Magpie Murders

Magpie Murders
By Anthony Horowitz
The story begins with a murder. A maid has been found dead at the bottom of a staircase in the mansion home she cleans in a picturesque London village. Almost every single person in the town has a reason for killing her. One resident travels to London to enlist the help of the famous Atticus Pund to help find her killer. Much to her dismay, he declines.  He only decides to help a week later when the maid's employer is found murdered at the bottom of the same stairs and he is sure the two cases are connected. He travels to Saxby-on-Avon with his assistant, James Fraser, and begins to investigate. This is a classic "whodunit" filled with a cast of characters, clues and lots of fun trying to solve the case. But, this is actually two books in one. The story "Magpie Murders" is the first half of the book~at which point you find out something horrible has happened to the author of that book. So, you are then, "on the case" to find HIS killer! The 2 murders are similar in a lot of ways and Anthony Horowitz does a great job of helping the reader to see all the clues of each, and ultimately solve 2 murders. The story is a homage to all the classic murder mystery books of days gone by, and in fact Agatha Christie is mentioned several times throughout. There are a few "secret clues lost in the pages  for the reader to discover on their own, and it just really is a fun book to get lost in. Highly recommended!