A book within a book with murders galore: classically intriguing and challenging
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SUMMARY
Coverleaf Books Editor, Susan Ryeland has just received and is reading the draft manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel. She has worked with the best selling crime writer for years, and is intimately familiar with his detective Atticus Pünd. Conway’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful for Cloverleaf Books over the years. This newest tale set in 1955, has Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Two people are found dead in the manor house over the course of a week and there are a host of suspects. To many suspects, Pünd would say. But the more Susan reads, the more she is convinced that there is another story hidden in the manuscript. Especially when she finds the final chapters of the draft are missing. On top of that, Conway himself, is found dead outside his home right after Susan finishes reading the manuscript. Suicide is suspected, but Susan is not so sure. She decides to play amateur detective to find the missing chapters and perhaps even uncover who might have had a big enough grievance with Conway to want him dead.
“As far as I'm concerned, you can't beat a good whodunnit: the twists and turns, the clues and the red herrings and then, finally, the satisfaction of having everything explained to you in a way that makes you kick yourself because you hadn't seen it from the start.”
REVIEW
This quote is the perfect description of this whodunnit. MAGPIE MURDERS is a fast paced and intriguing read that will keep you interested the whole way through. Anyone with an addiction to classic crime novels will truly appreciate this challenging multi-leveled mystery. The various settings, London, Saxyby-on-Avon and Framlington are picture perfect.
Every character in the book, actually both books; has either a story to tell or a secret to hide, sometimes both. Susan’s character is well-drawn and drives the narrative. Also included are all the characters classic whodunnit fans know and love, an astute detective, his devoted sidekick, a meddlesome busybody, a land-owning aristocrat and a peculiar church minister. What makes MAGPIE MURDERS different is the way ANTHONY HOROWITZ has creatively interwoven the two stories and the characters and perhaps even weaving some of his own childhood into the story.
Anyone who likes Agatha Christie would liked Horowitz’s story. He is an English novelist and screenwriter specializing in mystery and suspense who says he has been writing since the age of eight and professionally since the age of 20. He has written over 40 books.
Publisher HarperAudio
Published June 6, 2017
Narrator Samantha Bond, Allan Corduner
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com
“Rumours and malicious gossip are like bindweed. They cannot be cut back, even with the sword of truth. I can, however, offer you this comfort. Given time, they will wither and die of their own volition.”
“You must know that feeling when it's raining outside and the heating's on and you lose yourself, utterly, in a book. You read and you read and you feel the pages slipping through your fingers until suddenly there are fewer in your right hand than there are in your left and you want to slow down but you still hurtle on towards a conclusion you can hardly bear to discover.”