“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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Horowitz at his best!
Horowitz gifts us with one of the great continental detectives in Atticus Pünd, a character from the Olde School, upon which tales upon tales might be woven into a luxurious tapestry ala Wimsey and Poirot. Forgive this blasphemer finding Pünd more fetching!
The plot is the thickest of English country cozies – if a bit more brutish – and though many will call it an homage of sorts to Aunt Agatha – I found it fresh.
I really enjoyed this book and thought it was well executed. The first half of the book is Magpie Murders. The second half of the book deals with the murder of the author of the Magpie Murders.
I will admit that I enjoyed the first half of the book better than the second half. I loved how the author examined the suspects for both mysteries from a readers point of view. I also loved how the “real-life” scenario mimicked the case inside Magpie Murders.
It all sounds a little confusing but comes together quite well in this somewhat lengthy book.
My only critique is that there is one section that I found completely unnecessary and that deals with the author stealing his book idea from a student at a writers clinic. Horowitz then gives excerpts from both pieces so the reader can examine the similarities to determine if the author stole the work of his student.
I loved all the anagrams and red herrings and references to other great mystery writers though! A fun read in my opinion!
What a good read. When an editor is given a manuscript to read, she finds a good mystery with dead bodies and a bunch of interesting suspects, but she also finds a real life mystery in the pages. It’s a page turner and I loved the double, book within a book, mystery.
I loved this book and was sorry to reach the end. The character Atticus Pund is brilliant, I’ll miss his honery, devilish, spitefully impish but loveable character!! It’s the only book I’ve ever read of it’s kind. You’re reading along trying to solve the mystery in your head and suddenly you realize a great masterful joke has been played on you by the storyteller who begins a different story that will lead to the finish of the original story. The conclusion to her own tale is truly masterfully entertwined with the first. A novel within a novel. This is a book for a lover of anagrams, word puzzles and wordplay. I loved it!!!
A who-done-it in the style of Agatha Christie.
Your enjoyment of this book will depend very much on your disposition towards crime novels. It’s clever, full of in-jokes and so meta, it could eat itself. Horowitz leads us into not one but two crime dramas, with all the sly cunning and knowing winks of a truly accomplished Master of Ceremonies.
Magpie Murders, the latest manuscript of the bestselling Atticus Punt series of crime novels, is waiting on editor Susan Ryeland’s desk. She takes it home and begins to read. With her, we become absorbed in the novel and forget the framing device. So that when the end is missing, we are as frustrated as she is, demanding to know what happens next.
Susan hunts for the missing chapters, but the author has committed suicide. Or has he? The whodunnit around a whodunnit creates an echo chamber of characters, clues, insights into the world of publishing, literature and the classic tropes of crime writing. Who better to investigate the crime scene than an editor of fiction with an eye for detail?
The pace is country house drama, the characters plentiful and the setting exactly as it should be, both in the contemporary tale and the post-war murder mystery. Puzzles, hints and vital information in the Punt novel are examined by Susan as the reader cannot help but do the same with Susan’s own situation. In this way, Horowitz includes the reader as a central character in this familiar-yet-fresh drama. After all, where would crime fiction be without its readers?
This was a fun summer read. It took me away from the constant blare of news and reality TV for a few hours every evening. I often read while on my porch glider with a glass of ice tea and a crispy oatmeal cookie.
I laugh every time I think about this book–it is incredibly clever. If you love the Golden Age mysteries, please don’t miss this loving, wry and more than slightly cynical take on writers, editors, and the publishing business .Oh, and murder.
Not bad — good for fans of classic British who-done-its. .
I first listened to this book, but now I want to read it. I know I missed nuances. If you are a mystery reader, you will love this!
Great central plot twist from a wonderful author. Complex plot line with lots of surprises.
A story within a story with interesting twists and turns, a delight for Agatha Christie fans. If you like the English countryside it is like a weekend away.
I’m currently reading, and loving, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz.
I really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed Moriarity and thought this book would be similar, but found this one difficult to read. The characters were not really interesting at all and I found myself feeling like it was a chore to keep reading. It took me forever to read the book and the murder mystery within the murder mystery thing didn’t work for me at all. I found the book clunky and annoying.
A mystery book within a mystery book, I loved the author’s innovative take on the mystery novel.
A murder mystery in a murder mystery. An author is killed and the last two chapters of his most recent novel are missing! His editor investigates which leads to her discovery of the missing chapters and the identity of the author’s murderer!
Very clever mystery within a mystery. Well written, with plenty of red herrings and misdirection. Deliciously referential and self-mocking. Wonderful cinematic handling of the episodic plot(s) development. Most satisfactory.
A good who-done-it. I did not like this book as much as I loved House of Silk and Moriarty, but it was very well done.
This was so much fun for a cozy reader and writer to read. I especially loved the book-within-a book and wish that I could read more books starring Atticus Pund.