Magpie Murders: Magpie Murders, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Anthony Horowitz (Author), Allan Corduner (Narrator), Samantha Bond (Narrator),

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When editor Susan Ryeland is given the tattered manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has little idea it will change her life. She's worked with the revered crime writer for years, and his detective, Atticus Pund, is renowned for solving crimes in the sleepy English villages of the 1950s.

As Susan knows only too well, vintage crime sells handsomely. It's just a shame that it means dealing with an author like Alan Conway....

But Conway's latest tale of murder at Pye Hall is not quite what it seems. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but hidden in the pages of the manuscript there lies another story: a tale written between the very words on the page, telling of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition and murder.

From Sunday Times best seller Anthony Horowitz comes Magpie Murders, his deliciously dark take on the vintage crime novel, brought bang up to date with a fiendish modern twist.

Read by Samantha Bond and Allan Corduner.

Listening Length

15 hours and 48 minutes
Author

Anthony Horowitz
Narrator

Allan Corduner, see all
Audible release date

6 October 2016
Language

English
Publisher

Orion Publishing Group Limited
ASIN

B01JAOI01W
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	15 hours and 48 minutes
Author	Anthony Horowitz
Narrator	Allan Corduner, Samantha Bond
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	06 October 2016
Publisher	Orion Publishing Group Limited
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01JAOI01W
Best Sellers Rank	4,443 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 22 in Historical Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) 24 in Amateur Sleuth Mysteries (Audible Books & Originals) 29 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Audible Books & Originals)

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4 star		31%
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2 star		4%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Nico Restal

Excellent plot, very enjoyable read

Reviewed in Australia on 24 November 2020

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Very clever, both mysteries, though I guessed the framing one before it was revealed. I so enjoyed this book, I've bought the sequel.

Two weird errors
I read the Atticus Pund novel with care as I assumed it would contain clues I needed for the main mystery. There were two mistakes in it which I thought were significant - they weren't, so don't worry about spoilers. Were they real errors, or subtle signs that the manuscript needing editing?
1) Joy never said her scooter was pink, but Pund mentions the colour shortly after
2) Pund says that someone can't spell 'building' in a note, but it was correct in the note
If they were there to show that Susan had to edit the novel, then I'd like to have had some confirmation.

2 people found this helpful

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Susanna Lynley

Too clever?

Reviewed in Australia on 8 December 2017

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In this work, Horowitz has produced a spoof on the classic "whodunit." It's full of allusions to Agatha Christie and numerous others that have followed in her footsteps, including the TV series, Midsomer Murders. Undoubtedly, it's a clever piece of work but initially it can be confusing, if the reader is unaware that it is a story within a story; a plot within a plot.

The story begins with editor Susan Ryeland, receiving the text of a new novel, Magpie Murders, by one of her company's most successful authors, Alan Conway, a man whom personally she detests. Almost half the book engages the reader in Conway's text, which abruptly ends without the murder of Sir Magnus Pye being solved. To her chagrin, Ryeland discovers the last three chapters are missing. At this point, the second story emerges with Ryeland's hunt for the three missing chapters just as the news breaks that Alan Conway is dead. The question is: did he die before the book was finished? Was it suicide? Or was he murdered? Ryeland assumes the mantel of lead detective in order to solve the case and discovers that Conroy hated the genre that had brought him fame and fortune, and in particular, like Agatha Christie, he hated his lead detective, whose mannerisms are distinctly very "Poirotesque".

After having waded through the lives of Ryeland and others associated with Conroy, I found the plot began to drag and I was quickly losing interest in either who had killed Sir Magnus Pye or his alter-ego, Alan Conway. I gave it three stars, partly because of the lame ending, although I acknowledge it may well have been intentional; a tongue in cheek reference by Horowitz to the genre and Midsomer Murders in particular but also as an indicator of own my level of enjoyment.

One person found this helpful

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Worth a Read

Reviewed in Australia on 25 December 2017

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I found this good fun. The writing was pleasant and the premise excellent. I can see the other reviewer's point in that it was a bit convoluted and sometimes seemed a bit too extended but over all it was a good read and fun solving a mystery and then a mystery within a mystery and all the references to other writers in the genre... good fun. I enjoyed it.

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Anne

All a bit formulaic

Reviewed in Australia on 18 May 2021

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I found this who dunnit a trite formulaic and not very gripping. I know he is doing an ironic pastiche of Agatha Christie and Midsummer murders and their like in his murder within a murder but the characters were uninteresting and the central device of the anagram very forced. It would have been better if the character of Conway had been more central and better developed. Underwhelming.

