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Last week, I celebrated the Summer Solstice by learning about the solar and lunar alignments of Stonehenge. Tina read Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor, historical fiction set on a remote island of the coast of Wales.

Magpie Murders is a mystery series that appeals to book lovers.

Editor Susan Ryeland reads the latest mystery manuscript by Adam Conway, the most famous author signed to the publishing firm where she works. There’s only one problem. The final chapter is missing. What good is a murder mystery without its final chapter that wraps up all the clues into a dramatic revelation?

Magpie Murders is two stories.

The first is the one in the manuscript, the latest installment of the series featuring the brilliant detective Atticus Pünd. He intends to solve the murder of Sir Magnus Pye, owner of Pye Hall, who was decapitated with a sword from a set of armor on display in his front hall.

The second story is about Susan Ryeland’s attempt to, first, find the final chapter and, second, to discover the mystery of Adam Conway’s way death. He died at about the same time that Susan read the manuscript due to a fall off the tower of his country house. Or was he pushed?

Magpie Murders is adapted from the book of the same name by Anthony Horowitz. I know Anthony Horowitz best as the creator and writer of Foyle’s War, one of my favorite shows of all time. Horowitz wrote the screenplay from his own book for the Magpie Murders television series.

Each episode of Magpie Murders on PBS ends with an interview with Anthony Horowitz. I haven’t read the book, but it sounds like it has a very odd structure. He explained in the first interview how that structure failed as a screenplay, so he invented a new, equally unique, structure to make the series work. Fascinating!

If you read the book, I think that you will be especially fascinated by the PBS presentation of Magpie Murders with the Horowitz interviews.

Moonflower Murders is a second book featuring Susan Ryeland and Atticus Pünd. According to the Masterpiece website, we’ll get to watch that second story beginning on September 15.

In the final interview segment, Horowitz told us that the filming location for the village of Saxby-on-Avon was Kersey — a pretty village in Suffolk featuring a wet ford, timber-framed houses, and a church on the hill, St. Mary’s.

By Keith Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link