A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders

A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders

• Print Length: 286 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (February 24, 2015)

What They Say....It’s just another day at the office for book editor Samantha Clair.

Checking jacket copy for howlers, wondering how to break it to her star novelist that her latest effort is utterly unpublishable, lunch scheduled with gossipy author Kit Lowell, whose new book will deliciously dish the dirt on the fashion industry. But little does she know how much trouble Kit’s book is about to cause. Before it even goes to print. When police inspector Field turns up at the venerable offices of Timmins & Ross, asking questions about an undelivered package that was addressed to Sam, she knows something is wrong. The messenger sent to deliver the package was murdered, and then Kit goes missing. Suddenly, Sam's nine-to-five life is turned upside down and she is propelled into a criminal investigation. Someone doesn't want Kit's scandalous manuscript published and unless Sam can put the pieces together in time, they'll do anything to stop it.

What I Say....This is a debut author, and this is the kind of book I typically enjoy.  So I was really excited to get an ARC from NetGalley and St. Martins Press.

The mystery was interesting, and I liked being surprised at who the bad guy really was.  I hate when I can figure out whodunit in the first few chapters.

Samantha was a smart heroine, but I wasn't exactly rooting for her.  She seemed to staid for her age, but then she did things that didn't seem to match her character - sleeping with Jake so quickly, going off to Paris to investigate the rich and untouchable on her own.

I think the book could have been a little better if the author spent more time on developing her characters, and less time adding more twists of the mystery.  Sometimes it felt like there were TOO many characters, and I didn't know enough about any of them.

But the good part is that I wanted to know more about the characters.  Nothing is worse that when you are reading a book and don't really care what happens to the characters.  That's the worst.

This book was well definitely well written, and I would read the author again.  A good mystery for a cold night.

Current GoodReads rating 3.73