Magpie Murders - A Must Read Contemporary Whodunit!

Late last night, while the family relaxed after dinner and prepared for bed, I sat in a quiet corner with my Kindle, hoping that no one needed me right then, as I was reading the final pages of a murder mystery.

A mystery that has a murder mystery tucked into another murder mystery. Where the search for the killer in the story-within-the-story, leads to the discovery of a killer in real life!

And as I finished the last page, my one thought was, that I would never have guessed the killer! Neither the one in the story, nor the one in the story-within-the-story.

Presenting Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz!

Our book begins with an editor who works for a publishing company. She has in her hands, a copy of the manuscript for the latest book by their all-time bestselling author. The editor, who has been travelling for a few weeks on work, has only come into office on the Friday, when the manuscript is handed to her. She reads the manuscript, which is an authentic murder mystery, over the weekend; only to discover that the final chapters, where the entire mystery would be unraveled, are missing from the manuscript!

She presumes someone has made a mistake in the copying room and decides to check with her boss about it on Monday. But when on Monday she goes in to work, she is surprised to find that her boss, the publisher, too, has had the final chapters missing from his copy! What’s more, she also hears from him, the shocking news that their most successful author, the one whose ninth book would’ve been the manuscript that she was reading over the weekend, is now dead!

Searching for the missing chapters is now imperative for our editor if the book ever has to see the light of day. But what is more troubling, is that although initially everything points to the fact that the author committed suicide, our editor soon finds clues that suggest foul play. And before long, she is convinced that there is a very good possibility, that the said author would have been murdered!

A race to find the missing chapters and to find the killer has us turning pages and wanting to read on and on! So much so, that at one point, we are seriously tempted to just turn to the last page and actually see how it all unravels!

But, I have kept my patience, and read the book diligently, without cheating; and was superbly rewarded at the end. So I would suggest, you too do the same.

For a contemporary murder mystery, this book is unconventional in many ways. It is a unique story-within-a-story. I know I keep harping on it, but it is quite distinctively done, really. Then there is also the fact that the stories are written in two very different voices. One, as told by the narrator of the book we hold in our hands and the other, is the story that forms the basis of the book. And then there is this really interesting fact, that the story that the book revolves around, is written in a very “Agatha Christie” style. So that’s a bonus.

There is, in fact, so much in this book that I found interesting and had me rooting for the author, that I really do not know where to begin! From the clever use of names, to the wonderfully placed red herrings, to the subtle clues, to the complex plotting to the engaging writing style to the very fact that this is an “unputdownable page-turner” Magpie Murders has everything going for it! Not only is this a wonderfully fresh read, it is also unique in that it has a very different story, despite it being, at the end of the day, nothing more than a regular, garden variety whodunit itself!

I had heard of the author Anthony Horowitz before this book too, of course. But that was for his Alex Rider series for teenagers. This is his only book I have read so far. And after spending almost a week trying to snatch as much reading time as I could with this book (despite having exams going on at home and deadlines staring me in the face), I am now determined to explore more of his work!

Recommended for you if
• you are in the mood for a good whodunit, or
• if you like Agatha Christie, or
• if you like clever detective fiction; or
• even for the simple reason that you have a bit of time on your hands and would love to engage in a good read.