Who doesn’t love a good whodunit? It feels like murder mysteries are having a bit of a resurgence. Do we have Rian Johnson’s star-studded 2019 film Knives Out to thank for that? Quite possibly. Since then, a number of titles have been filling the murder mystery mold (The Outfit, Death on the Nile, Where the Crawdads Sing, and Confess, Fletch) and have done so with varying degrees of success. Some try to be too glamorous and neglect the mystery at hand, others fall a little flat because they only focus on the mystery. Magpie Murders, a new mystery from PBS Masterpiece, strikes a nice balance between intriguing mystery and beautiful backdrop, though Lesley Manville’s performance is what really makes this mystery one worth solving.
Magpie Murders is based on renowned mystery novelist Anthony Horowitz’s 2016 novel of the same name, with Horowitz even penning all six episodes himself. To give you an idea of how entrenched and trusted Horowitz is in the mystery landscape, he’s written two Sherlock Holmes novels and three James Bond novels, all of which were commissioned by the authors’ respective estates. Mystery might just be this guy’s middle name, and it shows in his work. Leading the series is the Oscar-nominated Lesley Manville as Susan Ryeland, the long-time editor of the highly successful novelist Alan Conway (Conleth Hill).
Alan is known for his mystery series starring his fan-favorite detective character Atticus Pünd, though he never intended to be a mystery novelist. In fact, the success of this character and the continuing mystery series actually infuriates Alan. He feels mystery writing is somewhat beneath him and wishes he was beloved for the types of stories he actually wants to tell. (This boldly mirrors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s feelings toward his creation, Sherlock Holmes, which Susan even acknowledges.) All in all, this legacy has made Alan incredibly wealthy, but also incredibly detestable. He’s a bitter hotshot who doesn’t want to be bothered, but Susan is quite used to it.
The show’s mystery kicks off in the first episode when Susan gets the manuscript for Magpie Murders, allegedly the final book in the Atticus Pünd book series. Having worked for Alan for years, she has this editing process down to a science. At least, she thought she did. When she turns to what would be the final chapter—the chapter that will reveal who the killer is once and for all—she’s shocked to find that the pages are missing. Is this a cruel prank from the righteous author or a printing error by one of her co-workers? Or was it something far more sinister than she could have ever imagined?
If that wasn’t mysterious enough, Susan's boss Charles (Michael Maloney) calls her into his office to inform her that Alan has suddenly died and was found in the garden below his watch tower. “A whodunnit without the solution? It’s not even worth the paper it won’t be printed on,” an exasperated Susan explains. Charles shows her a suicide note that Alan apparently wrote, but Susan doesn’t buy it for several reasons. And if Alan were to kill himself, why would he do it in such a difficult way? Maybe it wasn’t suicide. Maybe it was murder. After all, there were plenty of people who would have loved to kill Alan Conway.
Following the set-up heavy pilot, the series settles into establishing its characters both in the real world and in Alan’s novel. Not only does the audience get immersed in the plot of Alan’s murder, but in the literal plot of Alan’s 1950-era Atticus Pünd murder mystery that’s missing the last chapter. Actor Tim McMullan plays the fictional detective alongside a number of supporting characters, some of which are eerily similar to people from Alan’s life. To hammer home the fact that Alan writes (often disparagingly) about people he knows, the same actors play the loose version of themselves in the Atticus Pünd world as they do in the real world.
The story-within-a-story format is interesting and executed well, though at times feels unnecessary. Initially, it’s an exciting layer to the whodunit, but as the episodes progress, it feels like the focus shifts too much to Atticus Pünd’s mystery. Yes, the parallel stories build on each other and the fictional world even supplies answers for Susan as she tries to solve Alan’s murder, which is of course helpful. But, the distribution of the respective storylines feels a bit uneven. To further intersect the worlds, Susan starts to see—and even converse with—Atticus as she continues on her sleuthing travels, which is a fun diversion that would perhaps be a more powerful plot device if we weren’t spending so much time with Atticus already.
All the actors play their parts well, though it’s Manville’s performance that truly sparkles. She plays the complex Susan with such tenacity and humor, making her a joy to watch and root for from the very beginning. Susan’s backstory and personal life are teased and lightly explored when it pertains to the mystery, but nothing beyond that. The troubled dynamic between Susan and her sister Katie, (Claire Rushbrook) as well as with her unofficial boyfriend Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis), oozes untapped potential for even its own series. With the hateful author off her back, what’s stopping Susan from becoming an amateur sleuth?
Because Alan Conway is so consistently loathsome (even though he dies in the first episode, he is very much present in every episode due to the out-of-order storytelling), it’s hard to really care about his character. But the show is self-aware in that virtually everyone in the show can’t stand him either. (Conleth Hill is really good at being bad.) In addition to Manville’s superb performance, Matthew Beard, one of the handful of actors in dual roles, is a delight to watch whether he’s playing James Taylor, the subservient Watson to Pünd’s Holmes, or the confident but tired James Fraser, Alan’s secret-ish lover who has had to bear a lot of the weight of Alan’s less-than-kind demeanor over the years, as well as the public scandal. Beard dips between both roles with ease, proving to be a series standout no matter the era at hand. In one of the many meta-moments, Taylor points out the character that’s based on him in the book to Susan. “I’m James Fraser, thick assistant. He did that to everyone…he liked to play with people. Actually, that’s how it was for him, writing. A sort of game.” His range is on full display in Episode 4, when he gives a tipsy toast of sorts on the stairs of Alan’s mansion during his late lover’s memorial services. “To Alan. We’ll all miss you. Some of us more than others,” he says with a smirk.
While at times the show-within-a-show can grow a bit tired, Magpie Murders is a very enjoyable murder mystery with enough revelations and twists to keep you guessing until the end. You’ll despise Alan Conway (as you should) but you’ll love to do so along with the colorful characters that make up the mystery-laden worlds.
Rating: B
Magpie Murders premieres on Masterpiece on PBS on October 16 as well as the PBS Masterpiece channel on Prime Video.