Magpie Murders
A Novel
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4.1 • 134 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If your only complaint about murder mysteries is that they tend to contain just one puzzle, we have excellent news. Magpie Murders—the latest detective novel from Anthony Horowitz, best known for his wildly popular Alex Rider series—features two exceedingly clever plots, one buried within the other. Deliciously witty and urbane, this double-whodunit vibrates with emotional (and criminal) intelligence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Horowitz (The House of Silk) provides a treat for fans of golden age mysteries with this tour de force that both honors and pokes fun at the genre. In the prologue, an unnamed editor sets the tone by describing how reading the manuscript of Magpie Murders, the ninth novel in a bestselling mystery series by Alan Conway, cost her her job and many friendships. In the text of the manuscript itself (which is accompanied by a bio of Conway and blurbs from real-life authors Ian Rankin and Robert Harris), Poirot-like sleuth Atticus P nd, a German concentration camp survivor who has settled in England, tackles an Agatha Christie like puzzle in 1955 Saxby-on-Avon. The verdict of accidental death seems warranted in the case of housekeeper and unrepentant busybody Mary Blakiston, who took a fatal fall down a flight of stairs at Pye Hall, since no one else was in the locked manor house at the time. But rumors that her estranged son wished Mary dead lead his fianc e to seek P nd's help. The identity of the person responsible for Mary's death is but one of the questions P nd must answer, and Horowitz throws in several wicked twists as the narrative builds to a highly satisfying explanation of the prologue.
Customer Reviews
Original and fun
I really enjoyed this old fashion whodunit. A novel within a novel, a mystery within a mystery, references to beloved fictional detectives, what's not to like?
Magpie Murders
A mystery within a mystery! A great read, hard to put down. A tossed salad of unique characters, cleaver clues, parallels woven through two winding paths. Fun!