Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

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.

This book was a delightful read. It starts out by introducing us to Susan, the editor of the hugely successful Atticus Pund series. Excited to receive the manuscript for what is to be number nine in the series, she dives right into the story that evening. This story is a murder mystery set in a typically idyllic English village. Imagine our (Susan and the reader’s) surprise when we get to the end of the story only to discover that the last chapters are missing. And right when Atticus is about to reveal who was the killer! Figuring out she’ll get the two missing chapters in the morning, Susan outlines her theories of who is the possible killer and there are enough suspicious characters to keep us busy.

 Unfortunately (spoiler alert!), the author Alan Conway turns up dead the next morning. This is where the second murder mystery starts, with Susan trying to find the missing chapters but ultimately figuring out that Alan’s death was suspicious. I won’t go into more detail so as not to spoil it for others but suffice to say, both endings, the fictionalized story and the author’s death were solved to my satisfaction. 

I’m sure this is not the first book with a story within the story but the writing really makes the reader feel as if there were two separate books. They each have a distinctively different writing style with more than half being the Atticus story. The reader ends up getting two great stories/mysteries for the price of one book!

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Roberta