54 pages • 1 hour read
Anthony HorowitzMagpie Murders
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Architecture
Throughout the novel, there are many architectural descriptions of the places in which the characters live and work. In many cases, these details play a key role in informing readers about the character of the people who live there. In others, overtly attractive architectural details may hide secrets and corruption within. At Pye Hall, the mixed nature of the estate reflects the age and history behind the property, and the fact that it has been passed down through generations. Similarly, when Atticus visits other characters like Matthew Blakiston, Clarissa Pye, and Neville Brent, their more modest accommodations indicate that they have both personally and professionally fallen on hard times. The quaint architecture and atmosphere of the village indicates pastoral charm and innocence, even though murders have recently taken place there.
The Cloverleaf Books office building is another example of symbolically significant architecture in the novel. The building is old and represents ties to aristocracy and famous authors and publishers from other periods. When it burns down at the end of the novel, it suggests the end of an era.
Similarly, Alan Conway’s house reflects the author’s personality and struggles. While the house looks akin to Pye Hall with a grand tower and exterior, on the inside it is much less impressive, mirroring the way in which Alan is unsatisfied by the success of his own work. The architecture throughout the novel serves as an important device that reflects the economic status and emotional state of various characters.
Birds
Birds play a recurring role throughout the novel. The draft of Alan’s manuscript is titled Magpie Murders, and the chapter headings throughout the story reflect a popular children’s rhyme about magpies. All the characters in Magpie Murders have bird-based names. Magpies even make a direct appearance in the novel during Mary Blakiston’s funeral and in Matthew Blakiston’s premonition of Mary’s death.
Magpies are notoriously deceptive and tricky, mirroring the actions of many of the characters within the novel who scheme and hide their true intentions. Like birds, many of the characters in the novel want the ability to simply fly away and escape their current situation. Birds are a harbinger of death that haunt the novel but may also represent a chance at freedom and change.
Wordplay
Throughout Magpie Murders, as well as in many of his other works, Alan Conway uses wordplay and word games to entertain both himself and the reader. From hiding various anagrams in the novel, to cleverly disguising real people as fictional characters, to lifting everything from places to character names from real-life locations and works of fiction, Conway’s novels are puzzles to decipher, full of hints, clues, and tricks along the way.
In attempting to solve the mystery of Alan’s murder, Susan must rely on many similar clues. From the words included in his suicide note to her conversations with other people, Susan is able to slowly piece together a picture of what really happened based on the details that people let slip. While words can abstract and obscure, they can also lead readers toward the truth.
Mystery Novels
Magpie Murders includes many different homages to various mystery novels, particularly classic British mystery author Agatha Christie. From setting the murders in a small English town, to bringing in a mysterious outside detective, to gathering everyone together to hear the truth at the conclusion of the novel, the book clearly engages in the tropes and trappings of classic mystery fiction.
Interestingly, Susan Ryeland turns these tropes on their head. Unlike Atticus, she is an amateur detective, working with no outside help and no real idea of what she’s doing. In the characters of both Atticus and Susan, the novel delights in and subverts the traditional aspects of a mystery novel. By including a novel within a novel, the book exhibits a playful self-awareness of the genre.
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By Anthony Horowitz
