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.