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Bionic Jean's Reviews > Magpie Murders
Magpie Murders
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by
“Why is it that we have such a need for murder mystery, and what is it that attracts us—the crime or the solution? Do we have some primal need of bloodshed because our own lives are so safe, so comfortable?�
These are questions crime-fiction addicts may well ask themselves, although they are actually spoken by one of the characters in the novel Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. Nevertheless it is true: there’s something oddly appealing about an English cosy mystery. Whatever is happening in our own lives, we seem to enjoy “cosying up� and being entertained by reading about gruesome events such as brutal beheadings, blackmail, and multiple murders. Here’s the same character again, Susan Ryeland, who is the narrator of the wider novel:
“‘I don’t understand it. All these murders on TV—you’d think people would have better things to do with their time. Haven’t the public had enough of murder?�
‘You’re joking. Inspector Morse, Taggart, Lewis, Foyle’s War, Endeavour, A Touch of Frost, Luther, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Cracker, Broadchurch and even bloody Maigret and Wallander—British TV would disappear into a dot on the screen without murder.’�
But why “wider novel�. Surely this is a straightforward mystery novel—comfort reading—isn’t it?
On one level that is true. Anthony Horowitz writes with great aplomb, and this is an entertaining page turner on any level. But wait, there is a second title page, also for Magpie Murders, but in this case the author is cited as one “Alan Conway�. Following is a short piece about the author, mirroring that of Anthony Horowitz himself, and then a list of fictional books in “The Atticus Pünd series�. There is even a page of brief reviews, entitled “Praise for Atticus Pünd�, and attributed to genuine newspapers and big-name authors. These are all in printed in a different font. A return to the original font style signals a return to the real-life setting of contemporary London.
By now we understand the structure. It is to be the oldfashioned, but very enjoyable, device of a novel within a novel: a kind of Russian nesting doll structure. Two or three pages briefly set the modern scene with a narrator, at this stage unknown, before we are into the featured mystery novel.
The style of this inner Magpie Murders is oddly familiar. The naming of chapter one, “Sorrow�, rings a bell. Isn’t there a nursery rhyme begining “One for Sorrow, Two for Joy�? Flipping to the cover reveals a subheading: “Seven for a Secret that Needs to be Told�. Surely that isn’t quite how the rhyme goes � but nevertheless, this neat device has been established. Extremely neat in this case, as it is possible to tell how long the included novel is to be, by following the chapters and the rhyme to which they refer. This inner novel is to be almost exactly half the length of the outer one; a satisfying read in itself.
The vague association quickly becomes a clear recognition of style. Anthony Horowitz has imitated Agatha Christie perfectly. It is not merely a pastiche, but reads more like an homage. The action takes place in a sleepy English village in the 1940s. There is an unexpected death; and then another. We have a host of potential intriguing suspects, including a meddling busybody, a peculiar, rather twitchy vicar and a bluff, bombastic aristocrat. And they all have secrets to hide. We have a fussy and pedantic detective, Atticus Pünd who is not English. He is small and precise, with quirky mannerisms; an amateur sleuth who only ever investigates when the crime appeals to him. Yet Atticus Pünd has a very good reputuation for success. He has a rather dim sidekick named James Fraser.
What does this all remind you of? Yes, you’ve got it. “Atticus Pünd� is the German equivalent of Hercule Poirot, and the story reads exactly like one of Agatha Christie’s short bestsellers. Here is the narrator again:
“Alan had captured something of the ‘golden age� of British whodunnits with a country house setting, a complicated murder, a cast of suitable eccentric characters and a detective who arrived as an outsider. The book was set in 1946, just after the war and although he was light with the period detail, he had still managed to capture some of the feelings of that time. I liked his Germanic mannerisms, particularly his obssession with his book ‘The Landscape of Criminal Investigation�, which would become a regular feature. Setting the story in the forties also allowed for a gentler pace: no mobile phones, computers, forensics, no instant information.�
Susan Ryeland works in a publishing house, and is the long time editor of Alan Conway, who writes the Atticus Pünd books. She does not like the man, but he is her biggest earner, and this type of fiction is undoubtably what sells. Alan Conway’s latest tale is of a murder at Pye Hall, a large country estate. It is typical of his oeuvre:
“Pünd is only comfortable when he’s strolling on the village green or drinking in the local pub. Murders take place during cricket or croquet matches. The sun always shines. Given that he had named his house after a Sherlock Holmes short story, it’s possible that Alan was inspired by Holmes’s famous dictum: ‘The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside’�.
