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thatbookishgem 's review for:
Magpie Murders
by Anthony Horowitz
This book is the perfect homage to the Golden Age of Whodunit Crime. With a pleasing nod to Agatha Christie’s Poirot, the story is essentially a novel within a novel. It starts with Susan Ryland, a forty-something book editor living in London, settling down to read the latest manuscript in the Atticus Pund series.
It then switches to the story she’s reading; a complex murder in a sleepy 1950s village where the wealthy landowner is murdered in suspicious circumstances and everyone living within 100 yards has a motive for his murder. Atticus Pund, a German refugee turned detective is investigating the murder, but he has a few secrets of his own. Unbeknownst to his assistant, James, Atticus is making this his final case – he has terminal cancer.
Just as Susan reaches a crucial stage in the unravelling detective story, she reaches the end only to find the final chapters missing. And the author, Alan Conway, has just been found dead from an apparent suicide. But in a case of life imitating art the circumstances surrounding Conway’s death are suspicious, with the unpopular author having a number of enemies all with motives for wanting him dead. So Susan herself becomes the detective, searching for the missing chapters and Conway’s murderer…
I absolutely adored this story from start to finish. It was superbly written and structured, the characters were so rich and well developed, and I loved the juxtaposition between the modern detective story and the Agatha Christie-esque manuscript. It both acted as tribute to the Queen of the Whodunnit whilst casting a modern take on a very traditional format.
Full review available on my blog: https://thatbookishgem.com/2019/10/11/review-magpie-murders-by-anthony-horowitz/
It then switches to the story she’s reading; a complex murder in a sleepy 1950s village where the wealthy landowner is murdered in suspicious circumstances and everyone living within 100 yards has a motive for his murder. Atticus Pund, a German refugee turned detective is investigating the murder, but he has a few secrets of his own. Unbeknownst to his assistant, James, Atticus is making this his final case – he has terminal cancer.
Just as Susan reaches a crucial stage in the unravelling detective story, she reaches the end only to find the final chapters missing. And the author, Alan Conway, has just been found dead from an apparent suicide. But in a case of life imitating art the circumstances surrounding Conway’s death are suspicious, with the unpopular author having a number of enemies all with motives for wanting him dead. So Susan herself becomes the detective, searching for the missing chapters and Conway’s murderer…
I absolutely adored this story from start to finish. It was superbly written and structured, the characters were so rich and well developed, and I loved the juxtaposition between the modern detective story and the Agatha Christie-esque manuscript. It both acted as tribute to the Queen of the Whodunnit whilst casting a modern take on a very traditional format.
Full review available on my blog: https://thatbookishgem.com/2019/10/11/review-magpie-murders-by-anthony-horowitz/