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izzymgut 's review for:
Magpie Murders
by Anthony Horowitz
I thought it was very interesting to have a mystery within a mystery where the book manuscript somewhat reflected the “real life” of the author within the book.
The story of Atticus Pündt was engaging, the setting drawing the reader in as you grapple with all the crossed storylines on the characters in the town. Atticus was a very likable protagonist and the side characters had charm in a classic mystery kind of way. The overall mystery of Magpie Murders (in the book) did a good job of throwing the reader off the trail of the real murderer and resolved in an unpredictable way. That being said, the murder reveal left me feeling sad and I almost wish the overall driving force of the mystery was the Pye family rather than the Blakiston family. Robert’s revealed past kind of came out of nowhere, which normally works really well in a novel like this but I couldn’t help but feel like it was more of a borrowed trope. However, I did still enjoy the fact that I did not guess correctly who did it.
Now to the “real” present day storyline. At first, between the Magpie Murder’s characters and the real world characters, I had a hard time keeping them straight at first. It was intriguing to try and match up characters between the two narrative lines, particularly once it became more clear how the stories reflected each other. I have to say I enjoyed the “fictional” Magpie Murders character of the Atticus storyline more than the present day reflections. A lot of them felt flat and not as engaging. I liked Susan enough, but thought she was somewhat boring. Maybe it just felt like her character wasn’t quite as fleshed out. I don’t feel like we really knew her, and some of the details of her life meant to add depth felt flung together arbitrarily. I feel like we didn’t get as much time with her in the book, which may be why Atticus felt more familiar and known. My initial guess of Alan Conway’s murderer was correct, but I did find myself second guessing a lot. I like a mystery that isn’t quite so predictable so overall, I enjoyed this read and felt that it was paced quite nicely.
The story of Atticus Pündt was engaging, the setting drawing the reader in as you grapple with all the crossed storylines on the characters in the town. Atticus was a very likable protagonist and the side characters had charm in a classic mystery kind of way. The overall mystery of Magpie Murders (in the book) did a good job of throwing the reader off the trail of the real murderer and resolved in an unpredictable way. That being said, the murder reveal left me feeling sad and I almost wish the overall driving force of the mystery was the Pye family rather than the Blakiston family. Robert’s revealed past kind of came out of nowhere, which normally works really well in a novel like this but I couldn’t help but feel like it was more of a borrowed trope. However, I did still enjoy the fact that I did not guess correctly who did it.
Now to the “real” present day storyline. At first, between the Magpie Murder’s characters and the real world characters, I had a hard time keeping them straight at first. It was intriguing to try and match up characters between the two narrative lines, particularly once it became more clear how the stories reflected each other. I have to say I enjoyed the “fictional” Magpie Murders character of the Atticus storyline more than the present day reflections. A lot of them felt flat and not as engaging. I liked Susan enough, but thought she was somewhat boring. Maybe it just felt like her character wasn’t quite as fleshed out. I don’t feel like we really knew her, and some of the details of her life meant to add depth felt flung together arbitrarily. I feel like we didn’t get as much time with her in the book, which may be why Atticus felt more familiar and known. My initial guess of Alan Conway’s murderer was correct, but I did find myself second guessing a lot. I like a mystery that isn’t quite so predictable so overall, I enjoyed this read and felt that it was paced quite nicely.