Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowwitz

Magpie Murders is a 2016 mystery novel by British author Anthony Horowitz and the first novel in the Susan Ryeland series. The story focuses on the murder of a mystery author and uses a story within a story format.

Susan Ryeland, an editor for Cloverleaf Books, is about to read Magpie Murders, the newest novel in Alan Conway's Atticus Pünd series. Susan notices the last chapter is missing, resulting in a whodunit with no solution. Her boss Charles Clover tells her that Alan Conway is dead. He shows her a letter from Alan Conway, suggesting suicide.

Susan goes to Alan’s home village to look for the last chapter. She becomes convinced that someone murdered Alan and begins investigating. Through her investigation, she learns that Conway hated the mystery genre which had made him successful, preferring to write pretentious literature. After attending Alan’s funeral, Susan makes a list of potential murderers of Conway.