History Literature / MagpieMurders

* DramaticIrony: In ''Pünd's Last Case'', [[spoiler:Joy hires Pünd to prove that, as she knows, he didn't kill his mother Mary. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't realize that he committed an ''earlier'' murder.]]
* EpilogueLetter: ''Pünd's Last Case'' ends with [[spoiler:Pünd leaving to commit suicide or AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence (depending on your perspective) and writing an emotional letter to his [[TheWatson James Fraser.]]]]

* IdyllicEnglishVillage: The idyllic British village is a common setting both in- and out of universe for the Atticus Pünd novels and Susan Ryland's mystery-solving. ''Magpie Murders'' is set in the cozy Framlingham, Suffolk, and the book within a book, ''Pünd's Last Case'', is set in a small, ostensibly friendly town in Somerset.

* NotTheFirstVictim: In "Pünd's Last Case", Pünd figures out that this trope is subverted in one way, and played straight in another. [[spoiler: Robert killed Magnus Pye, but not his mother, Mary, who is the apparent first victim. It turns out he killed Pye due to having drowned his younger brother as children, and Mary, who knew, had left a confession with Pye in the event of her sudden death because she suspected that Robert would kill her too.]]

* TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone: [[spoiler: It ultimately turns out that Magnus's sister should have inherited the family seat instead of him]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Both]]






* FairPlayWhodunnit: Both the novel-within-a-novel ''Atticus Pünd Takes The Case'' and the present-day frame story fit this trope, as does ''Pünd's Last Case'' (although it requires Susan to find the final chapter to figure out the answer).
* GenreSavvy: Susan has been an avid fan and editor of whodunnit mystery novels for many years, so she goes through the entire Conway murder investigation trying to use the genre conventions to help guide her.
-->'''Susan:''' You'd have thought that after twenty years editing murder mysteries, I'd have noticed when I found myself in the middle of one.
* IdyllicEnglishVillage: The idyllic British village is a common setting both in- and out of universe for the Atticus Pünd novels and Susan Ryland's mystery-solving. ''Magpie Murders'' is set in the cozy Framlingham, Suffolk, and the book within a book, ''Pünd's Last Case'', is set in a small, ostensibly friendly town in Somerset.
* MetaphoricallyTrue: Atticus says that [[spoiler:Matthew killed Mary Blakiston. This is not true; he didn't push her down the stairs, but she died as a result of his actions - she ran to answer the phone, tripped over the vacuum cord, and broke her neck.]]
* PoliceAreUseless: In both plot lines, with the detective in the real world having been the inspiration for Conway's character, causing him such intense hatred towards Conway that he has no inclination to give the investigation any real effort. The one exception is Hughes in ''Atticus Pünd Takes The Case'', who is presented as a respectful and fully credible TheWatson.






[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Magpie Murders'']]

* OrgyOfEvidence: When someone mails Susan what appears to be a photograph of the murder, it only convinces here that that person did ''not'' do it. Someone is trying to hard too put him in the frame.

** Alan Conway's initials and hatred of the genre fiction he was forced to write to make a living reminds one of Arthur Conan Doyle.

* AuthorAppeal: InUniverse. Conway fills his books with little Easter Eggs for himself, like certain character naming conventions, and writes portrays characters based on people he knows in ways that amuse him, such as having his boyfriend James Taylor be "James Fraser," Pünd's [[TheWatson dim-witted but charming assistant]].

''Magpie Murders'' is a 2016 mystery novel by Creator/AnthonyHorowitz. A work of MetaFiction, it is actually two [[FairPlayWhodunnit Fair-Play Whodunnits]] in one. The plot concerns a London-based editor named Susan Ryeland who is given the manuscript of best-selling mystery writer Alan Conway's latest novel, ''[[TitleDrop Magpie Murders]]''. Like Conway's other books, it is a pastiche of [[Creator/AgathaChristie Agatha Christie's]] Poirot novels, featuring quirky detective Atticus Pünd as he solves a murder in a sleepy English countryside village where nothing is as it seems.