This scenario might also sound vaguely familiar to us, but it is nothing to do with either of the authors quoted. In fact Anthony Horowitz is gently poking fun at himself here, and it is a sign of what is to come. Double or even triple irony runs through this entire book.
For most of his career to date, Anthony Horowitz has been writing suspense stories in the style of the genre’s greatest writers. He has written two novels about Sherlock Holmes: “Mǰٲ� and “The House of Silk�, both sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate. He has also written a James Bond novel commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate. In addition to this he has an immense output of TV work, including screenplays for the “PǾdz� TV series. Anthony Horowitz created both the TV series, “Foyle’s War�, and the popular long-running detective series “Midsomer Murders�. (A character in Magpie Murders seems keen to point out that although the original author Caroline Graham wrote only seven actual novels about Midsomer, the TV series has run to over 160 episodes.)
The continual references to his own works could become tiresome, had they not been inserted so charmingly and wryly. There are just little nudges here and there, such as the suggestion that the title Magpie Murders would be “too similar to Midsomer Murders on TV�. It’s more like a running theme, where the reader is in on the joke. The name-dropping and inclusion of characters and authors—even Agatha Christie’s real-life grandson, Mathew Prichard, makes an appearance at one point—is actually quite endearing. We look for echoes as he pays plenty of homage to the greats—and cheekily includes his own oeuvre. This quirkiness, poking fun at his own egocentricity, is very English. Rather than making one suspicious of product placement techniques, the reader becomes involved in a game of “spot the reference�. Here is Susan Ryeland again, with specific detailed examples. (There are no spoilers here, by the way):
“Magpie Murders pays homage to Agatha Christie at least half a dozen times. For example, Sir Magnus Pye and his wife stay at the Hotel Genevieve at Cap Ferrat. There’s a villa in Murder on the Links that has he same name. The Blue Boar is the pub in Bristol where Robert Blakiston is involved in a fight. But it also appears in St. Mary Mead, home of Miss Marple. Lady Pye and Jack Dartford have lunch at Carlotta’s, which seems to have been named after the American actoress in Lord Edgeware Dies. There’s a joke, of sorts, on page 157. Fraser fails to notice a dead man on the three fifty train from Paddington, an obvious reference to the 4.50 from Paddington. Mary Blakiston lives in Sheppard’s Farm. Dr James Sheppard in the narrator of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is set in King’s Abbott, a village that is also mentioned on page 78, which is where old Dr Reynard is buried.�
A reader may pick all these up, and many more, or not. It adds to the mystery, and sometimes will elucidate, if part of a plot is remembered. I personally picked up a few, and found it immensely satisfying. For instance, I realised almost immediately, as mentioned, the deliberate use of a favourite device of Agatha Christie: using an old nursery rhyme to structure the book. She used this many times, for instance with “One, Two, Buckle my Shoe�, �5 little pigs�, �10 little Indians (And then there were none)�, “Hickory Dickory Dock�, and so on. Anthony Horowitz, through his author Alan Conway, has deliberately imitated this mechanism to great effect. I also personally very much enjoyed the very Englishness of the text, with genuine locations, places, institutions, events, personalities, name brands and popular culture familiar to me.
