“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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Mind blown, just….WOW.
Anthony Horowitz has utterly dazzled me once again. This book is so unique and so clever that I really don’t want to say much except that it is a story wrapped in a story, I’ve never read anything quite like it and this one is not to be missed.
I listened to this as I chopped, peeled and stirred getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow and it was very well done.
Thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Very well written. It is a clever whodunit in the style of Agatha Christie.
Such fun to read a cozy murder mystery within a cozy murder mystery. Both stories were enjoyable and kept me guessing. What a wonderful tribute to Agatha Christie and her genre.
It’s like a “whodunit” within a “whodunit”… Just when you think you know “who” there’s a twist. Once you get familiar with the characters, it’s hard to put down. I had to keep going backwards in the book to check on hidden clues I may have missed because I was reading too fast!
Magpie Murders is riveting, well written and cunning. It made my head spin (in a good way!) trying to keep up with all the clues to the different mysteries. A very clever (and I mean clever) whodunnit with lots of Easter eggs for those who love classic British crime novels.
Almost two books in one. A strange and entertaining take on crime mystery
Loads of fun
The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
June 2017 Harper Collins
Fiction
Originally published in Great Britain 2016 by Orion Publishing Group
It’s been described as a Golden Age of Mystery.
Although I am not usually a fan of “whodunnits”, I bravely decided to take on this book. I must admit that I lack patience with these carefully structured novels. I was amused when researching the origins of the Golden Age of Mystery Novels.
I referred to the following 1929 rules according to Ronald Knox’s “Ten Commandments” (or “Decalogue”) of a detective story:
-The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.
-All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
-Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
-No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
-No Chinaman must figure in the story.
-No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
-The detective himself must not commit the crime.
-The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover.
-The “sidekick” of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind: his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
-Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.
A similar but more detailed list of prerequisites was prepared by S. S. Van Dine in an article entitled “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories” which appeared in The American Magazine in September 1928. They are commonly referred to as Van Dine’s Commandments.
Overall, I found this story to be clever, witty and suspenseful. The beginning was rather surreal as an editor begins explaining how she is proofing this copy of Magpie Murders which eventually becomes the “outside” story of the “inside” story. This is not a spoiler as it helped me to make sense of the book when I started reading it.
The “inside” story happens to be the Magpie Murders which unfolds with a grand cast of characters. Drama and mystery are revealed slowly and methodically as suspicions arise with the untimely deaths of major characters. It seems that everyone has motive in small towns where people are all so close in proximity.
Although this is not my preferred genre, I enjoyed this book and was very involved with trying to decipher the mysteries that were spinning around!
If you love a good mystery this book is for you!
Eh – too much story in a story, and the ending was quite disappointing, too.
This book was a book club pick, and I really wasn’t sure about it. However, once I picked it up and began to read, it had me hooked from the very beginning! A classic mystery and a current crime novel. It was so intriguing, I could not put it down! When the editor gets to the end of the novel, and the last chapter was missing, I was really afraid I would never get my answer! Then we moved into the investigator role, searching for the answers to both mysteries put before us. I could not put it down and I did not have either mystery figured out! The characters were all so complex. You liked then and disliked them all at the same time.
This was my first novel by Anthony Horowitz but it will definitely not be my last. The layering of characters and endless twists and turns was just brilliant!
Since I enjoyed The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz so much, I had to take a run at Magpie Murders, another of his books that is a book within a book. (If you read it, you’ll get what I mean). A book editor becomes embroiled in the suspicious death of her author-client, and the last book he was writing becomes the object of a quest when the last few chapters come up missing. I love the clever way that Horowitz has structured his books. He’s a writer for Midsomer Murders, which is one of my favorite BBC shows. That said, there is quite a bit of tell rather than show and repetition. His editor could have taken some time with that blue pencil and tightened up the manuscript a bit. I still had to stay in the English countryside with these characters and find out who dunnit. You probably will, too.
Such a fun book to read! I like young protagonists (I taught middle school English for years). However, the plot is not juvenile, just original and mysterious.
Expertly written homage to the classic detective story. Horowitz weaves a modern narrative through a fictional book written by the alleged murder victim. Fans of the modern thriller as well as those who prefer a classic mystery will find much to like about this book.
Interesting, but not quite worth all the hype.
It’s a classic cozy murder mystery and a sendup of the cozy industry, all rolled into one entertaining package.
A great read.
It was a story within a story that made me not put it down!
Really enjoyed the format …different!
Not quite like anything else I have read. Fascinating premise, unpredictable.
A mystery within a mystery