Washington Post best book of 2017. Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway?s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she?s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus P?nd. Conway?s latest tale has Atticus P?nd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she?s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.