Magpie Murders is a Brisk, Dexterous Murder Mystery about the Fun of Reading ‹ CrimeReads

Magpie Murders, Anthony Horowitz's profoundly literary meta-mystery novel from 2016, might not seem like an obvious choice for adaptation to a television series. So much about the novel is about the practice of reading. The story begins when a book editor named Susan Ryeland presents a strange event that changed her life: a mystery that came to her attention when she read the manuscript of a new mystery novel called Magpie Murders. That mystery manuscript is unfinished, though, which means Susan has to go and hunt for the answer herself. But that novel also contains the clues to a real-life mystery, and it is up to Susan (and her own readers) to dig them out and connect them to the real-life circumstance. Horowitz's Magpie Murders is pure pleasure-a beguiling and refreshing experiment with the traditional murder mystery genre that follows the rules while also taking on an entirely new dimension.