Magpie Murders

The fictional investigation into the murder of an overbearing and obnoxious Lord by a literary detective parallels the actual investigation into the murder of the book's overbearing and obnoxious author. The story within a story is very well structured and the rationale for the 'real life' characters having 'fictional' counterparts quite clever. The cast, led by Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan, is uniformly excellent and the story holds together well over the six parts, avoiding the 'suspect of the week' structure common in multi episode who-done-its and setting up a final resolution that is both cheeky and satisfying. Consider counting the birds. Recommended.

Anthony Horowitz . . . Where have you been? I've missed you since Foyle's War! Sure, Alex Rider is fun. I enjoy those too. But the clever writing, the plot twists, the dogged detective, and let's not forget--the perfect and detailed production values that your wife Jill Green seems to always ensure for your pieces--all these add up here to be a delight. Casting seems perfect; acting is solid throughout. Wish I could binge watch but apparently I'll have to make do with weekly releases on my PBS Masterpiece app. I hope I'll see more from you in the future; these have been too far between. I want more!

This was one of the best series I've seen in a long time. The story is told in several layers. The central mystery follows the book editor's investigation into the death of the best selling author and the missing final chapter of his last book. In parallel we follow the fictional detective, Atticus Pund, as the story in the last novel unfolds. The use of the same actors in both the present day and the novel adds another dimension to the story telling. The acting is superb, with Lesley Manville as the editor leading a strong cast. Seek this series out. It deserves to be seen more widely.

Susan Ryeland, the editor of the 'Atticus Pund' detective novels, receives a new manuscript but its unfinished and the author is... The drama switches between the present day and the fictional 1955 plot of the book. Its very cleverly done.

Adapted by Anthony Horowitz (Foyle's War) from his own book I was expecting something decent and it doesn't disappoint. If you want a well-written and acted period detective series with some modern twists, dive in you'll love it. Principal cast were all very good and at 45m an episode it breezes by.

As others have correctly said this is a slightly above average offering from the genre of the easy watching gentle whodunnit

Lesley Manville and the main actors are all and the plot interesting and engaging but ..... Why oh why do they feel the need to change historical fact to supposedly attract a more diverse audience?!

All the fringe characters from this little English village in 1955 are non-white, of course they are! 😔 I'm not begrudging anyone making a living but it is ridiculously jarring and distracts from your investment of time and suspension of disbelief

Will stick with it and try and gloss over the failings until/ unless it gets even sillier.