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Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Melissa DeMotte of 

The author has multiple novels to his name, on top of a slew of British television series like "Midsomer Murders" and "Foyle's War."

Bookseller Melissa DeMotte was hooked by the doubled stakes of "Magpie Murders."

Horowitz, she said, "styles his mysteries much like Agatha Christie. It's definitely a whodunit, a lot of suspects, but what makes this really fun is that there's a novel 

 the novel. So there's two different mysteries that you ultimately are trying to figure out." 

While the narrator of "Magpie Murders" starts explaining the story of one mysterious death in the publishing world, the book also dives into portions of an author's unpublished manuscript, where there are even more murders afoot in a secluded British village.


"This guy knows how to create a mystery. He's very crafty. There's not a lot of red herrings — everyone has a purpose in the story. And the sense of place! I loved the description of that little town. It felt very real and very old, and I could just see those nosy neighbors."


Ultimately, DeMotte said, "It's a really fun read, a very different style. You have to do a little more thinking. It's a thinker's summer read."

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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Ask a bookseller

Tracy Mumford

Author

Bookseller Melissa DeMotte says Anthony Horowitz styles his mysteries like Agatha Christie -- but he takes it up a notch.

Get ready for murder times two: "Magpie Murders" has a novel inside the novel, so there's two different mysteries afoot.

This novel is 'a thinker's summer read'

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