC in association with Salt Films. It is distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Television and PBS Distribution in North America.

Magpie Murders is available to stream on iPlayer below.