Magpie Murders Season 1 review: A whodunit within a whodunit made extra special by Lesley Manville

Anthony Horowitz’s 2016 crime novel adaptation is clever and delightful with fabulous twists.

Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan in the six-part series

Magpie Murders season 1

Story: Editor Susan Ryeland has been working with bestselling author Alan Conway on his Atticus Pund murder mystery series for years. Eight books down and one last one to go, Conway hands in a manuscript that’s missing the last chapter. By the time Susan realizes this, Conway perishes in a freak accident at his Suffolk home. Determined to find the missing chapter and figure out the killer in the book, Susan sets out to Suffolk, but what she unearths in the process is more than just the thrilling end to a bestselling book.

Review: The six-part crime series Magpie Murders , which debuted in the UK a week ago, is now available to stream in India too. The adaptation of bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s 2016 novel of the same name, the series has been written for the screen by the novelist himself. Magpie Murders follows Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville), the senior editor at Clover Publishing House, who’s been working closely with their bestselling author Alan Conway (Conleth Hill) on his murder mystery series featuring detective Atticus Pund. After eight successful books, which made Conway a very rich man, he’s all set to end the series with a ninth and final book, Magpie Murders. But shortly after handing in the manuscript, which, as it turns out, is missing the last chapter with the conclusion to the mystery, Conway, falls to his death from the tower at his home.

For Clover, which was on the verge of being taken over by a media giant, the deal is contingent on handing over the entire catalogue of Conway’s work, including the latest novel, so, Susan decides to head to his Suffolk home and find the missing pages. Conway was known to write his books by hand first before putting them in digital form, but turns out, someone’s cleared out his office – his computer’s been wiped and there’s no trace of his notes, or his copy of the manuscript. Fishy, right? So, Susan decides to play sleuth and find out who could have gotten their hands on the copy, and, more importantly, the final chapter. What she uncovers is more than she bargained for.

The beauty of the series is how both mysteries have been interwoven, with actors playing characters both in modern day as well as in the 1950s world of Atticus Pund. Unlike the novel that the show is based on, here the focus is more on Susan and her ‘investigation’, but it never loses sight of the mystery that has to be unravelled in the book. While the story itself is fascinating, due credit must also be given to the wonderful cast on the show, led by Oscar nominee Manville, and ably supported by Tim McMullan as Atticus Pund, Alexandros Logothetis, Harry Lawtey, Ian Lloyd Anderson, Daniel Mays, Sanjeev Kohli, Karen Westwood, etc.

Verdict: Hands down, the British make crime/investigative shows a lot better than their American counterparts, and Magpie Murders, at only six episodes, will have you invested in the whodunit within the whodunit from the word go. If murder mysteries are right up your alley, go ahead and stream this one now.

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