Magpie Murders

Anthony Horowitz wrote one of my favourite TV series of all time, Foyle’s War, and he has also been responsible for quite a number of scripts for Midsomer Murders and Hercule Poirot, plus he’s written versions of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, books for children and young adults such as the Alex Rider spy series as well as stage plays and goodness knows what else. He has a fiendishly clever mind for plotting, so I knew even before I started Magpie Murders I would be in for a roller-coaster of a ride and this novel-within-a-novel didn’t disappoint me.
 
Without giving away too much of either plot, editor Susan Ryeland of Cloverleaf Books has the manuscript of the last title in a detective series written by the late Alan Conway, but its final two chapters - the ones who tell you whodunit - are missing. Why? And is there in any connection between Alan’s presumed death by suicide and what is contained in those missing chapters?
 
The Alan Conway manuscript carries all the traditional aspects of a 1950s Miss Marple or Poirot plot; a cute English village with its cricket and crumpets for tea and classic characters such as the over-bearing lord of the manor, an unfaithful wife and her dashing lover, the resident nosey-parker, a creepy gardener, dodgy antique dealer, wide-eyed ingénue in love, etc. Enter the foreign-born detective who will solve the case, Atticus Pund. It is absolute pastiche, absolutely fabulous.
 
Susan’s modern story contains lots of observations on the publishing world and even throws in real-life individuals such as Agatha Christie’s grandson into cameo roles. She discovers things about Alan Conway and his Atticus Pund series that even she as its editor hadn’t spotted: anagrams, word plays and cryptic codes. When she finally realises that Alan was murdered her own life will be in jeopardy when she discovers the truth.
 
This is a delicious book to be gobbled up in one manic extended session because if you leave it aside for any time you risk losing the momentum and forgetting who’s who or recalling some of the hidden clues that so cleverly juggle one story with the other. I must admit to not guessing the culprits in either of the two stories and that made it a terrific reading experience. Unlike Midsomer Murders on TV which has been known to get so slow and convoluted it can send me to sleep, this sparkling and clever tale kept me wide awake for many enjoyable hours.

Loved it. Five stars.
 
(With many thanks to Edelweiss for the opportunity to read a review copy.)

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