We follow Susan Ryeland as she digs into Alan Conway’s personal life. His real-life partner is James Taylor, who ruefully points out that he is “James Fraser�, the dim sidekick of Atticus Pünd in the series of novels. Together we spot Alan Conway’s own in-jokes in his novel: the included novel. With her help we spot the hidden anagrams, thematic character names and other more subtle rhetorical devices. Often, once we have seen them, they are blindingly obvious:
(view spoiler)
The fact that her best-selling writer was doing this made Susan Ryeland very uneasy. What made him do this, when nobody but he himself would know of it? And again, we have the familiar scenario of a best-selling writer who doesn’t care about the fame or the money, but wants to go down in history and be remembered for being “literary�. Many writers are reputed to have felt this. A.A. Milne grew to hate “Winnie the Pooh�, as did Richmal Crompton her roguish “William Brown�. Arthur Conan Doyle even tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes, but there was such a public outcry that he was famously forced to invent a story to bring everyone’s favourite sleuth back.
Anthony Horowitz is now 62, and lives in North London, in a converted warehouse which he shares with his wife—a television producer—and their two adult sons, who occupy apartments on separate floors. Is Anthony Horowitz, author of all those episodes “in the vein of� and the popular “Alex Rider� spy series for teenagers, revealing something of himself here; his own aspirations albeit this is his first mystery novel? Or is he once more being tongue-in-cheek, and self-deprecatingly teasing us yet again?
Sadly, “Alan Conway� did not seem to have the talent to be a literary phenomenon, as evidenced by a few chapters we also read. Magpie Murders is choc-a-block with little treats like this. There are a few chapters of another novel, a lengthy suicide note to analyse, and detective’s personal notes, presented much as Agatha Christie would write her expositions in the hand of Hercule Poirot. But what do we make of this “literary� novel; one which was to reveal his innermost thought and world view? Here is Susan Ryeland’s view:
“‘The Slide� was completely different from the entertaining Atticus Pünd series � It was almost like discovering that Enid Blyton had, in her spare time, turned to pornography. The style was painfully derivative � Conway was labouring for effect with every sentence, with every ugly metaphor.�
Contemporary readers are often fascinated by the world behind the author. We express a wish to learn about “what makes them tick�. Perhaps there is even sometimes a more shameful secret curiosity; a desire to find something slightly unsavoury—to reveal that our heroes have feet of clay. Perhaps then this too is a literary device, and no more.
And this? Is this true to life?:
“Why do English villages lend themselves so well to murder? � I soon discovered that every time I made one friend I made three enemies and that arguments about such issues as car parking, the church bells, dog waste and hanging flower baskets dominated daily life to such an extent that everyone was permanently at each other’s throats. That’s the truth of it. Emotions, which are quickly lost in the noise and chaos of the city, fester around the village square, driving people to psychosis and violence. It’s a gift to the whodunnit writer�.
It’s a trope, of course. This is what some city-dweller in a novel would think of simple country life. It invites us to eagerly agree, to be in the know and empathise. Do we? I’m not so sure, having experienced both ends of the spectrum. At the time of writing I am sitting in a caravan, in an adjacent county, only a few miles from one of these sleepy villages depicted in “Magpie Murders�. I must say I haven’t come across much festering hidden emotion, psychosis or violence. But it’s a nice idea—in fiction.
“It was that ‘my dear� that decided me. There was something quite repellent about the way he had addressed me. They were exactly the sort of words that Moriarty would have used. Or Flambeau. Or Carl Peterson. Or Arnold Zeck. And if it was true that detectives acted as moral beacons, why shouldn’t their light guide me now?�
You may be the sort of person who reads whodunnits primarily to guess the answer, and feel cheated if you don’t. Or maybe you feel irritated if it is too easy. There is ample opportunity to read Magpie Murders in that way, but it is more than that. For this book within a book, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz contains the entire text of a cosy mystery by a fictitious author, and also entitled �Magpie Murders. The two novels become increasingly mirrored. More and more the reader suspects that finding the guilty party in the book will lead to revelations about the case in real life. Embedded in the pages of Alan Conway’s book another story lies hidden, and as each layer is shed, this tale is revealed to be one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition and murder, relating to present day events.