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mattalbi

Unduly complicated.

Reviewed in Australia on 30 October 2020

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While the crime in the crime novel linked by the author of that novel to an actual crime is "novel", remembering that what you are reading is itself a crime novel, demonstrates just how convoluted plots must be these days to be original (or should I say "novel".)

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ruth r rosen

Clever and a good story

Reviewed in Australia on 6 October 2020

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Magpie Murders is beautifully crafted and the characters both interesting and well-rounded as humans with all the complex traits we know. It keeps us guessing on all levels of the story, or stories. Very enjoyable read.

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Pixie gran

Only one star here .

Reviewed in Australia on 20 February 2021

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I found it a bit weary and confusing at times . Love to know what it was all about 🦆🦆

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Jane Bird

A good writer having fun with the genre.

Reviewed in Australia on 29 August 2019

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Interesting play in an old tale. Liked to the intertwining of author, genre and traditions of past writers. A little too same same.

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Top reviews from other countries

Dr. George Sik

The whodunnit to end all whodunnits?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2017

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Joy Swift, inventor of murder mystery weekends, once wrote a plot in which you began to suspect that the actors playing the suspects were embroiled in their own murder mystery, quite separate from the one that they were acting out. So it is here. In what might be the ultimate whodunit, Anthony Horowitz, who himself was the first to adapt Midsomer Murders for television, alongside his many, many other achievements in the genre (bringing back Sherlock Holmes, writing some of the best Poirot episodes, creating Foyle's War etc etc) has given us a detective story that is postmodern, metatextual and all those other words you weren't expecting to hear when discussing the genre.

To tell you anything at all is probably giving away too much but I think it's fair to say that it's one mystery within another - the manuscript of a detective story that marks the final appearance of supersleuth Atticus Pund in a classic fifties plot is really just the beginning. The novel conceals another mystery completely.

The writing is perfect. Although this is the first anyone has heard of Atticus Pund, you don't have to be too far in before your mind is kidding itself that you've read all the (non existent) previous adventures of a detective as prolific as Miss Marple or Father Brown. He is a very sympathetic sleuth and - in one of many marvellous in-jokes and references to Agatha Christie, Midsomer Murders etc - lives in Charterhouse Square, which is where they film Poirot's 'Whitehaven Mansions' home in the TV series. As for his author and those who publish his novels...

No, I've said too much already. If you love this sort of thing, you'll be in Heaven from the moment you pick it up.

110 people found this helpful

Read and Reviewed

A novel within a novel - an absorbing tale and an excellent homage to golden age crime fiction. Clever, witty & v readable!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 June 2018

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Magpie Murders is a brilliantly constructed novel in a novel and throughout its course I found it a clever and absorbing tale. Despite its lengthy unravelling it really does offer superior bang for your buck with two murders along the way. Although it could admittedly be more incisive it offers a superb homage to the golden age of detective fiction, a salute to the great Hercule Poirot right through to poking fun at the publishing industry and the intellectual snobbery of critics who dismiss crime fiction as having limited literary worth. Essentially two books in the form of one, Susan Ryeland, Head of Fiction at the niche imprint of Cloverleaf Books settles down to read and edit the manuscript for the ninth and final instalment in the world bestselling Atticus Pünd series of golden age whodunits and say goodbye to the award winning author Alan Conway’s much loved Greek/German detective.

Entitled Magpie Murders and set in 1955 the novel that unfolds is essentially a pastiche of an idiosyncratic Poirot-like sleuth investigating the seemingly accidental death of devoted housekeeper, Mary Blakiston, in the Somerset village of Saxby-on-Avon and the violent murder of odious Sir Magnus Pye that swiftly follows and is surely no coincidence. As the whole atmosphere of the village takes a darker turn and suspicion abounds the renowned investigator comes to the aid of a dim witted Inspector Chubb as he delves into the secrets and web of deceit surrounding two deaths and a burglary at Pye Hall. Horowitz writing as Alan Conway delivers all the required characters, from the busybody housekeeper to the resentful sister of Magnus Pye, the unfaithful lady of the manor, the bitter son of Mary, the local doctor, vicar and newly resident ex-criminal. As the pages flick by a delightful take on Agatha Christie follows and engages the reader in a guessing game and truly engrossing tale. As the final reveal approaches and Susan draws breath she discovers that the last chapter of the manuscript is missing only to arrive back at her desk and hear that author Alan Conway has thrown himself to his death.

