Reviews with content warning for Violence - Magpie Murders

Let's start with how this book didn't even set itself up well. I was super confused listening to the first chapter/prologue, whatever it is, because it sounded like the publisher talking about the book and I thought it was a forward of some sort that I could skip or zone out on. Glad I didn't since it turned out to be the real first chapter. Ran into one of my bookclub friends who thought the same and did skip it, so I was able to tell her to go back. But I know a lot of bookworms that skip forwards and prologues so this is definitely an oversight of Horowitz to not make it clearer what is going on from the outset.

The first half of Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is Magpie Murders by Alan Conway, the fictional author inside Horowitz's story. I liked it well enough, it felt like a mash-up of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot set post WWII. The real story, is actually set in the modern day and follows the editor of Conway's detective series because the last chapter of MM by Conway is actually missing (naturally).

The modern day half of the book feels even more derivative than the book inside the book. It's also wildly repetitive, I think we hear some of the same clues/information three times in some cases. Nothing about the storyline felt orignal, more like Horowitz took all his favorite red herrings and twists from the great classic detective stories, threw them in a pie, and baked them all together using Elmer's glue. Yep, purposefully picked the bad glue since the plot is weak and the solution is clear.

To add insult to injury, I was telling my husband about the book and he stopped and asked what the name was again because it sounded to him just like the Anthony Horowitz he read recently, The Word is Murder. I haven't read it so I can't draw the parallels but he said it was weirdly similar sounding. So not only is Horowitz derivative of the best classic detective novels, he's derivative of himself. Husband said the same about the second in the Hawthorne & Horowitz series and stopped reading them but he was disappointed because he loved the Alex Ryder books as a kid.

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junowo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A very enjoyable mystery novel. I liked the use of the “book within a book” framework to create parallels and deepen meaning. Both Atticus and Susan are enjoyable characters to read, and I really loved trying to work things out myself.
I will say that the justification at the end for certain character’s actions fell a bit flat, but I was willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of the climax!

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erebus53's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Full disclosure, I am not normally a fan of murder mystery, and I picked this one up as a book club read. I tend to like a bit of Midsomer Murders and have often quipped that most episodes of the show have an Autistic character somewhere in there, but this is the first time I have ever heard a little-Britain story that explicitly says that the weird loner is Autistic.

This story is meta as füc# .. the main character is an Editor who is reading the last work of a murder mystery writer. The author of the work she wishes to publish, dies with unfinished business but appears to have ended his own life.. or has he? Or is a murder mystery fan just taking off on flights of fancy and imagining herself a sleuth.

As a book reviewer.. this book is really strange to read. Every point that I recognise in story construction is explained by the main character as she tries to assess the work she is reading; it feels really weird to look at a story and think "ah it could be this person, but that wouldn't be a satisfying conclusion, and this person is an OBvious choice and so therefore will HAVE to be a red herring.. " only to then have those ideas explicitly expounded upon by the narrator of the story. How can your review a book that it reviewing itself?!

Events in the unpublished fiction, tend to echo events that are unfolding in the story of the Editor, and it starts to get blurry in places and you wonder how much of what is going on is conspiracy, how much is causal, and how much is coincidental.

Amongst this stuff, conversations in the "real world" (of the book) feel like self-criticisms of the genre as a whole, and of the book itself. I can't help but feel THIS book is just trying to be clever, but it leaves me holding a handful of messy hints that the author of THIS book, feels like writing murder mysteries is a practice of making a product that sells well, rather than being good literature.

I did like the Disability narratives in the book. There is a person who is considered despicable for thinking of Down Syndrome as a disease, a person who has to deal with vision loss (and Audiobooks), and several characters with terminal illnesses.

It was kind of fun, but I was listening at 125% speed, which probably says a lot about the drawn out pace of the book and my desire to get it finished rather than actually enjoying the content. For that, I did have a couple of YUSS! moments where I had predicted things accurately or big reveals that felt fairly rewarding. Maybe if you like these sorts of books more you would get more out of it. It does feel quite like a Midsomer Murders story, with word puzzles in it.

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corriejn's review against another edition

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3.75

A whodunnit mystery within a whodunnit mystery-- the first half of the book is a murder mystery story set in small town England in the 1950s, and is presented as a manuscript an editor is reading. The second half reverts back to modern times and the editor-- with a new set of characters and storylines to get to know, which I found a bit jarring. I didn't enjoy the second half as well as the first, and found it dragged a bit.

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angela005's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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lapon's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved the concept of a mystery within a book.
The love letter to whodunits and the affectionate parody of the genre was very fun to read.
Howver I found the first part to be dragging at times.

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simply_fran's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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purplepenning's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

3.75

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