2* is being generous.
I really enjoyed the first book by this author but this one falls below par massively. I skim read chunks because it's repetitive and much of it irrelevant. It's a bit of a confusing read too, far to many quick changes of time and narrators. The worst book I've read in sometime.

Claire and Duncan have the worst type of relationship, it is angry and resentful. This book was fast paced, twisty and turny. I would definitely read another of her books. She is a great author and they was she wrote the characters sucked me in. All the characters were terrible, and I love feeling like I hate someone in a book. The author can write, I will read anything else she puts out.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest review.

Magpie is a slow read and I would not put it in the thriller category. I struggled to finish this book because the writing didn't flow and the characters were unlikable. I was looking forward to this book, but was disappointed.

OMG...what a disaster of a book! I'm one of those annoying readers who NEVER leaves a book unfinished, EVER. However, this was a first for me. Got to approx the halfway mark and threw my ereader down in frustration. It was billed as a thriller - and I can assure you that I waited and waited and waited for the thrills and suspense to make an appearance but alas, in vain. It just took sooooooo long to get nowhere that in the end I wrote it off as a lost cause . Very seldom do I rate a 1 star for any book but this book has just been awarded that. So, so sorry but in all conscience I cannot justify it getting anything more that 1 star.

Absolutely fantastic had me gripped!!! Loved it! Can't wait for more from.this author. Storyline was great, characters were easy to.connect with

Thank you for the advanced copy

Magpie is an unusual and in many ways compelling read which I feel has been misrepresented by the synopsis as a thriller - it’s not, in my view, a thriller, and some of the negative reviews may stem from that. It’s a layered, hauntingly atmospheric story with, yes, a mysterious and even mystical thread running through it. But thrills, no.

We see events from the viewpoint of wife and husband, Claire and Duncan, “before” and “after” an unspecified event. “Before”, Claire plans to leave her serially unfaithful husband; their marriage has broken down over many years amid bitter recrimination and anger. “After”, Claire seeks with increasing desperation her missing eighteen-year-old son Joe - who spent his time searching obsessively with his metal detector for a fantasised hoard of ancient coins - while Duncan, a vet, deals with work and visits from the police.

It’s a slow and at times unavoidably confusing read which demands, and rewards, close attention from the reader. It took time to read and I wasn’t always sure what was going on. But by the end, I wanted to go back and read earlier parts again and in retrospect, it all made sense.I

I loved Sophie Draper's debut novel 'Cuckoo' and was looking forward to reading her second book 'Magpie' which I had high hopes for. I can't only hope this book is a blip in her promising writing career because I couldn't wait to finish it but for all the wrong reasons. The book starts ok but the tempo never picks up until the final couple of chapters.
The main character Claire lives with her husband Duncan and son Joe in a glass house overlooking the water. Their marriage is waning with her husband leading a double life with affairs. She wants to get away with her son Joe and leave Duncan. All Claire's plan are thrown into turmoil when Joe goes missing and she struggles to piece together the events of the night that tore them all apart.

The plot is extremely slow, repetitive, uneventful and such a disappointment after 'Cuckoo'. I find it difficult to write such a poor review but I promised to give an honest opinion.
I would like to thank both Net Galley and Avon Books for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book was received as an ARC from Avon Books UK in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thrillers are not usually my cup of tea and at first I thought I was not going to enjoy this book but a lot of our regular patrons have been asking about this book so I had to preview it. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of this book and I can see what all the hype is about this book. Everyone needs a safe haven to not only escape a defying situation like Claire had with Duncan but to think of ways to fix the situation before it becomes life or death. I have read and seen some stories and movies with people living double lives and things not always being what they seem. They always do not end well in the end and this story was no different. Fans of Psychological Thrillers and Supernatural will appreciate this book and I know a lot of our community members are looking forward to reading it too.

We will consider adding this title to our Adult Fiction collection at the library. That is why we give this book 4 stars.

I very much enjoyed this book. It’s so well written and interesting but the end means everything to me. As someone who has been through this I thank the author for writing my own feelings so perfectly. A must read

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.

Oof, Sophie Draper! What happened! Cuckoo floored me. But Magpie dragged forever. I couldn't get into it, I couldn't follow along, and I couldn't figure out how such a stellar book like Cuckoo was written by the same author as Magpie! It was slow and repetitive and though I admit to having horrible pregnancy brain, I found myself questioning if I had already read this. Yes, but pages ago. Yes, but a sentence ago. I wasn't going crazy after all. Truth be told, I didn't even manage to finish this one.

