Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz features two intertwined plots: one is the mystery novel about a German detective Atticus Pünd, authored by the fictional writer Alan Conway; and the other follows publishing editor Susan Ryeland as she searches for the missing final chapter of Conway's novel while also investigating Conway's death.

If you haven't read and internalised many, many Agatha Christie books, Magpie Murders will probably not resonate with you. There is a purposeful slowness to the book, especially when it comes to the story within the story, which is pretty much vintage Christie. There are characters who could have come straight from the village of St. Mary Mead. There is a breakfast scene consciously or subconsciously modelled on the one in A Murder is Announced. And of course, Atticus Pünd, the foreign outsider detective with a lovable dimwit sidekick, is our dear Hercule Poirot.

I remember that Dame Agatha herself used a similar ploy in her books by creating a character called Ariadne Oliver. Ariadne (like Christie) is a crime fiction novelist, the creator of the Finnish detective Sven Hjerson.

Another nugget is that the book within the book is based on a children's rhyme about magpies (one for sorrow, two for joy), which is another device often used by Ms Christie.

I loved it, but, you know what? As soon as I finished Magpie Murders, instead of turning to its sequel, I quickly re-read three of my favourite Agatha Christie novels, and I'm in the mood for more. Apologies, Anthony Horowitz, you'll have to wait.