“Magpie Murders is a double puzzle for puzzle fans, who don’t often get the classicism they want from contemporary thrillers.” –Janet Maslin, The New York TimesNew York Times bestseller | Nominee for the Anthony Award for Best Novel | Nominee for the Barry Award for Best Novel | Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Novel | #1 Indie Next Pick | NPR best book of 2017 | Amazon best book of 2017 | … Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Novel | #1 Indie Next Pick | NPR best book of 2017 | Amazon best book of 2017 | Washington Post best book of 2017 | Esquire best book of 2017
From the New York Times bestselling author of Moriarty and Trigger Mortis, this fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller weaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie into a chilling, ingeniously original modern-day mystery.
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.
Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.
Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.
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This is a really clever twist on the whodunnit novel and I really enjoyed it.
It’s a sort of mystery within a mystery, nicely told from the POV of protagonist, publishing editor, Susan Ryeland, who reads “best selling author” Alan Conway’s latest manuscript featuring his famous detective Atticus Pund, and realises she may have stumbled upon the evidence of a real murder.
You get two-for-the-price-of-one with Magpie Murders, as it has all the hallmarks of a traditional Poirot-style whodunnit from 1955, and yet is also set in the present day.
We initially meet Susan as she takes home the manuscript to read over the weekend. We settle down to read what Susan reads and it soon becomes clear that something doesn’t quite add up, that there is a parallel mystery underpinning that which is revealed in the “novel”. Having a long experience of editing murder-mysteries, Susan is convinced she can unravel the truth, totally unaware of the consequences of her actions.
A really good read, and an unusual take on the genre.
Many books have been compared to those of Agatha Christie. I’ve read many of them. But none of them have lived up to it nearly as much as Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. With Christie’s signature murder-in-an-English village, lots of characters – all with a motive, most with an alibi – this one kept me guessing until the very end. And, as a bonus, it’s a story-within-a-story. So it was really two mysteries, skillfully intertwined, and leaving me eager to read its sequel.
This is book my mystery book club is reading this month. Have been wanting to read this book for a while and was so happy it was chosen and I have not been disappointed. It is a story within a story. It truly is. The whole second story is in the book and that story relates to the main story of the book. Very good Who Done It.
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.
Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.
MAGPIE MURDERS is an incredibly clever homage to Agatha Christie-style mysteries while, at the same time, working as truly contemporary whodunit while also skillfully deconstructing, and ruminating upon, the genre. If that sounds like a magic trick, it is. Pure briliance.
I love it when I experience a really clever piece of writing. That is why I am such a fan of Georgette Heyer’s THE MASQUERADERS, John Grisham’s THE RUNAWAY JURY and Agatha Christie’s THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD.
And here (courtesy of my sister) I recently experienced another book that I absolutely loved for its cleverness. For MAGPIE MURDERS is not your ordinary detective murder mystery set in Britain in the 1950s (a nod to Agatha Christie), but it is also a meta-analysis of such detective fiction set in the frame of present-day London.
The frame (naturally) opens the novel. Susan Ryeland, an editor at Clover Books, has to spend her weekend reading the manuscript of a new whodunnit by star author Alan Conway. There is nothing to tell her that this manuscript will change her life. After meeting Susan and her surroundings, the novel plunges into Conway’s manuscript so convincingly that I actually forgot that it was a manuscript!
The manuscript was enjoyable enough, but the real cleverness comes when we are pulled back into the frame, about half-way through the book, and taken into a whole new set of issues that begin with the news that Alan Conway has suddenly died.
I will not say more, so as not to spoil it for people who have yet to read this gem. But I cannot say enough good things about it. Five stars. #anthonyhorowitz #magpiemurders
I’m about a 1/3 into this book & can’t wait to get back to it! It’s kind of Agatha Christie with a dash of Midsomer Murders. I recommend it! Now, I’m back to it & there is an unexpected twist—
This was a delight to read – a fresh take on the classic whodunnit. Kept me up at nights, promising myself just one more chapter. Highly recommended.
Great who-done-it book. Different character’s lives and stories come together. Great sleuthing by a Sherlock Holmes type detective. If you like mysteries you will enjoy this book.
Great twists with a book within a book. I love his writing.
Well, what fun this book is! A mystery within a mystery, with affectionate tributes and gentle parody of the tropes of the genre and of the publishing industry. Very meta, but playfully so, and a memorable read for anyone who enjoys mystery stories from the Golden Age of Crimewriting. Don’t be put off by its length, by the way, which is about twice as long as the norm for this genre – you’re actually getting two books in one, very cleverly combined to make a whole larger than the sum of the parts. Highly recommended.
Loved the mystery within a mystery to shake up this genre. Riveting!
The mystery (actually mysteries) were very good. He kept you guessing to the end a la Agatha Christie.
Fantastic, different than any other book I have read in a long time
I was a little disappointed in this book, as I actually thought it was a book about the book that was incorporated into the story. But, overall, it was a passable read. It didn’t make me want to read anything else by the author, and I’m always looking for a new voice to excite me. But, I think many people would enjoy the twists and plot turns. I found some of it a little hard to accept, but then again, it’s fiction.
Most unusual “mystery” I’ve ever read–until the next Horowitz book, of course.
The first book I’ve read by an author who created some of my favorite tv – Foyle’s War. Did not disappoint; super clever.
Not sure what went wrong but the ending had me disappointed.
I love love love Anthony Horowitz, and this mystery is a prime reason why. Horowitz constructs a wonderful novel-within-a-novel framework: one novel set in 1950s Saxby-on-Avon, the other in modern-day London where a reading of an old the manuscript leads her to suspect that a certain death may not have been accidental.
A book within a book. Mayhem. Murder. Puzzles and allusions. I had so much fun reading this book!