* CozyMystery: Deconstructed. The Atticus Pünd books are usually pretty straight examples (though not without darker hints in the vein of a traditional Creator/AgathaChristie novel). Susan's mysteries are often much more sordid and far from cozy, reflecting their modern origins.
* DepravedHomosexual: Alan Conway is a DisappearedDad who abandoned his son after coming out as gay, preferring to have sex with prostitutes young enough to ''be'' his son.
* EpilogueLetter: ''Pünd's Last Case'' ends with [[spoiler:Pünd leaving to commit suicide or AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence (depending on your perspective) and writing an emotional letter to his [[TheWatson James Fraser.]]]]
* {{Expy}}:
** Atticus Pünd is a clear stand in for Literature/HerculePoirot, although he's German instead of Belgian and given a backstory of escaping the Holocaust. James Fraser is a stand-in for [[TheWatson Captain Hastings]].
** Alan Conway's initials and hatred of the genre fiction he was forced to write to make a living reminds one of Arthur Conan Doyle.

* MetaFiction: The frame story is initially just an editor reading a new mystery novel and the first half of the book ''is'' this fictional novel. Then, halfway through, she discovers the ending is missing and winds up in a murder mystery of her own that heavily resembles the one she was just reading.
** The sequel, ''Moonflower Murders'' twists this approach somewhat -- Susan is aware right from the start that she's in a murder mystery, and we don't get to the novel-within-a-novel until nearly halfway into the book.

* MostWritersAreWriters: Subverted here in that the author is not the protagonist of the story. In fact, he's a major douchebag {{Jerkass}} and the ''murder victim''. Editors, who are normally portrayed as ruthlessly tearing apart a writer's work, are given a positive portrayal here through protagonist Susan Ryeland.

* RealPersonCameo: The grandson of ''Creator/AgathaChristie'' appears as an associate of Conway. In a post-novel extra, Anthony Horowitz himself tells about the time he interviewed Conway (and found him just as much of a {{Jerkass}} as everyone else). Creator/SophieHannah appears in the foreword to the short story "Eight for Dinner, Seven for Dessert".
* RedHerring: Hoo boy. A boatload in both the InUniverse novels and Susan's plotlines.
* StraightGay: Alan Conway and his partner James Taylor.
* SignificantAnagram: [[spoiler:"Atticus Pünd" is an anagram of "a stupid cunt," showing Conway's feelings towards the detective genre. This is also the motive for his murder.]]

* TSummationGathering: In true [[Literature/HerculePoirot Poirot]] style, Atticus Pünd gives one of these at the end of ''Magpie Murders'' where he explains who the killer is and how/why they did it. Also, Susan gives one to [[spoiler:Charles Clover]] at the end of her plotline where she explains to them how she solved Conway's murder.
* ThemeNaming: Conway gives the characters in every Atticus Pünd novel a differently-themed last name: birds in ''Magpie Murders'', crime writers in ''Moonflower Murders''. [[spoiler:Susan figures out Conway's murderer when she spots the OddNameOut.]]

* AuthorAppeal: InUniverse. Conway fills his books with little Easter Eggs for himself, like certain character naming conventions, and writes portrays characters based on people he knows in ways that amuse him, such as having his boyfriend James Taylor be "James Fraser," Pünd's [[TheWatson dim-witted but charming assistant]].
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Susan and her boyfriend have a fairly strained relationship, but he saves her life, had been planning a nice surprise for her and ultimately does end up living happily with her in an epilogue. In ''Moonflower Murders'', she's concerned that he's planning to leave her; instead, he saves her again.

A sequel, ''Moonflower Murders'', using a similar metafictional approach, was published in 2020. As part of the sequel's marketing campaign for Australia's Dymocks bookstore chain, Horowitz wrote an exclusive short story, ''Dinner for Eight, Dessert for Seven'', beginning with a foreword in which real-life authour Creator/SophieHannah [[note]] writer of the official 'missing' Poirot novels, commissioned by the Christie estate[[/note]] takes Conway to task for saying he's out of ideas, saying that you can find ideas anywhere. In response, Conway writes this short story [[spoiler: which turns out to be a blatant rip-off of Theatre/{{Hamlet}}]]. Horowitz has said that one more novel in the series is planned.

