Magpie Murders

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Published by Orion

November 2017

Seven for a mystery that needs to be solved . . .

Editor Susan Ryland has worked with bestselling crime writer Alan Conway for years. Readers love his detective, Atticus Pünd, a celebrated solver of crimes in the sleepy English villages of the 1950s.

But Conway's latest tale of murder at Pye Hall is not quite what it seems. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but hidden in the pages of the manuscript lies another story: a tale written between the very words on the page, telling of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition and murder.

Okay so I'll be totally honest here (and don't shoot me down) but I've never read anything by Anthony Horowitz before! I know, where have I been etc but I saw this at Christmas and my love for detective fiction had me popping it into my shopping basket at top speed, and with good reason it turns out.

This is a great old fashioned detective story, with a twist of course.  Alan Conway is a crime novelist and has just delivered what is to be his final Atticus Pund novel to his publishers as real life imitates the fictional and shortly afterwards our author is found dead at the foot of the tower of his glamorous country home.  But who could have killed him, or was it suicide?  His editor Susan Ryland becomes intrigued by what has happened to Alan, and even more so by the fact that the manuscript of his last book seems to have the final chapters missing from it - with Alan Conway dead, the publishing company need to get their hands on the missing pages, and fast!  Reading through the novel though, and meeting Alan's friends and family in real life, soon strikes a cord with Susan and she begins to suspect that his final novel is actually a lot more real than readers might suspect.  Turning through the pages, Susan discovers that there might be a few people who actually wanted Alan out of their lives - but the question is....whodunnit and can Susan safely find out or will her life be in danger too?

This book begins with Alan's final mystery and then moves into the 'real world' whereby Susan tries to find out what happened to her most acclaimed author.  Yes this is like a modern day Agatha Christie novel, or an Agatha Raisin story but I bloody loved it and if that sort of crime drama makes you happy then grab a copy of this, a cup of cocoa and settle down in front of the fire to while away the hours.  You won't be sorry that you did.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x