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Mar 20, 2019agolanka rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Magpie Murders by Alan Horowitz is a successful homage to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (i.e. British whodunits, Agatha Christie). Magpie Murders is a mystery within a mystery that concerns a manuscript with the last chapter missing. The protagonist, the book’s editor, is trying to find the last chapter to solve the ‘fictional’ mystery when she comes across a larger ‘real-life’ puzzle regarding the manuscript’s author. This may seem very convoluted, but the execution is better than my summary. I thought this was an ingenious take in a genre that’s been parodied and overdone. This is because Horowitz focuses in on the anatomy of a classic mystery while presenting a new mystery himself. Be warned though, Magpie Murders is long, with ~250 pages being devoted to each mystery (500 pages total), but its also full of clues, red herrings, and references to Agatha Christie on every page. The novel is also very British and parts are written in the 20th century’s distinct style of detective fiction, which I enjoyed as a break from the current types of contemporary mystery. Overall, if you miss that era of detective fiction, I recommend Magpie Murders.