(view spoiler)
Confused? You just wait! Although having said that, this book is very easy to read and understand. Anthony Horowitz said in an interview that he personally likes murder mysteries which are free of forensics, surveillance cameras and DNA:
“And having no mobile phones is wonderfully helpful; it slows the pace down, and you have more time for atmosphere and character.�
He even writes with a fountain pen for his first drafts. For Anthony Horowitz the most important thing is that the reader cannot guess the ending, but that every clue is present on the page. There are plenty of his teasing sprinklings of clues and red herrings here. Yet his writing is so skilful that at no point does the reader become confused as to what is actually happening, but only as to how it will fit into the final jigsaw puzzle.
Is this a book which defies the stereotype? Certainly. Does it subvert the genre? Is it meta-fiction? Probably. However you want to categorise it, it is a great entertaining read, and the puzzle is intriguing.
Perhaps in the end, the answer to the initial question posed by “Susan Ryeland� is that it is the puzzle which attract us. And in this way, Magpie Murders satisfies on every level. There is the familiarity of a “golden age� whodunnit, and also a modern murder mystery, with threads interweaving. Anthony Horowitz may not be a name you immediately recognise, but he is both prolific and clearly very knowledgeable about the golden age of detective fiction. This is a perfect blend of respect for, and expertise in, the genre, and a gleeful, sly poke of irreverent fun at it. If you enjoy classic mysteries, or retro thrillers, I think you will find this book irresistible.
“Arthur Conan Doyle, who invented Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective ever created, came to hate his character. The same was true for Fleming and Bond. And Hergé drew a picture of himself sweating at his desk, with Tintin standing with a whip behind him. I had similar feelings about Alex Rider. He is handsome and successful at 15, and I’m an aging writer in an attic in London.�
“I’ve always loved the genre, and I’ve written dozens of murder mysteries on TV but have resisted writing one as a book until now�
“A book does magic without saying, ‘Pick a card�. A whodunit is, at its best, a huge magic trick that says, “I’m going to tell you a story.�
�Anthony Horowitz
These are questions crime-fiction addicts may well ask themselves, although they are actually spoken by one of the characters in the novel Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. Nevertheless it is true: there’s something oddly appealing about an English cosy mystery. Whatever is happening in our own lives, we seem to enjoy “cosying up� and being entertained by reading about gruesome events such as brutal beheadings, blackmail, and multiple murders. Here’s the same character again, Susan Ryeland, who is the narrator of the wider novel:
“‘I don’t understand it. All these murders on TV—you’d think people would have better things to do with their time. Haven’t the public had enough of murder?�
‘You’re joking. Inspector Morse, Taggart, Lewis, Foyle’s War, Endeavour, A Touch of Frost, Luther, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Cracker, Broadchurch and even bloody Maigret and Wallander—British TV would disappear into a dot on the screen without murder.’�
But why “wider novel�. Surely this is a straightforward mystery novel—comfort reading—isn’t it?
On one level that is true. Anthony Horowitz writes with great aplomb, and this is an entertaining page turner on any level. But wait, there is a second title page, also for Magpie Murders, but in this case the author is cited as one “Alan Conway�. Following is a short piece about the author, mirroring that of Anthony Horowitz himself, and then a list of fictional books in “The Atticus Pünd series�. There is even a page of brief reviews, entitled “Praise for Atticus Pünd�, and attributed to genuine newspapers and big-name authors. These are all in printed in a different font. A return to the original font style signals a return to the real-life setting of contemporary London.
By now we understand the structure. It is to be the oldfashioned, but very enjoyable, device of a novel within a novel: a kind of Russian nesting doll structure. Two or three pages briefly set the modern scene with a narrator, at this stage unknown, before we are into the featured mystery novel.
