Everything to Remember from 'Magpie Murders' Ahead of 'Moonflower Murders'

Magpie Murders is the brainchild of Anthony Horowitz, the prolific writer known for television titles like Foyle’s War. This tale began as a novel (also penned by Horowitz) and is part of his Susan Ryeland Series. As much a meditation on why we love mystery stories as it is a mystery novel, the book employs a story within a story to make space for Horowitz’s meta musings on the genre he’s spent his life writing. To achieve the same effect, the show elects to take the “story within a story” trope and turn it into a TV show within a TV show, giving the viewers two concurrent mysteries to solve: one in present-day, starring editor Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) as she investigates the death of her client, top mystery writer Alan Conway (Conleth Hill) and one 1950s period-piece mystery series, following the plot of Conway’s final novel featuring his hit detective, Atticus Pünd (Tim McMullan). Most of the cast does double duty, playing characters in both the real and fictional worlds.

While publicly adored for his books, we are introduced to Alan Conway as an arse with many interpersonal conflicts. When he’s found dead shortly after turning in his latest manuscript, and a suicide note arrives in the mail revealing he had terminal cancer, D.I. Locke (Daniel Mays, who plays the dual role of the fictional Inspector Chubb) is happy to call the case closed. But Susan insists the note doesn’t sound like Conway. Further, jumping off the tower of his estate to die in agony doesn’t make sense when he had sleeping pills available. 

More mysteriously, Susan and her boss, Charles (Michael Maloney), owner of the publishing company, discover that the final chapter of Magpie Murders is missing from the manuscript. This couldn’t come at a worse time: an investor is about to buy the company, but Conway’s final novel is a lynchpin of the deal. Susan goes to Conway’s home in Suffolk to search for the chapter.

At first, we see the 1950s world of Atticus Pünd only when Susan is actively reading Conway’s manuscript. But as the series goes along, Atticus increasingly appears in Susan’s world, at first like an apparition, then a fully realized person who engages her in conversation and helps her solve the mystery of what turns out to be Conway’s murder. Mixing the two eras works well, and the characters form a fascinating friendship. Aside from their direct engagement, the series transitions between the two stories often within the same shot, for instance, taking us from Conway’s funeral to the corresponding funeral in the novel, that of Sir Magnus Pye (Lorcan Cranitch), whose murder Atticus is investigating.

Sir Magnus was decapitated from behind, and though his safe was wide open, nothing was stolen. From this, Atticus establishes that Sir Magnus was familiar and comfortable with the person who murdered him. A letter on the desk seems to threaten Sir Magnus; meanwhile, his wife, Lady Pye (Dorothy Atkinson), makes no secret of her hatred of her philandering husband. A couple of weeks prior, Pye Hall’s housekeeper, Mary Blakiston (Karen Westwood), died after falling down the stairs. (Or was she pushed?) The town suspects her death was not an accident, and rumor has it that the deed was done by her son, Robert (Harry Lawtey), because of a very public row they had the day before she died. Atticus insists the two deaths are linked.

In Suffolk, Susan meets with people close to Conway. She finds out from his lawyer, Sajid (Sanjeev Kohli, who also plays the novel's Dr. Kamal), that Conway was in the midst of changing his will; Sajid arrived with the new paperwork only to find Conway dead. The change of his will is due to Conway breaking up with his trophy boyfriend, James (Matthew Beard, who also plays Atticus' sidekick, Fraser). Although Conway wanted him disinherited, he died before the amended will was finalized, so James got the estate anyway. He obligingly helps Susan search for the missing chapter, but isn’t much use. There are no notes, journals, or even any files on the computer. James mentions he saw the printed manuscript just before Conway’s estranged sister Claire (Pippa Haywood, who also plays Sir Magnus’ sister Clarissa) arrived, and afterward, it disappeared.

