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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
Tried reading this once before and I'm glad I stuck with it. The first 5-6 chapters are kind of a slog but once you get past that it picks up. Not sure how this could start a series, though? Also not sure if I want to find out.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fun read and good writing.
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
I enjoyed this one, however I think a lot of the cleverness was lost on me because I'm not well-versed in classic British whodunnits.
A murder mystery in the classic style set in a British village. A book within a book. A book about writers, art and their significance. I loved it. The audio performances were incredible as well.
This will not be the last Anthony Horowitz novel I read.
This will not be the last Anthony Horowitz novel I read.
I loved the story within the story of this book! The murder of a mystery writer that becomes obvious only after she (and you) read his last mystery novel. If you grew up reading Agatha Christie, this book is a must-read!
Wow! I loved this one. 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Magpie Murders was super unique and well thought out!
The writing and characterization was superb too.
Magpie Murders is a story within a story. I don’t want to say too much because it will ruin the surprise for you. The less you know going into this, the more you’ll enjoy this whodunnit!
This is the first book that I’ve read by Anthony Horowitz and I was impressed! I will definitely be reading more by him. Bravo Horowitz on a excellent and original idea for a mystery book!
Magpie Murders was super unique and well thought out!
The writing and characterization was superb too.
Magpie Murders is a story within a story. I don’t want to say too much because it will ruin the surprise for you. The less you know going into this, the more you’ll enjoy this whodunnit!
This is the first book that I’ve read by Anthony Horowitz and I was impressed! I will definitely be reading more by him. Bravo Horowitz on a excellent and original idea for a mystery book!
I found this book very frustrating. It was a book with a mystery manuscript within a mystery book. Magpie Murders by Alan Conway I give five stars, but Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz I give 1 star. Crystal clear?
I loved the Agatha Christie style whodunit mystery within the Magpie Murders following the detective Atticus Pünd as he bandied about the English landscape rounding up the eccentric characters to find a murderer, then just as Pünd announces that he knows the identity of the murderer, we are thrust back into the contemporary mystery with one chapter to go in the manuscript.
At this point in the story, I just wanted to find out what Pünd was going to do or rather say next. I didn’t care about Susan or any of her contemporaries or their similarities to characters in the manuscript. I didn’t need to follow her through her amateur sleuthing because I watch HUGE Spoiler ahead
It took me about another hundred pages before I could even start to feel like I hadn’t just put down a mystery in the last chapter and picked up another less interesting draft of it in its stead. By the time I got back to the missing chapter from the manuscript, the initial mystery had lost its momentum and I really wished that I had read an Agatha Christie novel instead.
This was an interesting concept but by limiting the first half of the book solely to the manuscript, I wasn’t given any time to invest in the contemporary characters in the rest of the book and I just didn’t care when it switched over to the contemporary story. In my opinion the book lost its pace in the switch and never got its groove back.
I loved the Agatha Christie style whodunit mystery within the Magpie Murders following the detective Atticus Pünd as he bandied about the English landscape rounding up the eccentric characters to find a murderer, then just as Pünd announces that he knows the identity of the murderer, we are thrust back into the contemporary mystery with one chapter to go in the manuscript.
At this point in the story, I just wanted to find out what Pünd was going to do or rather say next. I didn’t care about Susan or any of her contemporaries or their similarities to characters in the manuscript. I didn’t need to follow her through her amateur sleuthing because I watch HUGE Spoiler ahead
Spoiler
Younger. If you watch Younger then you are familiar with a publisher by the name of Charles. And I guarantee you that if Edward L. L. Moore, the sole author responsible for Empirical Publishing keeping its doors open and paying the salary of all of its employees, was to fall or be pushed off a tower/balcony/whatever to his death, then Charles would be the first person falling all over himself to find the missing last chapters of his last installment of COK. The fact that this “Charles” was NOT and in fact discouraging the editor to follow up on it, gave him away before Alan was even cold in the ground.It took me about another hundred pages before I could even start to feel like I hadn’t just put down a mystery in the last chapter and picked up another less interesting draft of it in its stead. By the time I got back to the missing chapter from the manuscript, the initial mystery had lost its momentum and I really wished that I had read an Agatha Christie novel instead.
This was an interesting concept but by limiting the first half of the book solely to the manuscript, I wasn’t given any time to invest in the contemporary characters in the rest of the book and I just didn’t care when it switched over to the contemporary story. In my opinion the book lost its pace in the switch and never got its groove back.
So, this was OK - I wasn't bowled over. It does take a certain amount of talent to write an intentionally bad book, and I just couldn't tell whether the book-within-a-book was intended as a parody of the genre or only indicated the author's limitations.