As Susan searches for the missing chapter and starts to think that Alan Conway was murdered she proves an engaging narrator and learns that the characters of his final novel have thinly veiled real-life counterparts in the authors own personal life. As Susan tries to get to the bottom of Alan’s supposed suicide when all the signs indicate that he was anything but maudlin she makes an objective commentator, having previously found Alan a difficult and rather arrogant man herself. As she starts to actively investigate she realises that before she can put in place and locate the final chapter of Magpie Murders she must work out just who would have wanted Alan Conway dead and why that was. In truth I enjoyed the mystery contained in the Atticus Pünd adventure more than the actual focus on the author’s demise, perhaps because it felt more coherent and avoided the repetitive discussion of Conway’s literary merits, his fruitless search for recognition as a writer and the slightly laboured focus on the tropes in crime fiction.

Horowitz does the lions share of his work with the gentle tale of cosy crime in Saxby-on-Avon, hooking the reader and thereby keeping them invested in the second half but in all honesty I cared less as to who actually killed Conway and more about the fiendish puzzler in Saxby-on-Avon! It is however hard to find fault with such a clever concept and how it nearly ties together and as always, Anthony Horowitz writes superbly and brings alive Conway’s personal life in a witty, highly readable style. Whilst not a thriller the nested tale and the ultimate two solutions make Magpie Murders a superior blend of crime fiction! Highly recommend, this is a story to lose yourself within!

Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)

39 people found this helpful

Alyssia Cooke

Well written and clever but slow paced

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 April 2021

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Magpie Murders is a book within a book; one half of it a homage to the murder mysteries of old like Agatha Christie and the other a more modern whodunnit revolving around the death of the author. It's cleverly written and well done, but I have to admit I found it very slow going and plodding in pace at times. I was more engaged with the manuscript revolving around Atticus Pünd than I was with the real life mystery in the modern day as well. But it took me a long time to get through both sections and I felt it would have been better with a closer editing hand and at least a hundred pages lighter.

That said, I actually really enjoyed the book within the book; the Atticus Pünd narrative is interesting and easy going. It made me wonder what I'm missing out on by never having read any of the Golden Age of Crime novels and moved The Murder of Roger Ackroyd rather further up my to-read list. I appreciated all the nods to the literary world in general and the crime writing world in particular, even if several of those likely went right over my head. I can see why Horowitz left the manuscript hanging for a good two thirds of the book, but it just didn't quite work for me. The shift into the modern day didn't grip me anywhere near as much, and also meant that I'd kind of lost interest in the initial mystery by the time you actually get the blanks filled in.

This is one of those books that I have to give points for being well written and it certainly uses a clever narrative structure, but I have to admit that I lost interest. I wasn't keen on being shifted out of one narrative and into a different one in the modern day and felt that the pace lagged a little too much for this to be excellent. I thought I recognised the author, and it turns out I was right; I read his Alex Rider books as a teenager. This is obviously a completely different writing style and a completely different genre and target audience. It's well done, but it was a little too slow and a little too choppy for my personal taste.

12 people found this helpful

Fran Rodgers

Not a smooth read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 June 2021

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I didn't enjoy the device of the story within the story that this book uses as it's construction.
Mainly because the pace of Poirot type pastiche was bipping along nicely and I was fully engaged only for it to come to a sudden and frustrating halt and be replaced with a story that I was not engaged with, had only been touched upon in the first few pages and ultimately for me was a bit of a forced damp squib.
I won't buy the next book because I'm not a fan of split narratives, I didn't like Game of Thrones for the same reason, if you find it a frustrating experience to have a story arc cut and disappear right in the heart of action and lose resolution and outcome and be shifted lock stock into another story arc that is less interesting, then this is not for you.
If you like books that split narratives and suspend you in the heart of the story, then you will probably really enjoy the way this book is written. It is clever, but for me perhaps a bit too clever for it's own good and pace.

9 people found this helpful

malinmaid

Lost the will 😔

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 August 2020

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I totally Understood the concept But kept waiting for the real story - the characters were cliche’d - I know they were meant to be but I just couldn’t connect. Not sure of the timeframe but I suspect “Downs syndrome “ wasn’t a diagnosis - this may have been corrected in the main story but frankly , if it was, I’d lost interest . The tone was a poor mans poirot. So disappointed - Anthony Horowitz is amazing in radio interviews but this lost me. BTW I did understand the story within etc

8 people found this helpful

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Magpie Murders: Magpie Murders, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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