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The Hook - This quote from a main character, Susan Reyland, sums up my love of a good mystery and says it all:

�� I’ve always loved whodunnits. I’ve not just edited them. I’ve read them for pleasure throughout my life, gorging on them actually. You must know that feeling when it’s raining outside and the heating’s on and you lose yourself, utterly, in a book. You read and you read and you feel the pages slipping through your fingers until suddenly there are fewer in your right hand than there are in your left and you want to slow down but you still hurtle on towards a conclusion you can hardly bear to discover. That is the particular power of the whodunnit which has, I think, a special place within the general panoply of literary fiction because, of all characters, the detective enjoys a particular, indeed a unique relationship with the reader. Whodunnits are all about truth: nothing more, nothing less. In a world full of uncertainties, is it not inherently satisfying to come to the last page with every i dotted and every t crossed? The stories mimic our experience in the world��

The Line(s) ”I hope I don’t need to spell it out any more. Unlike me, you have been warned. ��

The Sinker - This clever nod to The Age of Golden Mysteries is destined to win a few best mystery of the 2017 awards, it’s that good. Double the pleasure, double the fun, you get two for your money, a book within a book that provides lots to puzzle as you read both stories.

Magpie Murders, one of the mysteries is the 9th in a series by author Alan Conway. The series features the protagonist Atticus Pünd. Series characters often pay the bills yet many authors including the fictitious Conway have grown sick of their character and could easily kill him off if their fans would only let them. Like others before him Conway is joined at the hip to his character, the proverbial ball and chain. Conway has other stories he’d like to pursue if only. Even Christie grew tired of Poirot and called him

‘A detestable, bombastic, tiresome, egocentric little creep.��

This judgment fit Conway’s sentiments of Pünd perfectly.

Magpie Murders has got it all; murder, mayhem, red herrings, clues, codes, logistical solving, and a huge pool of suspects to choose from.

Anthony Horowitz has a field day with his audience paying homage to many famous writers in the mystery genre. Think Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.E. McNeile, Sayers, and Dickens and their characters, Poirot, Miss Marple, Sherlock, Drummond, Sir Peter Wimsy and Drood to name just a few.

I postponed reading the ending of Magpie Murders to see if I could put the pieces together. I was partly right and partly wrong to my delight.

If you love a good mystery, if you love a good story, if you love a good puzzle, don’t miss this one.