The style of this inner Magpie Murders is oddly familiar. The naming of chapter one, “Sorrow�, rings a bell. Isn’t there a nursery rhyme begining “One for Sorrow, Two for Joy�? Flipping to the cover reveals a subheading: “Seven for a Secret that Needs to be Told�. Surely that isn’t quite how the rhyme goes � but nevertheless, this neat device has been established. Extremely neat in this case, as it is possible to tell how long the included novel is to be, by following the chapters and the rhyme to which they refer. This inner novel is to be almost exactly half the length of the outer one; a satisfying read in itself.
The vague association quickly becomes a clear recognition of style. Anthony Horowitz has imitated Agatha Christie perfectly. It is not merely a pastiche, but reads more like an homage. The action takes place in a sleepy English village in the 1940s. There is an unexpected death; and then another. We have a host of potential intriguing suspects, including a meddling busybody, a peculiar, rather twitchy vicar and a bluff, bombastic aristocrat. And they all have secrets to hide. We have a fussy and pedantic detective, Atticus Pünd who is not English. He is small and precise, with quirky mannerisms; an amateur sleuth who only ever investigates when the crime appeals to him. Yet Atticus Pünd has a very good reputuation for success. He has a rather dim sidekick named James Fraser.
What does this all remind you of? Yes, you’ve got it. “Atticus Pünd� is the German equivalent of Hercule Poirot, and the story reads exactly like one of Agatha Christie’s short bestsellers. Here is the narrator again:
“Alan had captured something of the ‘golden age� of British whodunnits with a country house setting, a complicated murder, a cast of suitable eccentric characters and a detective who arrived as an outsider. The book was set in 1946, just after the war and although he was light with the period detail, he had still managed to capture some of the feelings of that time. I liked his Germanic mannerisms, particularly his obssession with his book ‘The Landscape of Criminal Investigation�, which would become a regular feature. Setting the story in the forties also allowed for a gentler pace: no mobile phones, computers, forensics, no instant information.�
Susan Ryeland works in a publishing house, and is the long time editor of Alan Conway, who writes the Atticus Pünd books. She does not like the man, but he is her biggest earner, and this type of fiction is undoubtably what sells. Alan Conway’s latest tale is of a murder at Pye Hall, a large country estate. It is typical of his oeuvre:
“Pünd is only comfortable when he’s strolling on the village green or drinking in the local pub. Murders take place during cricket or croquet matches. The sun always shines. Given that he had named his house after a Sherlock Holmes short story, it’s possible that Alan was inspired by Holmes’s famous dictum: ‘The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside’�.
This scenario might also sound vaguely familiar to us, but it is nothing to do with either of the authors quoted. In fact Anthony Horowitz is gently poking fun at himself here, and it is a sign of what is to come. Double or even triple irony runs through this entire book.
For most of his career to date, Anthony Horowitz has been writing suspense stories in the style of the genre’s greatest writers. He has written two novels about Sherlock Holmes: “Mǰٲ� and “The House of Silk�, both sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate. He has also written a James Bond novel commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate. In addition to this he has an immense output of TV work, including screenplays for the “PǾdz� TV series. Anthony Horowitz created both the TV series, “Foyle’s War�, and the popular long-running detective series “Midsomer Murders�. (A character in Magpie Murders seems keen to point out that although the original author Caroline Graham wrote only seven actual novels about Midsomer, the TV series has run to over 160 episodes.)
