What happens when a mystery writer becomes the mystery?

Alan Conway is the author of a highly successful mystery series revolving around Atticus Pünd, a German private detective circa 1950’s England. The bestselling series is Cloverleaf Books’ star, having pulled the company out of near-bankruptcy and keeping it solvent with the publication of each new title. Susan Ryeland is Conway’s editor, and she’s excited to find the newest manuscript on her desk Friday morning. She loves immersing herself in the vintage English crime novel that is each new Atticus Pünd mystery. But as she reads she discovers a problem with the manuscript, and Monday morning, the whole world discovers a problem with the author.

It’s very difficult to write synopses for mysteries, and even more difficult for Magpie Murders, which is a mystery within a mystery. Conway’s novel is a murder mystery set at the manor house of a fictional English village. The characters/suspects are somewhat stereotypical of the genre: the vicar with something to hide; the groundskeeper who might have seen too much; the antiques dealer with a shady past, etc. Conway  manages to breathe life into these standard characters, giving them quirks and depth and intriguing the reader with the question of which one committed the murder.

The story surrounding the Atticus Pünd novel is told by Susan Ryeland. She’s been the only editor of the series, and often the only one forced to deal with Conway’s difficult personality. Perhaps all those years of reading detective stories have settled into her psyche, because when a real-life mystery arises, she’ can’t help but play detective herself.

Magpie Murders is a highly readable and very entertaining novel that feels like being dropped into your favorite British crime series. The cast of characters is huge, but introduced in a way that each seems unique…and could be a suspect. As the pages turned and the stories unfolded I was pulled deeper and deeper into the mystery within a mystery, the clues hidden in the manuscript, and the search for the truth about Atticus Pünd and his temperamental, disagreeable, secretive author.