A Murder of Magpies (Magpies, #2)

by Mark Edwards

[zooloo1983]

On the back of listening to the completely chilling The Magpies, I have been trying to complete this series. I tried to do it before the Capital Crime festival as I knew Mark Edwards would be there but I only read the first two – yes and two months later I am finally getting the review written. Only Book 3 to go!!

I mean I thought The Magpies was terrifying and creepy enough, especially with the blinking spiders…this was even WORSE! There was a whole scene I felt my skin crawl, even thinking about it now it still sends shivers down my spine, there is no need for so many spiders!

We are back with Jamie in this short and not sweet story, he is trying to move from everything that happened, setting up a new life in Australia, far FAR away from the crazy Lucy, but somehow (!!) she is released from prison and it seems she is up to her psychotic ways again. Oh how I loathe her, the manipulation, the calmness in her is just terrifying! For some absurd reason, Jamie agrees to come back to the UK and help out another damsel in distress only this time he has got a lot more than he bargained for.

Ok, I say absurd but Lucy is his unfinished business she took everything from him and I can see why he would want to do his best to help someone else. Plus it might mean he can see Kirsty again, however, I don’t think he imagined it would be in the way that he does.

Edwards knows how to create, even in so few pages, an intense and chilling story. Everything escalates so quickly and leaves you in such a tizzy. Thinking back to the novella, I can still feel the claustrophobic feeling I had reading this when you find yourself locked in a flat with no escape and later on when tied up surrounded by SPIDERS!! I am looking forward to book three, however, I am completely petrified that there will be more!

Lucy is a character that is so evil, cold and sinister, you just have to hate her. I would hate to be in a room with her, I think it would be freezing! Jamie, well in the last book my gripe was with his naivety….well in five years it is safe to say he still has not woken up and smelt the roses. Again he has been manipulated and again he has not grown up yet. Fingers crossed in the next book he has his eyes wide open in the final story, I want to keep my voice this time and not shout too much at him!

From the opening pages, I was on edge, fearing the ending before it happened. I mean there can be no happy ending here! Edwards used life experiences to create such a spectacular story and his imagination has no limits on how to scare someone. I can not wait to see how the final showdown between Jamie and Lucy will end. I plan on finding out before the end of the year!!! Watch this space!