Magpie Murders
Ratings218
Average rating4
I thought that this was a pretty solid book. In many ways (without spoiling it) it was like a story within a story within a story. I think that the character development was mostly whole and there was a lot of growth throughout the novel. I've read a lot of “who-done-it” books and I had to say I didn't guess the end ahead of time. In many parts of the book, when they have an ending or who-did-it, they retrace their steps and remention things you've already read to piece the puzzle back together. I liked that a lot because it felt like I was having a conversation about the mystery with the book rather than me just trying to parce through it myself. Many elements in this novel are well written and subtle.... so pay attention when reading because everything truly does count in the end.
Magpie Murders is an elegant and well put together novel in a novel. It's both ingenious and very readable. It takes time to unravel it gives the reader two murders to think about.
The plot sees Susan Ryeland, Head of Fiction at Cloverleaf Books settling down to down to read. She's editing the final instalment in the Alan Conway's bestselling Atticus Pünd whodunit series. Set in 1955, Pünd investigates the "accidental" death of a housekeeper, Mary Blakiston. And the violent murder of Sir Magnus Pye that follows is surely no coincidence. The atmosphere of the village takes a dark turn. Suspicion abounds the renowned sluth delves into the secrets of the two deaths. It stops just before Conway's big reveal. We then jump back to Susan. Who finds herself investigating a murder mystery of her own. The Conway has thrown himself to his death. Not only that but the Pünd novel is missing its final chapter. As Susan searches for it she starts to think that Alan Conway was murdered. She also learns that Conway has been inventing his own in-jokes and clues in his novel plotting.
I enjoyed the mystery contained in the Pünd adventure more than the actual focus on the author's demise. It felt more coherent and avoided the repetitive exploration of Conway's literary aspirations. In short the second half dragged a little. But, all in all an excellent thriller. It is rich in detail, has strong characters and an engaging and suspenseful plot that is a back to basics Agatha Christie style novel.
A good read with a disappointing ending. Clever, yet disappointing. Was that all?
Book inception!!!
It's a book about a murder within a book about a murder, AND, the detective in the book-within-the-book is ALSO writing a book, so it's a book within a book within a book...
I enjoyed it just fine. I had never thought about this, but last month at book club – in which we were discussing The Kiss Quotient — we were talking about how some of us seek out romance when we want to read “fluff” and others seek out mystery, and well ... I tend toward romance. So I didn't suspect any of the actual killers, was surprised at the end of both storylines, and I thought the book inception was a cool device.
I'm counting this towards Read Harder: a cozy mystery.
Fun book, but just a bit too long. Could have had 100 pages trimmed. The dual plots reminded me of David Mitchell. I rarely read cozy mysteries, but I did appreciate how the author subverted many of the tropes of the genre.
For awhile I didn't think I liked this. I couldn't really get into it and was frankly, quite bored. But after the first part of the ficitonal Magipie Murders I found myself much more interested in the book finally. It was like every other cozy mystery I've read, but much more which is where it got interesting.
Well that was a lot of fun. A golden-age style murder mystery within a modern murder mystery, wordplay, interesting characters. What an entertaining book.
Murder mystery within a murder mystery–very clever. Didn't realize at first that the author also created Midsomer Murders (the British tv show), which I also like very much. Heh.
An excellent whodunnit within a whodunnit. For someone who has grown up on Christie, and Inspector Morse it was a pleasure to read a murder mystery set around the genre of Murder Mysteries. Horowitz is adept enough to switch styles within the book. So much so I will now be interested in reading his other books.
I love that we get two stories and one of them involve word games! That helped to lighten the mood because there are some dark things that happen. We definitely feel the two different settings and two different sets of characters. That is probably my favorite thing about the novel.