Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz

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Alan Conway is the author of 8 successful novels featuring Atticus Pund. Each book in the series is edited by Susan Ryeland who works in Cloverleaf publications. He provides his latest novel “Magpie Murders” to Susan for her feedback. Susan reads the whole book but finds that the final chapters of the book is missing. She thinks it is a deliberate attempt by Alan to see whether she can identify the murderer. To her surprise, she finds that Alan has committed suicide. She is determined to find the final chapters of Magpie murders. In the process, she discovers various hidden secrets of Alan Conway’s life. 

This is one of those books where you will be hooked till you complete it. The readers will be treated with not one but two whodunits at the end. The author is a huge fan of the works of Agatha Christie. It is visible throughout out the book as there are lot of references to her work and the names of the characters. (The grandson of Agatha Christie also makes a short appearance in the book).The treatment of the plot is also very much Christie. The biggest plus of Magpie Murders is its unique plot which is definitely on par with some of the best murder mysteries of the world like And Then There were none. 

This book is also a testament of the fact on how does Authors get inspired by the people and events in their real life and bring them as reel characters. It also shows how authors become victim of their own successes. It also touches upon how authors are forced to write to satisfy the audience rather than satisfying themselves. Another plus of the book is its well etched characters particularly, Alan Conway. The character of Alan Conway has various shades and each of them has been brought out beautifully.

The first half of the book is racy and unputdownable. The pace is drastically slowed when we are into 3/4th of the book. Lot of conversations that Susan has with various people do not add value to the plot. For instance, the conversations between Susan and the waiter and Susan reading the waiters manuscript and comparing it with Alan’s previous work is a total distraction and drastically slows down the pace of the book. However, the book moves into the cruise mode again in the final chapters. 

It is tempting to give 5 stars just for its plot line. However, the pace in latter half forces me to go with 3.5 stars. A stricter editing would have made it even more enjoyable. May be,  they should have hired Susan Ryeland for editing.