The continual references to his own works could become tiresome, had they not been inserted so charmingly and wryly. There are just little nudges here and there, such as the suggestion that the title Magpie Murders would be “too similar to Midsomer Murders on TV�. It’s more like a running theme, where the reader is in on the joke. The name-dropping and inclusion of characters and authors—even Agatha Christie’s real-life grandson, Mathew Prichard, makes an appearance at one point—is actually quite endearing. We look for echoes as he pays plenty of homage to the greats—and cheekily includes his own oeuvre. This quirkiness, poking fun at his own egocentricity, is very English. Rather than making one suspicious of product placement techniques, the reader becomes involved in a game of “spot the reference�. Here is Susan Ryeland again, with specific detailed examples. (There are no spoilers here, by the way):
“Magpie Murders pays homage to Agatha Christie at least half a dozen times. For example, Sir Magnus Pye and his wife stay at the Hotel Genevieve at Cap Ferrat. There’s a villa in Murder on the Links that has he same name. The Blue Boar is the pub in Bristol where Robert Blakiston is involved in a fight. But it also appears in St. Mary Mead, home of Miss Marple. Lady Pye and Jack Dartford have lunch at Carlotta’s, which seems to have been named after the American actoress in Lord Edgeware Dies. There’s a joke, of sorts, on page 157. Fraser fails to notice a dead man on the three fifty train from Paddington, an obvious reference to the 4.50 from Paddington. Mary Blakiston lives in Sheppard’s Farm. Dr James Sheppard in the narrator of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is set in King’s Abbott, a village that is also mentioned on page 78, which is where old Dr Reynard is buried.�
A reader may pick all these up, and many more, or not. It adds to the mystery, and sometimes will elucidate, if part of a plot is remembered. I personally picked up a few, and found it immensely satisfying. For instance, I realised almost immediately, as mentioned, the deliberate use of a favourite device of Agatha Christie: using an old nursery rhyme to structure the book. She used this many times, for instance with “One, Two, Buckle my Shoe�, �5 little pigs�, �10 little Indians (And then there were none)�, “Hickory Dickory Dock�, and so on. Anthony Horowitz, through his author Alan Conway, has deliberately imitated this mechanism to great effect. I also personally very much enjoyed the very Englishness of the text, with genuine locations, places, institutions, events, personalities, name brands and popular culture familiar to me.
We follow Susan Ryeland as she digs into Alan Conway’s personal life. His real-life partner is James Taylor, who ruefully points out that he is “James Fraser�, the dim sidekick of Atticus Pünd in the series of novels. Together we spot Alan Conway’s own in-jokes in his novel: the included novel. With her help we spot the hidden anagrams, thematic character names and other more subtle rhetorical devices. Often, once we have seen them, they are blindingly obvious:
(view spoiler)
The fact that her best-selling writer was doing this made Susan Ryeland very uneasy. What made him do this, when nobody but he himself would know of it? And again, we have the familiar scenario of a best-selling writer who doesn’t care about the fame or the money, but wants to go down in history and be remembered for being “literary�. Many writers are reputed to have felt this. A.A. Milne grew to hate “Winnie the Pooh�, as did Richmal Crompton her roguish “William Brown�. Arthur Conan Doyle even tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes, but there was such a public outcry that he was famously forced to invent a story to bring everyone’s favourite sleuth back.
Anthony Horowitz is now 62, and lives in North London, in a converted warehouse which he shares with his wife—a television producer—and their two adult sons, who occupy apartments on separate floors. Is Anthony Horowitz, author of all those episodes “in the vein of� and the popular “Alex Rider� spy series for teenagers, revealing something of himself here; his own aspirations albeit this is his first mystery novel? Or is he once more being tongue-in-cheek, and self-deprecatingly teasing us yet again?
Sadly, “Alan Conway� did not seem to have the talent to be a literary phenomenon, as evidenced by a few chapters we also read. Magpie Murders is choc-a-block with little treats like this. There are a few chapters of another novel, a lengthy suicide note to analyse, and detective’s personal notes, presented much as Agatha Christie would write her expositions in the hand of Hercule Poirot. But what do we make of this “literary� novel; one which was to reveal his innermost thought and world view? Here is Susan Ryeland’s view:
“‘The Slide� was completely different from the entertaining Atticus Pünd series � It was almost like discovering that Enid Blyton had, in her spare time, turned to pornography. The style was painfully derivative � Conway was labouring for effect with every sentence, with every ugly metaphor.�
Contemporary readers are often fascinated by the world behind the author. We express a wish to learn about “what makes them tick�. Perhaps there is even sometimes a more shameful secret curiosity; a desire to find something slightly unsavoury—to reveal that our heroes have feet of clay. Perhaps then this too is a literary device, and no more.