* TheSummation:
** In true [[Literature/HerculePoirot Poirot]] style, Atticus Pünd gives one of these at the end of ''Magpie Murders'' where he explains who the killer is and how/why they did it. Also, Susan gives one to [[spoiler:Charles Clover]] at the end of her plotline where she explains to them how she solved Conway's murder.
** He also gives one in ''Moonflower Murders'', which is invoked by Susan. She says she wanted him to cut it because she found it out of character for Pund to humiliate one of the suspects that way, but Conway wouldn't budge.
** Susan also gives one in ''Moonflower Murders'', but unintentionally; she said she didn't expect Laurence to bring his whole family along.

* SignificantAnagram:
** [[spoiler:"Atticus Pünd" is an anagram of "a stupid cunt," showing Conway's feelings towards the detective genre. This is also the motive for his murder.]]
** In ''Moonflower Murders'', [[spoiler:the name of the killer in ''Atticus Pünd Takes the Case'' is an anagram of the name of the killer in the real murder.]]

* DepravedHomosexual: Both are also {{Asshole Victim}}s: Alan Conway is a DisappearedDad who abandoned his son after coming out as gay, preferring to have sex with prostitutes young enough to ''be'' his son.
* EpilogueLetter:
** ''Pünd's Last Case'' ends with [[spoiler:Pünd leaving to commit suicide or AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence (depending on your perspective) and writing an emotional letter to his [[TheWatson James Fraser.]]]]
** Played with in ''Moonflower Murders''. Although not technically the epilogue, Susan leaves to go back to Greece and then receives the letter from Lawrence and the [[spoiler:suicide note from Aiden]], which is the final word we hear from the Trehernes or any of the single-book characters.

* IdyllicEnglishVillage: The idyllic British village is a common setting both in- and out of universe for the Atticus Pünd novels and Susan Ryland's mystery-solving.
** ''Atticus Pünd Takes The Case'' is set in Tawleigh-on-the-Water in rural Devon, a small town where everybody knows everybody, set around a country hotel. It's an {{expy}} for the equally fictional but no less warm and inviting Branlow Hall in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
** ''Magpie Murders'' is set in the cozy Framlingham, Suffolk, and the book within a book, ''Pünd's Last Case'', is set in a small, ostensibly friendly town in Somerset.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: In-universe for ''Moonflower Murders'' and the Pünd book ''Atticus Pünd Takes The Case''. Madeline Cain doesn't appear in ''Pünd's Last Case'', because she's been replaced by James Fraser in the book after. [[spoiler:This spoils fairly early that she's going to go in some way; she actually kills Melissa's husband after she believes that he killed Melissa.]]

* MetaphoricallyTrue: Conway is a big fan of these.
** Atticus says that [[spoiler:Matthew killed Mary Blakiston. This is not true; he didn't push her down the stairs, but she died as a result of his actions - she ran to answer the phone, tripped over the vacuum cord, and broke her neck.]]
** In the sequel, "for Frank and Leo, in remembrance." [[spoiler:It sounds to Susan like Alan means Leo and Frank both died. In fact, it refers to Conway's memory of what happened.]]

