Why a Booktrail?
1950s: A novel within a novel and a crime wrapped in an enigma
Magpie Murders
What you need to know before your trail
Editor Susan Ryeland is given the tattered manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel. She’s pleased as vintage crime sells vey well and she’s worked with the revered crime writer for years and his detective, Atticus Pund, is renowned for solving crimes in the sleepy English villages of the 1950s. It’s just a shame that it means dealing with an author like Alan Conway…
But Conway’s latest tale of murder at Pye Hall is not quite what it seems. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but hidden in the pages of the manuscript there lies another story: a tale written between the very words on the page and this story is not going to end very well indeed….
Travel Guide
Saxby on Avon (fictional)
The book within the book is set in Saxby on Avon, a fictional little English village where Atticus starts helping Inspector Raymond Chubb in a double murder – two murders. A cleaning woman, Mary Blakiston has been murdered and Sir Magnus has been beheaded at Pye Hall. Atticus is on the verge of announcing who the murderer is, when the manuscript ends…but there are three chapters missing.
Saxby on Avon is fictional yet close to Bath. This is a nice little village with a vintage museum on its station and a castle – Pye Hall?
Real life
Life soon starts to imitate art when Alan Conway, the author, is discovered dead, apparently having committed suicide. Cloverleaf Books is in serious financial straits (no!) and Alan their best author. An insight into a author of Golden age crime and then stepping inside the novel itself is a rare literary treat!
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Magpie Murders
Author/Guide: Anthony Horowitz Destination:Bristol, Framlingham London Departure Time: 1950s, 2000s
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