Magpie Murders: A Novel

Don’t miss Magpie Murders on PBS's MASTERPIECE Mystery!

"A double puzzle for puzzle fans, who don’t often get the classicism they want from contemporary thrillers." —Janet Maslin, New York Times

New York Times Bestseller | Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Novel | NPR Best Book of the Year | Washington Post Best Book of the Year | Esquire Best Book of the Year

From the New York Times bestselling author of Moriarty and Trigger Mortis, this fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller weaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie into a chilling, ingeniously original puzzle mystery.

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 cozy 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.

Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that this book within a book contains another story hidden in its pages: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.

From the author of Moriarty and Trigger Mortis, this fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller interweaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie with an equally ingenious modern-day mystery that transforms the reader into the detective.

Alan Conway is a bestselling crime writer. His editor, Susan Ryeland, has worked with him for years, and she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. Alan’s traditional formula pays homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. It’s proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.

When Susan receives Alan’s latest manuscript, in which Atticus Pünd investigates a murder at Pye Hall, an English manor house, she has no reason to think it will be any different from the others. There will be dead bodies, a cast of intriguing suspects, and plenty of red herrings and clues. But the more Susan
reads, the more she realizes that there’s another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript—one of ambition, jealousy, and greed—and that soon it will lead to murder.

Masterful, clever, and ruthlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage crime fiction.

“An extravagant circus of a novel, part high-wire act, part funhouse mirror. Intricate, bold, stone-cold clever— both comfortably old-fashioned and thrillingly new.” - A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window

“Superbly written, with great suspects, a perfect period feel, and a cracking reveal at the end.” - The Spectator

“Magpie Murders is an ingenious, twisting tribute to the sleepy English countryside murder and will thoroughly entertain readers of old fashioned detective thrillers.” - New York Journal of Books

“Magpie Murders is a double puzzle for puzzle fans, who don’t often get the classicism they want from contemporary thrillers.”  - Janet Maslin, New York Times

“Each of the narratives in Magpie Murders is engaging and fluid, each with its own charm, though Horowitz’s joyful act of Christie ventriloquism is, in particular, spectacularly impressive.” - Washington Post

“Horowitz..has devised an ingenious whodunit within a whodunit, a metamystery with Agatha Christie roots.” - O, the Oprah Magazine

“A perfect summer read from the author of Moriarty.” - AARP Magazine

“An ingenious funhouse mirror of a novel sets a vintage ‘cozy’ mystery inside a modern frame.” - Wall Street Journal

“Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders is catnip for classic mystery lovers… With its elegant yet playful plotting, Magpie Murders is the thinking mystery fan’s ideal summer thriller.” - Time Magazine

“Doubly Devilish.” - People

“Brilliant. Really, really brilliant. I loved it.” - Sophie Hannah, author of The Monogram Murders

“An ingenious novel-within-a-novel . . . part crime novel, part pastiche, this magnificent piece of crime fiction plays with the genre while also taking it seriously.” - Sunday Times

“Fans who still mourn the passing of Agatha Christie…will welcome this wildly inventive homage…as the most fiendishly clever puzzle—make that two puzzles—of the year.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“This can only be described as incredibly clever—but what else would you expect from Horowitz?” - The Herald (Glasgow)

“A treat for fans of golden age mysteries…. [A] tour de force …. Horowitz throws in several wicked twists…. Highly satisfying.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Magpie Murders [is] a fiendishly clever literary puzzle.” - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“A compendium of dark delights. . . . A brilliant pastiche of the English village mystery and a hugely enjoyable tale of avarice and skullduggery in the world of publishing.” - Irish Times

“There’s much to enjoy in Anthony Horowitz’s spry, sardonic Magpie Murders.” - Guardian

“A stylish, multi-layered thriller—playful, ingenious and wonderfully entertaining.” - Sunday Mirror

“Anthony Horowitz has devised a fiendish mystery within a mystery that will have you hooked from page one. We loved this Agatha Christie-esque crime novel.” - Good Housekeeping (UK)