Another Horowitz mystery novel which I liked.
I'm not going to tell you again I'm not a big fan of the mystery novel or of the classic whodunnit's for a myriad of reasons, but I must admit that Anthony Horowitz seems the exception to this.
I've read Moriarty by him and thought is was very well-written and was able to hold my attention sufficiently.
Magpie Murders shared these feelings. It's actually two whodunnit's in one, which might be too much of a mediocre thing, but it worked very well because of the author's input why he liked this genre so much.
I always like input of the author, the raison d'être of a novel, which the format of this novel lend itself beautifully.
Susan, the narrator of our story, feels like the voice of Anthony himself and I like the way in which he even finds time to ridicule the established society of book publishers and their editors. (It must have been a joy proof reading this. I hope his editor had enough of a sense of humor)
The story revolves around another story and its author, Alan Conway. It's a fictive character who has written a fictive story which is actually contained in the first half of Magpie Murders.
The introduction to his story leaves you interested at how the story will unfold. Also, when you briefly thumb down, you immediately notice the change in font and that as soon as the manuscript of Alan Conway is finished, the page numbers start from 1 again.
My interest was piqued and it helped that the manuscript was written well enough.
As we follow Atticus Pünd, the detective in the manuscript, trying to decipher the murder of Magnus Pye, we follow his actions as we would when watching a detective show on television. We watch event unfold, but we never get a glimpse of how the mind of this detective works.
At the end of the manuscript it quickly becomes clear that the author Alan Conway has been murdered, which sets an entirely other 'detective' in motion from who we do get a sense in which direction the investigation is taken. It's an entirely different approach to a classic whodunnit, an approach I like much better because of the emotional investment it requires of you. Instead of being a mere witnesser, you get to take part in the investigation and even if you don't agree with how things are unfolding it's still more interesting that the former.
And to think that I've been reading his novels since I was little. I'm glad he begun to write to cater to his 'past audience'.
