Key themes
- The whodunit inside a whodunit — two mysteries, one solution-shaped hole
- The golden-age pastiche and what it conceals
- Editors, authors and who really owns a story
About this book
A murder mystery inside a murder mystery; a loving, ingenious tribute to golden-age crime.
Published in 2016, Magpie Murders was a bestseller and was adapted into a television series scripted by Horowitz himself. Horowitz has also written official Sherlock Holmes and James Bond continuation novels, making him the genre's leading pasticheur.
Discussion questions
- The novel contains an entire Atticus Pünd mystery inside the frame story of its editor Susan Ryeland. How does Horowitz manage the double structure — and which mystery did you find more compelling?
- Alan Conway despises the detective fiction that made him rich and salts his manuscripts with private contempt. What is Horowitz saying about genre, snobbery and the relationship between writers and their creations?
- The missing final chapter is the hinge between the two mysteries. How does Horowitz use the absence — and what does it say about endings and what readers need from them?
- The Pünd sections are a loving, exact pastiche of Christie. What does the imitation achieve beyond homage — and how does Horowitz signal the differences between pastiche and parody?
- Magpie Murders is both a celebration and a critique of the cosy mystery. Can a novel have it both ways — and does this one?
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