Book Review: Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
In a world populated by "meta" fiction (stories about storytelling, stories within stories, etc.) Magpie Murders (2016) by Anthony Horowitz, is about as meta as it gets. In fact, it's even more meta than it gets, and I'll explain how.
The book is essentially divided into two parts. Part One is an English "cozy" detective story that takes place in the 1950s in a small, sleepy, fictional English town. Someone dies mysteriously in an otherwise calm and boring community...and whodunit?? But...Magpie Murders ads a fun twist by setting that story within the context of a modern day murder. You see, the author of the English "cozy" is himself murdered, and the book's publisher gets to play the detective and figure out whodunit! Whoaaa! META!
Not a bad plot, but the second part -- the part that takes place in the modern day -- is about 100 pages too long and mostly a snooze. The first part, the novel that takes place in the English countryside, was far more compelling. In fact, I'd love it if Anthony Horowitz would have just written an English cozy and left it at that, without continuing the story as he did. Points for an ingenious plot, but the second part was a slog.
Furthermore, it felt a bit like Anthony Horowitz has some kind of ax to grind against the publishing industry and it was a bit too easy to see his own experience as an author coming through. For some reason, it's off-putting to have to read fiction about writers and I'm surprised books like this still get published. Maybe it's because I'm a writer, but I have no interest in reading a book in which a multiple-times published author (even a fictional one) bemoans the fact that he's "had" to turn to writing detective novels in order to find success, because no one wanted to publish his more "literary" work. In the case of Magpie Murders, it's woven genuinely into part of the plot. But still.
Anthony Horowitz takes the meta fiction to an even greater, and more cheeky level in Magpie Murders, however, referencing a TV show that he himself wrote, as part of the plot of Magpie Murders. I don't know...call me a curmudgeon if you will. This kind of thing just gives me the willies and smacks of the writer giggling to himself as he's writing, something which I absolutely abhor.
Again, I'd have enjoyed this book much more if it was just the English cozy detective story. The second part just felt like a forced appendage. Good thing Anthony Horowitz actually does have a couple dozen detective novels behind him from which to choose! And not surprising, because he seemed much, much more comfortable in that zone.
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