strange and random happenstance: Susan Ryeland

If you are a fan of British murder mysteries, you are a fan of Anthony Horowitz. If he did nothing else in his life he would be remembered for bringing Midsomer Murders to the small screen. A show that has been a staple of television since he wrote the adaptation of that first episode, "The Killings at Badger's Drift," over twenty-five years ago. But then he created one of the greatest detectives ever with Christopher Foyle, the star of Foyle's War. So many stars got their start on these intricately plotted mysteries that were almost a British equivalent to Columbo, in that the joy wasn't just solving the crime but in watching how Foyle approached solving the crime. Yet Horowitz didn't limit himself to television, he was a successful author. He predominately wrote children's and YA until 2011 when he wrote the first officially licensed Sherlock Holmes book since the death of Conan Doyle, The House of Silk. Soon after the Ian Fleming estate asked him to take over the Bond franchise. Yet inbetween these behemoth undertakings he started two series of his own, one staring himself and one staring editor Susan Ryeland. The first book in Susan's series, Magpie Murders, came out in 2016, which means I finally got around to reading it when they announced the miniseries in 2021. I might have had a few issues with the story but what really intrigued me was how Anthony Horowitz himself was going to adapt it for the small screen. This is only the second time he has adapted one of his books, and I don't think anyone saw Stormbreaker did they? Therefore I had to wonder, would he solve some of my issues with the story or perhaps make them worse? And as for some of the big reveals, they wouldn't work in a visual medium. The twist that everyone in the Pünd story has a real life counterpart is handled with clever dual casting. This is fun and lets you not have to laboriously connect the dots yourself. Of course by using this technique Horowitz is diminishing the importance of the story within the story. It isn't until the fifth of the six episodes that we get to spend any real time getting a handle on the crime Pünd is investigating. Therefore we are spending too much time with Susan and not enough with Atticus. Yes, by having Susan interacting with Atticus we get that much needed hit of the genius Tim McMullan, but I almost wish I could have watched Magpie Murders without the present day. Because my main problem with the book was Susan Reyland. Let's just say the casting of Lesley Manville sure was surprising. By aging her up her career made more sense. Sadly this change as well as an added delicious twist of the knife from author Alan Conway couldn't save the character for the majority of the miniseries. Somehow in the final episode Lesley's prodigious acting talents raised above the material and gave the overall show a very satisfying ending. But I really think it could have been more. Look to episode five and six, look to the ingenious flashback complaining about flashbacks, look to the vitriol spewing out of Conleth Hill as Alan Conway, and this could have been magnificent. Instead it's serviceable with touching moments and really shitty CGI magpies. I mean half my issues could have been solved with better birds. The light source is wrong on them for crying out loud! At least the opening credits were trying Emmy worthy.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Alan Conway, And the Emmy Goes To, Anthony Horowitz, Atticus Pund, CGI, Columbo, Conleth Hill, Foyle's War, Lesley Manville, Magpie Murders, Midsomer Murders, Susan Ryeland, The House of Silk, Tim McMullan

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: October 6th, 2016
Format: Paperback, 498 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Editor Susan Ryeland has a bit of a problem. Alan Conway is a very successful author for her publishing house. Without him they'd be in serious trouble. As it is they've had a very rough year and his next book needs to be a success to stabilize everything. She's never much liked Alan, but there's no doubt that the reading public adores his Atticus Pünd series. It's classic golden age detection written today, with a deeply affecting and dark backstory for it's lead. The problem is his newest book, Magpie Murders, is missing the final chapters and Alan has committed suicide. Her boss Charles even receives Alan's suicide note in the mail. Susan knows how important this book is, not just to Alan's readers, but to her continued employment. Therefore she sets out to find the missing pages. But that's when things get weird. Alan's home turns out to be the fictional Pye Hall where both deaths happened in his newest manuscript. What's more, everyone in Alan's life has a counterpart on the page. Alan's sister, his lover, his neighbor, even the vicar, everyone is somehow represented within the pages of his story. Which makes Susan wonder, what is really happening on these pages? Could they be hiding a secret? Did Alan even kill himself? Perhaps it was murder! Alan seemed to really rub everyone the wrong way. When events start to happen just like they did in the book, Susan wonders what is really going on. There are some deep and disturbing secrets held within the pages of Alan's work. He was a vindictive man who wanted not just fame but prestige. He was wasted on golden age procedurals, at least in his mind, and he amused himself in very spiteful ways. If she can solve the crimes in the manuscript perhaps it will lead to solving the mystery of Alan. That or she's out of a job. At least her boyfriend would be happy. He wants to whisk her off to a Greek isle to help his cousin run a hotel. But Susan, the woman who could never guess whodunit, wants to solve the case, even if it costs her her life.

If there's one thing that Anthony Horowitz knows it's murder. Which might actually be my issue with this book. It's not that it's not deftly plotted and keeps you on your toes, it's that with Susan, an editor who can never guess whodunit, we have a character who has to give us "teaching moments" about writers and television shows, most of which Horowitz has written for, and I just felt like it was condescending while at the same time insulting Susan's, and the readers, intelligence. But Susan is a whole other problem I don't know if I feel like getting into. If you picked up this book because of Horowitz, you know what he's written, you know that Atticus Pünd is going to be a pitch perfect Germanic cousin to Poirot because Horowitz adapted eleven episodes for David Suchet. And so he is. There is no doubt of the bona fides here. And yes, you could say that it's done tongue firmly in cheek, like with his Hawthorne and Horowitz series where he has gone so far as to make himself an actual character in his books, but it just didn't feel that way to me. Perhaps it was just that Alan Conway is so full of himself and such a pompous ass that that superiority of being seeps into the whole book and it just gives off a smugness that I just don't care for. I don't know if it's that Horowitz is actually that smug about his career, or that I'm misreading it. I just felt like this book was in may face. It was at me trying to get it's point across. What was that point? Well, it's interesting in that it seems that Horowitz thinks authors have a duty of care towards their readers and that they shouldn't betray their trust. I totally agree with him here, it just could have been presented in a different manner. In fact, the number one thing I kept thinking about, as he'd name dropped her a few times, is what does he think about J.K. Rowling's decent into TERFdom? Because she has totally betrayed her readers. And looking online I saw him tweet in defense of her and then try to reframe the narrative. So. Yeah.