Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is a fantastic novel. Horowitz structures his book so that there’s a novel within a novel. Which means… a bonus murder to solve! It’s absolutely brilliant and will keep you guessing until the end.
THE PLOT WITHIN A PLOT
Susan Ryeland is an editor at a small publishing firm. One evening, Susan settles in with her star author’s latest manuscript, Magpie Murders. Alan Conway’s novels have kept Susan’s publishing firm afloat for many years with his blockbuster Atticus Pund series. They are set in the 1950’s and very similar to Agatha Christie’s style of whodunnit.
Though, the manuscript is missing the final chapter, which is odd… The next morning, it comes to Susan’s attention that Alan Conway is dead. It appears to be a suicide but Susan isn’t totally convinced. Susan becomes a real life detective, she goes in search of the final chapter of Magpie Murders — because of course they need to publish the book! —and for answers — did someone murder Alan Conway. If so, who? And more importantly, why?
IF YOU HEART AGATHA
Through some clever anagrams, inside jokes, and parallels it turns out Alan Conway borrows / mirrors his books from notably famous authors. Mostly, from Ms. Christie. It was really fun reading Alan Conway’s latest novel, I don’t know about you, but Atticus Pund reminded me a thousand times over of Hercule Poirot, just with a different spin.
Horowitz gives us the pleasure of reading the manuscript of Magpie Murders in it’s entirety. Well, up until the last chapter. We have to wait until Susan finds the final chapter to finish up Magpie Murders. And it’s very satisfying! Because once Susan finds the final chapter (sorry if I spoiled that for you) we have our final answers on who, what, where, when, and why on Alan Conway’s death. Oh the beauty of it!
This is an incredibly smart novel. The way that Horowitz threads two mysteries into one is absolutely brilliant. If highly recommend reading Magpie Murders if you’re looking for your next murder mystery — because you get two for one!