Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
January 11, 2018
PERSONAL INFORMATION: Born April 5, 1955, in Stanmore, Middlesex (some sources say North London), England; Education: University of York, B.A. E-mail: ajhorowitz@aol.com.
CAREER: Creator, screenwriter, and co-producer of television series Foyle's War, 2002-05.
Creator of the television series Midsomer Murders,Author of "The Last Englishman" and "Menace," for the television series Heroes & Villains, has also written television screenplays for Agatha Christie's Poirot, Crime Traveller, and The Saint.
Horowitz has written several series of book for children and for teens, including graphic novels.
British author Anthony Horowitz, 62, has sold 16 million books over a 37-year writing career. He's created memorable original characters while conjuring the prose style, atmosphere, and characterizations of both Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming. With his latest, Magpie Murders , Horowitz has set himself an even higher bar than simulating the work of legendary authors: reinventing the whodunit, almost a century after the fair-play rules of the genre were established….
Like vital evidence hidden in plain view by the author toward the beginning of a golden age novel, the first clue that Horowitz would grow up to become a successful mystery author may have appeared at his birth on Apr. 5, 1955. He was delivered by Dr. Jack Suchet, the father of David Suchet, the actor who has most faithfully portrayed Agatha Christie's beloved Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. "I owe my existence in this world to the Suchet family," Horowitz jokes over breakfast at Manhattan's Crosby Street Hotel.
Interview about Magpie Murders on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2017/06/13/532173809/what-makes-a-good-whodunit-magpie-murders-author-spells-it-out
Anthony Horowitz home page: https://www.anthonyhorowitz.com
Magpie murders:
Readers can imagine the frustration of book editor Susan Ryeland: the final chapters are missing from author Alan Conway's latest mystery manuscript starring his Poirot-esque detective! Conway’s sudden, suspicious death means that Susan must piece together the ending by interviewing his friends and family; then she realizes that the novel’s characters are stand-ins for real people and that the book may be related to the author’s death. Containing a novel-within-a-novel, suspense, and plenty of details that Golden Age mystery fans will relish, the cleverly plotted Magpie Murders has something for everyone. -- Description by Dawn Towery.
Read-alikes:
1.
|
Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch Reason: Both involve complex characters
haunted by a work of fiction that is central to the story. Although Magpie Murders is more of a classic mystery about a book within a book, both unconventional stories slowly reveal an unexpected twist. -- Andrienne Cruz |
2
|
Miss me when I'm gone by Emily Arsenault Reason: While Magpie Murders
presents a mystery novel whose author has died, and Miss Me When I'm Gone supplies clues to a writer's death through her unfinished manuscript, both metafictional stories connect actual deaths with supposedly fictional writing . -- Katherine Johnson |
3
|
Noir by Robert Coover Reason: Riffing on Agatha Christie-style whodunits
(Magpie Murders) and Raymond Chandler-style hardboiled mysteries (Noir), these intricately plotted metafiction novels fall somewhere between homage and commentary. Magpie Murders contains puzzles for readers to solve; Noir stresses inventive language and imagery. -- Mike Nilsson |
4
|
The nobodies album by Carolyn Parkhurst Reason: Either fiction imitates
life, or life imitates fiction, in these compelling murder mysteries that include novels-within-novels. Magpie Murders contains a mystery novel whose author has committed suicide; The Nobodies Album portrays a novelist whose books eerily reflect reality. -- Katherine Johnson |