And this? Is this true to life?:
“Why do English villages lend themselves so well to murder? � I soon discovered that every time I made one friend I made three enemies and that arguments about such issues as car parking, the church bells, dog waste and hanging flower baskets dominated daily life to such an extent that everyone was permanently at each other’s throats. That’s the truth of it. Emotions, which are quickly lost in the noise and chaos of the city, fester around the village square, driving people to psychosis and violence. It’s a gift to the whodunnit writer�.
It’s a trope, of course. This is what some city-dweller in a novel would think of simple country life. It invites us to eagerly agree, to be in the know and empathise. Do we? I’m not so sure, having experienced both ends of the spectrum. At the time of writing I am sitting in a caravan, in an adjacent county, only a few miles from one of these sleepy villages depicted in “Magpie Murders�. I must say I haven’t come across much festering hidden emotion, psychosis or violence. But it’s a nice idea—in fiction.
“It was that ‘my dear� that decided me. There was something quite repellent about the way he had addressed me. They were exactly the sort of words that Moriarty would have used. Or Flambeau. Or Carl Peterson. Or Arnold Zeck. And if it was true that detectives acted as moral beacons, why shouldn’t their light guide me now?�
You may be the sort of person who reads whodunnits primarily to guess the answer, and feel cheated if you don’t. Or maybe you feel irritated if it is too easy. There is ample opportunity to read Magpie Murders in that way, but it is more than that. For this book within a book, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz contains the entire text of a cosy mystery by a fictitious author, and also entitled �Magpie Murders. The two novels become increasingly mirrored. More and more the reader suspects that finding the guilty party in the book will lead to revelations about the case in real life. Embedded in the pages of Alan Conway’s book another story lies hidden, and as each layer is shed, this tale is revealed to be one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition and murder, relating to present day events.
(view spoiler)
Confused? You just wait! Although having said that, this book is very easy to read and understand. Anthony Horowitz said in an interview that he personally likes murder mysteries which are free of forensics, surveillance cameras and DNA:
“And having no mobile phones is wonderfully helpful; it slows the pace down, and you have more time for atmosphere and character.�
He even writes with a fountain pen for his first drafts. For Anthony Horowitz the most important thing is that the reader cannot guess the ending, but that every clue is present on the page. There are plenty of his teasing sprinklings of clues and red herrings here. Yet his writing is so skilful that at no point does the reader become confused as to what is actually happening, but only as to how it will fit into the final jigsaw puzzle.
Is this a book which defies the stereotype? Certainly. Does it subvert the genre? Is it meta-fiction? Probably. However you want to categorise it, it is a great entertaining read, and the puzzle is intriguing.
Perhaps in the end, the answer to the initial question posed by “Susan Ryeland� is that it is the puzzle which attract us. And in this way, Magpie Murders satisfies on every level. There is the familiarity of a “golden age� whodunnit, and also a modern murder mystery, with threads interweaving. Anthony Horowitz may not be a name you immediately recognise, but he is both prolific and clearly very knowledgeable about the golden age of detective fiction. This is a perfect blend of respect for, and expertise in, the genre, and a gleeful, sly poke of irreverent fun at it. If you enjoy classic mysteries, or retro thrillers, I think you will find this book irresistible.
“Arthur Conan Doyle, who invented Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective ever created, came to hate his character. The same was true for Fleming and Bond. And Hergé drew a picture of himself sweating at his desk, with Tintin standing with a whip behind him. I had similar feelings about Alex Rider. He is handsome and successful at 15, and I’m an aging writer in an attic in London.�
“I’ve always loved the genre, and I’ve written dozens of murder mysteries on TV but have resisted writing one as a book until now�
“A book does magic without saying, ‘Pick a card�. A whodunit is, at its best, a huge magic trick that says, “I’m going to tell you a story.�
�Anthony Horowitz
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Reading Progress
October 4, 2017
–
Started Reading
October 4, 2017
– Shelved
October 14, 2017
–
19.13%
"You'd have thought that after twenty years editing murder mysteries I'd have noticed when I found myself in the middle of one."
