Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

4 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Full disclosure, I am not normally a fan of murder mystery, and I picked this one up as a book club read. I tend to like a bit of Midsomer Murders and have often quipped that most episodes of the show have an Autistic character somewhere in there, but this is the first time I have ever heard a little-Britain story that explicitly says that the weird loner is Autistic.

This story is meta as füc# .. the main character is an Editor who is reading the last work of a murder mystery writer. The author of the work she wishes to publish, dies with unfinished business but appears to have ended his own life.. or has he? Or is a murder mystery fan just taking off on flights of fancy and imagining herself a sleuth.

As a book reviewer.. this book is really strange to read. Every point that I recognise in story construction is explained by the main character as she tries to assess the work she is reading; it feels really weird to look at a story and think "ah it could be this person, but that wouldn't be a satisfying conclusion, and this person is an OBvious choice and so therefore will HAVE to be a red herring.. " only to then have those ideas explicitly expounded upon by the narrator of the story. How can your review a book that it reviewing itself?!

Events in the unpublished fiction, tend to echo events that are unfolding in the story of the Editor, and  it starts to get blurry in places and you wonder how much of what is going on is conspiracy, how much is causal, and how much is coincidental.

Amongst this stuff, conversations in the "real world" (of the book) feel like self-criticisms of the genre as a whole, and of the book itself. I can't help but feel THIS book is just trying to be clever, but it leaves me holding a handful of messy hints that the author of THIS book, feels like writing murder mysteries is a practice of making a product that sells well, rather than being good literature.

I did like the Disability narratives in the book. There is a person who is considered despicable for thinking of Down Syndrome as a disease, a person who has to deal with vision loss (and Audiobooks), and several characters with terminal illnesses.

It was kind of fun, but I was listening at 125% speed, which probably says a lot about the drawn out pace of the book and my desire to get it finished rather than actually enjoying the content. For that, I did have a couple of YUSS! moments where I had predicted things accurately or big reveals that felt fairly rewarding. Maybe if you like these sorts of books more you would get more out of it. It does feel quite like a Midsomer Murders story, with word puzzles in it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Cancer, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Ableism, Child death, Chronic illness, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Violence, Animal death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Stalking

Minor: Pedophilia and Cursing

purplepenning's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Infidelity, Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Suicide, Blood, Bullying, and Death

navayiota's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved the way this was written, a book within a book, two mysteries, and two clever solutions. Always happy to read a murder mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Suicide, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Child death

Moderate: Dementia, Pedophilia, Abandonment, and Alcohol

beatriks's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Excellent whodunnit and I also liked the surroundimg Story of Susan Rusland.
I would have given a little bit more intro in the beginning, but overall, it was quite a pleasant read.
The fictional interview of Anthony Horowitz with Alan Conway was a real treat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Alcohol, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship