The threads of Magpie Murders are starting to pull together

The crime fiction genre is possibly one of the richest seams to mine for anyone with a creative bent. It has given rise to writers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Ruth Rendell and PD James, to name but a handful.

They have created timeless characters including Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Philip Marlowe and Adam Dalgleish.

Let’s face it, without them, there would probably be no Benoit Blanc lighting up streaming platform Netflix, and the world would be much poorer for it.

One man who has been steadily adding his own touch of class to the genre is Anthony Horowitz. Younger readers know him as the author of the Alex Rider, The Diamond Brothers and The Power of Five series of novels, but he’s also beloved among Conan Doyle fans.

Horowitz published his first book, The Sinister Secret of Frederick K Bower, in 1979 and although he penned several children’s books, it was only the 2000 release of the Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker that his career kicked into another gear.

Eleven years later, it was announced he would write a new Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk, becoming the first to receive an official endorsement from the Conan Doyle estate.

In 2014, he followed it up with Moriarty and the same year was commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate to pen a James Bond story, Trigger Mortis. It was followed by Forever and a Day in 2018, and With a Mind to Kill in 2021.

You could be forgiven for thinking that was enough to keep most people busy, but Horowitz was also nose to the grindstone creating TV shows.

In the 1908s, he contributed to children’s series Dramarama and period adventure Robin of Sherwood. The next decade saw him work on several Hercule Poirot stories for the Poirot series, and in 1997 he co-created long-running crime drama Midsomer Murders.

By 2001, he had penned the occasional drama anthology series Murder in Mind, and followed it up the next year with Second World War-set detective series Foyle’s War.

He even appeared in one of his own stories, The Word Is Murder, describing himself as the “not entirely successful sidekick” to the “rather dark and dangerous” main character Daniel Hawthorne.

So it’s no surprise to learn he adapted his own bestselling novel, Magpie Murders, into a barnstorming television miniseries.

It has been a feast for the senses, but you don’t have to be devotees of crime drama to enjoy it either, thanks to Horowitz’s crisp writing and sparkling performances from a cast led by the brilliant Lesley Manville.

After a rollercoaster ride, we’ve reached the penultimate episode. The threads of this complex story are starting to pull together, as Susan confronts Andreas about the incriminating photograph that has been sent to her via email.

Meanwhile, in Saxby on Avon, Atticus Pünd lends a hand to Inspector Chubb in the investigation of the murders of Mary Blakiston and Sir Magnus Pye, with the insightful suggestion that perhaps police divers should search the lake…