If the final book were to be published as Conway had intended, with the title “Magpie Murders” instead of Clover’s suggested “The Magpie Murders”, the anagram clue would have been intact and readers may have discovered Conway’s cruel hidden verdict on their favourite.

It was a nasty dig from Conway at his well-loved (but deeply resented on his part) star character. If you rearrange the letters that form Atticus Pünd, you get Alan’s computer password “cat up nudist”, but you also get three words: “a stupid…” with the remaining letters “cnut”, which we’ll leave you to decipher. He’d named the nine books in the Pünd series so the first letters of each title spelled out the clue “an anagram” and pointed to a secret. Conway had lofty literary ambitions and resented his commercial success, so had hidden a spiteful message in the name of his famous detective. Clover did it to protect a profitable buy-out by a multinational publisher, and the ongoing reputation of the Pünd books. Alan was pushed to his death by Charles Clover, the founder of the independent publishing house that put out the Atticus Pünd books.

Was his killer the humiliated sister, the discarded lover, the disaffected son? He was widely disliked and took pleasure in causing other people pain. Expect Moonflower Murders to start filming in Dublin later this year, ready to debut on the BBC in 2024 (instead of BritBox as this first series did before making its way to the Beeb), hopefully followed by a third series adapted from Horowitz’s yet-to-be-published final book in the Susan Ryeland trilogy.Įverybody in his Suffolk village (and pretty much everybody who’d met him) had a motive to kill Alan Conway ( Game of Thrones‘ Conleth Hill), the wealthy novelist behind the hit Atticus Pünd detective book series. What more could cosy crime fans ask for?Īnother series is one thing – a wish that’s already been granted. All that, plus a truly lovely wardrobe worn by the impeccably dressed Lesley Manville in the lead role of Ryeland, and a new instant favourite detective in Tim McMullan’s Poirot-tinged Atticus Pünd. Both stories are told side by side on screen as actors play dual roles, and Anthony Horowitz’s adaptation of his own novel keeps multiple plates spinning. With Magpie Murders, you get double bubble – one investigation in the ‘real’ world as literary editor Susan Ryeland sleuths her way around modern-day Suffolk after the death of one of her authors, plus a 1950s-set dramatisation of that author’s latest detective novel. Warning: contains major spoilers for the Magpie Murders finale.

Magpie murders novel