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From the New York Times bestselling author of Moriarty and Trigger Mortis, this fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller weaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie into a chilling, ingeniously original modern-day mystery.
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan's traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.
Conway's latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she's convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.
Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.
"Starred Review. A treat for fans of golden age mysteries… [A] tour de force … Horowitz throws in several wicked twists… Highly satisfying." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Fans who still mourn the passing of Agatha Christie…will welcome this wildly inventive homage…as the most fiendishly clever puzzle - make that two puzzles - of the year." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Both stories might stand alone, but combined, they result in a delightful puzzle. Fans of Agatha Christie and the BBC's Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War (both written by Horowitz) will relish this double mystery." - Library Journal
"While the first story is more enjoyable than the second, which drags a little, this is overall a very entertaining set of tales, and readers will enjoy finding clues in the whodunit that will help solve the mystery in the latter tale." - Booklist
"An ingenious novel-within-a-novel... part crime novel, part pastiche, this magnificent piece of crime fiction plays with the genre while also taking it seriously."- The Sunday Times (UK)
"There's much to enjoy in Anthony Horowitz's spry, sardonic Magpie Murders." - The Guardian (UK)
"Superbly written, with great suspects, a perfect period feel, and a cracking reveal at the end." - The Spectator (UK)
"Anthony Horowitz has devised a fiendish mystery within a mystery that will have you hooked from page one. We loved this Agatha Christie-esque crime novel." - Good Housekeeping (UK)
"A stylish, multi-layered thriller - playful, ingenious and wonderfully entertaining." - The Sunday Mirror (UK)
"This can only be described as incredibly clever - but what else would you expect from Horowitz?" - The Herald (UK)
"A compendium of dark delights ... A brilliant pastiche of the English village mystery and a hugely enjoyable tale of avarice and skullduggery in the world of publishing." - Irish Times
"Brilliant. Really, really brilliant. I loved it." - Sophie Hannah, author of The Monogram Murders
"An extravagant circus of a novel, part high-wire act, part funhouse mirror. Intricate, bold, stone-cold clever - both comfortably old-fashioned and thrillingly new." - A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window
This information about Magpie Murders was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Anthony Horowitz is the author of the US bestselling Magpie Murders and The Word is Murder, and one of the most prolific and successful writers in the English language; he may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author. His novel Trigger Mortis features original material from Ian Fleming. His most recent Sherlock Holmes novel, Moriarty, is a reader favorite; and his bestselling Alex Rider series for young adults has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. As a TV screenwriter, he created both Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle's War on PBS. Horowitz regularly contributes to a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines, and in January 2014 was awarded an OBE.
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