An earlier flashback showed Claire reading the manuscript and recognizing herself in the book, but when Susan comes to call, she denies ever having seen it. Claire believes her brother jumped because he hated writing popular fiction; he longed to be someone respectable, like Salman Rushdie. Before returning to London, Susan calls her boyfriend Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis), who has been trying to convince her to move to Crete with him, rehabilitate an old hotel, and do their best Hotel Portofino impression. However, unbeknownst to Susan, Andreas is also in Suffolk doing business with Conway’s lawyer, confirming that her going to Greece with him is not the best life choice.

Back in the novel’s mystery, Atticus speaks with Robert and his fiancée Joy Sanderling (Nia Anisah) about Mary Blakiston’s death, only to uncover a third death at Pye Hall, twelve years earlier – that of Sam Blakiston, Robert’s younger brother who drowned in the lake. Before that, their family dog was poisoned; Robert says they suspected the groundskeeper Brent (Ian Lloyd Anderson), who disliked both the dog and the boys, but there was no proof. Joy sheds light on Mary, saying she was a horrible, overbearing busybody who objected to their interracial relationship. Atticus searches the cottage where the Blakiston family lived and finds Mary’s diary, filled with secrets about everyone in town.

In present-day London, Conway’s funeral is held, after which Susan goes to the office and finds an anonymous email containing a photo, which appears to be Andreas pushing Conway off the tower. Rattled, Susan returns to Suffolk and re-questions James, this time mentioning Andreas. James confirms Andreas contacted Conway for money, but Conway declined his deal. When she finally returns home and confronts Andreas with the photo, he explains he asked Conway for money for his hotel, which Conway initially refused. But once Andreas name-dropped Susan as his partner, Conway changed his tune and immediately drew up a contract to give Andreas 150,000€. The photo, Andreas claims, is him embracing Conway in gratitude.

Andreas is in the clear, but Susan realizes that Conway's story is familiar because he's retelling her family's history within the novel: Sir Magnus Pye is her father (Cranitch's double cast role revealed!).... but Lady Pye isn't her mother, Samantha, who drowned years back; the dead boy, Sam is. Stunned, she visits her sister Katie (Claire Rushbrook), who admits she told him their family's history during a moment of weakness, not realizing he'd use it. As Susan keeps reading, the book reveals a key fact: in the late chapters of Conway's novel, Pünd, who had been visiting a doctor for his own terminal cancer, is heading towards suicide. In the real world, Susan learns Charles picked up the manuscript a full day before he claimed Conway gave it to him, and a search of his office turns up the missing chapter in his desk drawer. Susan calmly confronts Charles, laying out the story the way Atticus taught her. 

Charles discovered Conway was not only dying; he was giving the same diagnosis to Atticus Pünd, killing the company's cash cow. Not only that, but in the final pages, he planned to torch the detective’s reputation through a (super-childish) anagram of Pund’s name ("A stupid {redacted}"). Letting this go to print would have ruined the buyout deal, costing Charles millions, so he shoved Conway off the tower. Charles doesn’t deny anything; he just asks for the night to be with his family before the police get involved. Susan seems to have won until Charles suddenly bashes her in the head, sets the office on fire, and leaves her to die. 

But in serendipitous timing, Andreas (who has been investigating who sent Susan the photo) has traced it back to the publisher. He appears just in time and rescues Susan, and she escapes with Conway’s final chapter clutched in her hands, as one does. In the hospital, Susan finally reads the novel's denouement, where Atticus reveals Mary's death was an accident: she tripped down the stairs while answering Lady Pye’s call. However, Mary knew who killed both the dog and her son, Sam; it was her other child, Robert. She wrote a letter detailing his crimes, instructing Sir Magnus to only read it upon her death. Robert killed Sir Magnus upon being confronted with the evidence.

Susan and Atticus say goodbye to each other as he readies himself to face death in the fictional world. Meanwhile, Susan has decided to go to Crete with Andreas. But neither will get the rest they’re seeking, as Horowitz’s sequel-turned-second series Moonflower Murders pairs them again in another Alan Conway novel.

Join us for recaps of Moonflower Murders, debuting on Sunday, September 15, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET on most local PBS stations, the PBS app, the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel, or as a full-series binge on PBS Passport.