Shannon's Library

LET’S GET EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK!

Do you love a good, old-fashioned murder mystery book? Do you love to get lost in a whodunit story with all sorts of clues, red herrings and a long list of suspects? Then this book is a must-read for you! Susan Ryeland is a successful book editor. When her best selling crime writer gives her his latest manuscript to edit, she is shocked to find the last chapter is missing. We, as readers, are treated to two mysteries in this uniquely structured novel by Anthony Horowitz. As Susan is reading the manuscript, we are swept away into an English countryside. We follow along with the famous detective, Atticus Pund, as he tries to solve the murder. Meanwhile, back in the present timeline, Susan finds herself facing a murder mystery of her own. As one who is rarely surprised by events in a book, I very much enjoyed trying to figure out both of the mysteries in this novel. Read my full review below. Then, after reading this book, leave a comment and let me know if you were able to solve these murder’s before the end of the book. I was only able to solve one of them! Very frustrating!

Shannon’s Rating — PG-13

---

LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK!

How do you feel about a book within a book? A story within a story? If that is something you find distracting or confusing, then this probably isn’t a book for you.  But if it’s a format that you enjoy in novels…then keep reading!

As a kid I loved Nancy Drew. I vividly remember how excited I was when I would start a new book in that series. I would disappear into my room and not come out again until I had read the whole thing. Later on, I was introduced to the Agatha Christie novels by my grandmother and my mom. I was instantly hooked and grew to love all things mystery related. To this day, I love books, TV crime shows and movies with some sort of mystery to be solved. And I will say this, I am rarely surprised. For some reason I am abnormally good at figuring out mysteries. I’ll be sitting in a movie theater and whisper to my husband about some obscure plot twist that is coming or some sort of “surprise” that is being hinted at.  He’ll look at me strangely and ask again, why I can’t just enjoy the movie without always trying to look ahead or figure out the “twist?” I don’t know. It’s a compulsion of mine. I’m incapable of just going with the flow and instead am always trying to stay one step ahead of the plot. Because of this weird talent/obsession of mine, I’m always delighted when a mystery comes along that I’m not able to guess or solve ahead of time. Maybe I can blame this obsession on my early years spent with Agatha Christie. She once said, “If you are to be Hercule Poirot, you must think of everything.” Maybe I secretly wanted to be Hercule Poirot, her most famous detective, and so I spend my time in books and movies trying to solve the mysteries before the big reveal. If Agatha Christie is the reason for my mystery solving obsession, then she is also the main reason I enjoyed the book, “Magpie Murders”, by Anthony Horowitz so much. Having grown up loving and admiring Hercule Poirot, you can bet I was going to instantly love Atticus Pund!

I would describe “Magpie Murders” as a homage to the classic murder mystery novel. It has everything an Agatha Christie type novel would have; a murder with a long list of suspects, multiple red herrings to throw the readers off, the wise detective who is able to solve the murder without the use of modern-day technology, and of course, the satisfying wrap up of all the loose ends in the last chapter. Anthony Horowitz provides his readers with not just one, but multiple murders to solve in this “book within a book” novel. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t able to solve one of the murders ahead of time which is probably why I found this book so intriguing. I neglected my family big time for a couple of days while I plowed through this book. I couldn’t get to that last chapter reveal fast enough!

 As I said at the beginning of this review, this book contains a story within a story. The novel begins with Susan Ryeland. She is a book publisher for Alan Conway, a famous author of a crime novel series starring his beloved detective, Atticus Pund. She’s just received Conway’s latest manuscript and sits down to read it. The book then switches to this manuscript. For the next 200 pages or so, we read this manuscript along with Susan Ryeland. This is when we get swept away to a small English countryside village in the 1950’s, where the housekeeper of a large estate has died. Atticus Pund is called in to solve the case and the classic detective work begins. Just as the murder is about to be solved, the manuscript ends. The last chapter is missing. The novel then returns to the present day with Susan Ryeland, who finds herself investigating a murder of her own. Susan doesn’t find the missing chapter of the manuscript until the very end of the novel so you can imagine why I was reluctant to put this book down. It is borderline cruel to the readers to get us super invested with Atticus Pund, trying to solve the murder and then abruptly stop that storyline to move onto another! While frustrating at the time, I have to admit this format by Horowitz was quite genius. If he wanted to hook me and keep me reading non-stop until the last page, then mission accomplished!

I will say, Susan Ryeland was not one of my favorite literary characters. I found her very one dimensional and not super likeable. Plus, in the final suspenseful scene, she made some very cliché mistakes that put her unnecessarily in danger. (I mean come on. Who turns their back on the known murder during their final confrontation? Really? Any crime novel publisher would know better!) That frustrated me a bit as a reader but then again, I wasn’t reading and enjoying this book for it’s character development. This book is all about the mysteries. It’s about getting lost in the clues and the suspects and trying to solve the murders in a classic whodunnit style. As Susan Ryeland says right before reading the Magpie Murders manuscript…

“As far as I’m concerned, you can’t beat a good whodunnit: the twists and turns, the clues and the red herrings and then, finally the satisfaction of having everything explained to you in a way that makes you kick yourself because you hadn’t seen it from the start.”

It is indeed very satisfying when you get to the end of a good mystery novel and finally have everything explained to you. And it is equally frustrating to wonder why you didn’t have it all figured out from the start! But those feelings of frustration mixed with satisfaction is why we love a good mystery. So, thank you Carolyn Keene, Agatha Christie, Anthony Horowitz and all the mystery writers out there! Thank you for driving us readers crazy. We enjoy every minute!