I'm actually more than 2 thirds the way through this ie. 278 + 105 pages ..."
page
105
I'm actually more than 2 thirds the way through this ie. 278 + 105 pages ..."
October 15, 2017
–
37.16%
"It's one thing reading about detectives, quite another trying to be one."
page
204
October 17, 2017
–
Finished Reading
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Diane S �
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rated it 4 stars
Oct 17, 2017 03:40PM
Fantastic review, Jean. Five stars from you translate into s must read for me!
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What a superb review, Jean! You really nailed it! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your thoughts, as always. The book was such a pleasure to read, and I'm so glad that you loved it as much as I did :)
Thank you very much, Diane and Candi. I did wonder however I could write a review of this without giving anything away! Whodunnits are always tricky, but this one was even more so!Off to read everyone else's now. I'm so pleased to have been alerted to this book :)
Very beautiful review! It felt like I read it in a couple of minutes. So absorbing...
Great review! I have it on my TBR but don't think I will be able to squeeze it in this month.
Wow Great and very educational review.
Thank you so much, Luffy, Phrynne, Annie, Liz and Holly! I do appreciate your very kind comments :)
I rated this one five stars as well. Your review is spot-on, although I wasn't quite sure whether all of the Atticus subplot was in a different font? The audio has a male narrator for his story, and a female for Susan's.I feel incredibly cheated that the Atticus series doesn't actually exist!
Hi John - It was indeed in a different font in its entirety - even in my Large Print copy! In addition the letter was printed as a photograph, and the other pieces of manuscript were in a third font style.Perhaps if there is enough demand the author will write the series ... It is what he does, after all ;)
Thank you very much Rita :) I was so pleased it was chosen as a group read as I hadn't heard of it!
Oh my gosh, Jean. I've just done a quick scan of your review because I'm in the thick of the book but I have to say, I probably wholeheartedly agree with you on this book. It is really a delight and so fun to read!
Aw Rita, what a lovely thing to say! I'm back now and hope to be up to speed by the new year :) I did miss everyone here while I was ill.
I have yet to read this one Jean though I have it on my shelves - "So many books....." As always a thoroughly superb review which has been fascinating to read. Thank you so much.
Leila wrote: "I have yet to read this one Jean though I have it on my shelves - "So many books....." As always a thoroughly superb review which has been fascinating to read. Thank you so much."Thanks Leila! I don't think I would have read this if it had not been an RFP group read, but I'm so glad it won the poll! It's the sort of novel you could read as a little treat :)
Fantastic review Jean! Very well written and thorough, exactly what I like to read in a review!
Tucker wrote: "Fantastic review Jean! Very well written and thorough, exactly what I like to read in a review!"Thank you very much for your kind words, Tucker :)
Stephen wrote: "What a great review. I am in awe."Thank you very much, Stephen 😊 I wonder whether you are watching the dramatisation right now ... or perhaps it has not left the UK yet.
I looked it up and if I get 'Masterpiece on Prime' I can get them there. I will consider it after I get through of the series I am currently watching.Your review was great, I am envious. I know it takes a lot of time and effort and appreciate what it took to write it.
Stephen wrote: "I looked it up and if I get 'Masterpiece on Prime' I can get them there. I will consider it after I get through of the series I am currently watching ..."It's worth it, as it's well done (at least so far). I think we've had 3-4 episodes, and I'm wondering if there will be 7 (like the nursery rhyme).
"Your review was great, I am envious. I know it takes a lot of time and effort and appreciate what it took to write it"
Ah thank you! Yes, you do know, as you have written some long ones yourself. But the appreciation of friends such as yourself brings a smile to my face, and makes it all worthwhile 😊
Wow, great review, Thank you
William wrote: "Wow, great review, Thank you"Thanks William! I'm pleased you enjoyed it 😊