Claire is in an abusive marriage and decides to leave her husband.
Her eighteen year old son goes missing and she is trying to find him.
I found this book very slow and it did not hold my interest.
It was told in a before and after format that did not work for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Nope... The description caught my attention and seemed just like the type of book I normally gravitate towards so I requested it right away. I soon realized shortly after starting the book that this was going to be a slow slow read. O also disliked the characters but the more I read, I began to dislike them to the point that I just didn't want to continue. Still, I gave it more time hoping something big would happen. By 52% , still moving too slow for my liking, now hating the characters, and feeling that the book was extremely repitisious, plus I had a definite idea of how it was going to play out in the end, I had to stop.

I want to thank netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A tense chilling read a husband a wife a relationship gone cold a missing child.So well written so dark so gloomy perfect atmosphere characters that come alive .An author I will be following highly recommending.#netgalley #avonbooksuk.

When Claire marries she believes it will be forever. Duncan her husband has worked his way up to become a very sought after vet andthey had a very large but expensive house built. It should have been their dream but when they have their son Joe who needs more looking after than other children cracks appear. She suspects Duncan is cheating but with whom. Then there is a coin brought into the picture that Joe found which brings memories flooding back.It comes back and forth from the past to the present and has you progress into the book it all makes sense.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and how it was written.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy. Claire and Duncan's marriage is falling apart. She wants to leave him, he has a very shady past. She wants to take her son Joe and disappear but Joe goes missing and now Claire needs to do the unthinkable to get Joe back. It is a very slow moving book. I didn't care for it as much as her previous title "Cuckoo".

Claire and Duncan's marriage is in trouble as they have grown increasingly distant.
Claire knows lots of secrets about Duncan and she is determined to leave him and take their son with her.

However, things don't go as planned and little Joe goes missing.
Now alone and hiding from Duncan, Claire must face all the lies and secrets in her life and marriage if she is to find her son and bring him back to safety.

Although I liked the premise of this novel, I found the narrative pretty slow for my taste, and the characters were really unlikable.

3.5*** rounded to 4 as despite its flows it kept my attention to know how all this will end.
Thanks Netgalley, Avon Books UK, and author Sophie Draper for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Great read! Magpie had me on the hook from the beginning with it’s eerie premise! This addictive novel time hops between the past and present which worked well with the storyline. Sophie Draper does a great job with methodically leading the reader directly into unforeseen twists and turns—love that! I know I’m reading a well written mystery/thriller when the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and that happened almost the entire way through! I haven’t read Sophie Draper before, but I will absolutely be checking out her prior novel Cuckoo!

Magpie By Sophie Draper.

As with "Cuckoo" the blurb for this book looked very intriguing, something I would want to read and enjoy. I was again- wrong.

Long winded, takes a long while to get going.
The storyline doesn't hold, alot of the start is focused on her son Joe and his past times and I I felt as if everything was being repeated alot, at the same time being aware it was an advanced uncorrected proof. Or maybe it just the writing style?

Going on from that to talking about cooking and her Gran's fridge? It was as if it was being filled with random context to make a longer story?.

The before and After setting in the book flips from Duncan and Claire. It's all a bit Mish mash and doesn't flow very well. In my advanced copy the chapters were not broken down on the pages properly which made for hard reading, I found I was reading the same lines over and over at times if I had stopped reading and to go back to it.

Another problem were the characters, none at all likable in the slightest, I find once you find that within a book, you tend to lose confidence in what you are reading and kind of give up with it.

So all in all that's what I ended up doing at 49% nothing still hadn't really happened of interest. I'm sure there's a plot somewhere in there but this book just wasn't holding my interest enough to wait for it.

Thank you to Netgalley & Avon Books for the advanced copy, but in this instance. (& After the same dissapointment with Cuckoo) I think this Author & this book were just not for me.

This was a great mystery novel, I felt that it had something different that made it special. The characters were great and I loved the atmosphere

I found Magpie well written as in it flowed and I was interested in the plot but I’ve never met such unlikable characters! Slow start but it’s worth continue I gotta as does pick up!
3/5.