* DepravedHomosexual: Both are also {{Asshole Victim}}s:
** Alan Conway is a DisappearedDad who abandoned his son after coming out as gay, preferring to have sex with prostitutes young enough to ''be'' his son.
** In ''Moonflower Murders'', Frank, who is even Alan's mentor sexuality-wise. He's into even younger sex workers and [[BondageIsBad BDSM]], with Frazer noting that he was into extreme violence and [[spoiler:he tried to blackmail Aiden into having sex with him ''on his wedding night''.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Moonflower Murders'']]
* CheatedDeathDiedAnyway: In ''Atticus Pünd Takes The Case'', [[spoiler:Melissa is strangled by her husband.]] She is still alive, just nearly unconscious, when she [[spoiler:calls her boyfriend to come over, and then ''he'' kills her, also via strangulation.]]
* ChekhovsSkill: [[spoiler:Cecily's fondness for anagrams. It meant that she was able to figure out that Madeline Cain = Aiden [=MacNeil=].]]
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: [[spoiler:Robert killed Pye to protect his future with Joy to hide his past crimes. Aiden killed Frank to hide his past as a sex worker, but he never loved Cecily and was only with her for her money, brutally killing her with no remorse.]]
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Cecily was murdered by Aiden on the day she disappeared, so Susan's investigation is technically fruitless.]]
* DrivenToSuicide:
** In ''Atticus Pünd Takes The Case'', Nancy attempts suicide [[spoiler:because she's pregnant.]] Thanks to Pünd's intervention, it becomes a HappilyFailedSuicide.
** [[spoiler:Aiden kills himself at the end by jumping in front of a train.]]
* EvilCounterpart: [[spoiler:Aiden]] is one for [[spoiler:James Taylor. Both are young GoldDigger men who were paid for sex by wealthy older men; while James genuinely grew to care for Alan, Aiden always hated being forced to have very violent sex with Frank, and then murdered him for trying to blackmail him for sex on his wedding night to Cecily.]]
* EvilCripple and MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency: In Conway's novel, Eric isn't a murderer, but he is ThePeepingTom who is presented as stunted specifically because of his club foot and treated as though this is somehow linked to his cognitive issues. Susan notes how unfortunate this is in-universe.
* ExactWords:
** "It was staring me in the face from the very first page." [[spoiler:Cecily means both the dedication to Leo and Madeline's full name in the character page.]]
** "We've met before." [[spoiler:Susan takes this to mean at the front desk. In reality, Alan recognized Aiden from his sordid past as Leo.]]
* FakeFaint: Madeline pretends to faint over the violence so that [[spoiler:she can hide her letters to Melissa.]]
* FauxYay: [[spoiler:Aiden]] is a victim of this; unlike James, he isn't gay, he's straight, but [[IWasYoungAndNeededTheMoney desperation]] drove him to prostitute himself to older men.
* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Bad adultery is Susan's considered affair with Craig (though she doesn't actually do it), and Melissa's in-story affair with [[spoiler:Leonard, who murdered her to conceal it]]; good adultery is [[spoiler:Cecily cheating on the sociopathic Aiden, who eventually murdered ''her'', with Stefan.]]
* HiddenInPlainSight: In the sequel, ''Moonflower Murders'', someone intimately involved with the case the book-within-a-book ''Atticus Pünd Takes the Case'' is based on is able to tell who the killer was from the very first page: [[spoiler:the book is dedicated to the victim and their killer]].
* LoonyFan: Melissa has a few. [[spoiler:Including Madeline Cain.]]
* MeaningfulName: Roxana. [[spoiler:The meaningful part is that it's a Romanian name, like Stefan.]]
* NameOfCain: Madeline Cain, Atticus's GirlFriday in the novel-within-a-novel. [[spoiler:She murdered Melissa's husband for thinking he killed Melissa, of whom she was a LoonyFan, and shows zero remorse because he was keeping her from the screen, even after finding out that she was wrong.]]
* NotActuallyHisChild: [[spoiler:Roxana is Stefan's daughter, not Aiden's.]]
* PredatoryProstitute: Male prostitute Leo is suspected of having murdered Frank Parrish in revenge for his brutal "sex games". [[spoiler:And he did. Even worse, "Leo" is actually Aiden, Cecily's husband, married her exclusively for her money, and then killed Frank because he tried to force him into having sex on their wedding night.]]
* ShadyRealEstateAgent: [[spoiler:Aiden met his wife Cecily while he was showing her a house -- and he was also [[HouseSquatting squatting]] in a swish flat so he could appear wealthy, and using it to [[PredatoryProstitute prostitute himself.]] Although he worked at a hotel by then, he also murdered Cecily when she found out that he'd killed one of his clients.]]
* StoryboardBody: Aiden's tattoo is [[spoiler:a Leo symbol, telling Susan that he ''is'' Leo, the prostitute that Frank used.]]
* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: [[spoiler:Leo and Aiden are the same person.]]
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Invoked in-universe.
** Susan, as Alan's editor, said she found the character of Eric Chandler very unsavory, given that he was ThePeepingTom who watched Melissa dress, and felt he should receive more of a comeuppance in ''Atticus Pünd Takes The Case''.
** She also says that she found Atticus unsympathetic for choosing to reveal Nancy's pregnancy during TheSummation and putting her through the trauma of being there, despite knowing that Nancy couldn't have killed Melissa and Nancy's suicide attempt.

* MythologyGag: Dr. Redwing is from King's Abbott, and her father Dr. Edgar Rennard still lives there. The fictional village of King's Abbott was the setting for one of Agatha Christie's most famous books, ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'', and ''Magpie Murders'' is an affectionate pastiche of Christie.