I really enjoyed Sophie Draper’s novel Cuckoo, so I was looking forward to this. Unfortunately I found the prose difficult to get into and struggled to click with the storyline - whilst I like a slow burner novel usually this was just too slow and it felt inaccessible. A real shame.

This book was so well written and interesting from beginning to end. I loved the story as well as the characters and can’t wait to read more by Sophie Draper.

Claire and Duncan's marriage is on the rocks, and the bitterness and anger carries over into resentment. I did enjoy this dark drama, and liked the back and forth between the minds of the characters. Gives a much broader view of reasons and past events that cause their downfall. A sad yet good story, and one I recommend.

The story is about a small family of 3. The dad, Duncan, is a vet who specializes in special cases and has a great love for animals. The mom, Clare, is a stay at home mom who is fed up with her husband and his affairs. The son, Joe, is an 18 year old who still lives at home, has no job and spends his days with his metal detector. When Joe goes missing Clare is obviously a nervous wreck about where he is and what has happened to her only child. Clare and Duncan are also trying to piece together when their marriage took a turn for the worse.

This story is set "before" and "after" something... the author doesn't really say what event happens. We think we know, but in the end it is something totally different. The whole book is told from Clare and Duncan's perspective and it flip flops between the before and after. So it can get a bit confusing at times. At first this book was a little hard to get into, I didn't really get into it until I was about 75% of the way done.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I have to admit it was not my favorite read. I found myself having to read it little by little versus taking it in all at once. At times I felt a little confused.

Claire and Duncan’s marriage is falling apart and she is finding the courage to leave with her son Joe, but what will be the consequences of her actions?

After having enjoyed Cuckoo by Sophie Draper before (check out my 5* review here: https://www.kindig.co.uk/post/cuckoo) I was excited to get the chance to read Magpie. Perhaps the build up of expectation ultimately let the book down for me but I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. The book is extremely slow from the start; you get the story from two perspectives – Duncan and Claire and the chapters also jump timelines to before and after a major incident in the plot. This did lead to confusion of getting the timelines straight but also there are a lot of chapters that don’t really add anything to the plot and I felt they could have been really easy cut to make it a pacier, more enjoyable read.

The end twist did surprise me although brought up quite a few more questions than it answered in some regards which are not resolved in the rest of the book. I also didn’t really feel much for either of the characters or even Joe – in fact, I hated Duncan with a passion so I didn’t really get too invested in the plot as a whole. There also seemed to be quite a few sentences and phrases repeated which got a bit jarring as well, particularly when as a reader you are crying out for the pace to increase and for something interesting to happen.

Overall Magpie is a slow read and one that would have benefitted from being a lot pacier. Thank you to NetGalley & Avons Books UK for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Claire and Duncan have the perfect house and from the outside the perfect marriage. Their 18 year old son struggles with life and in his own little world oblivious to his parents wants for him. Claire is set to leave Duncan but something happens and Joe goes missing.

Set with a before and after timeline and from Duncan and Claire’s pov this was a decent read saved by the ending!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed 'Cuckoo', the author's previous book and was looking forward to this, sadly I found it rather disappointing. Whilst it was extremely atmospheric with a conclusion that I really wasn't expecting, I found the jumping around in timeline confusing at times. It was very much a slow burner of a story with a narrative that tended to be rather repetitive. This one didn't entirely work for me but it has got some good reviews from others.
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Loved her previous book Cuckoo and so was excited to get my hands on this one, I thought the story drew you in slowly but surely and it was a great read, but I preferred her first novel. It was a great book in all that did have me guessing and I liked the storyline and characters too, I just prefer my novels a bit faster that’s all. Great book though 😊

I had requested this as had seen others review her first book and thought this would be as good. Sadly it wasn’t. I even had to stop the book and read something else and come back to it later on which I rarely do.

She’s married to him. But does she know him at all?
Claire lives with her family in a beautiful house overlooking the water. But she feels as if she’s married to a stranger – one who is leading a double life. As soon as she can get their son Joe away from him, she’s determined to leave Duncan.
But finding out the truth about Duncan’s secret life leads to consequences Claire never planned for. Now Joe is missing, and she’s struggling to piece together the events of the night that tore them all apart.
Alone in an isolated cottage, hiding from Duncan, Claire tries to unravel the lies they’ve told each other, and themselves. Something happened to her family … But can she face the truth?

This is the second book by author Sophie Draper following on from her debut thriller Cuckoo. Claire lives with her husband Duncan, their son Joe and dog Arthur in a beautiful home in Derbyshire. However looks can be deceiving and Claire's relationship with her husband is not what it appears to be. Duncan is having an affair (and not the first one by all accounts) and Claire is determined to leave him this time. But leaving a marriage is never easy as Claire is about to find out, with devastating consequences; if only she can remember what they are.

Magpie is told from the perspectives of both Duncan and Claire in a before-and-after format. This always works well as you get both sides of a story which always makes a novel feel more well-rounded in my opinion. On the surface Claire has everything she could wish for, except that in reality, she doesn't. Son Joe has become obsessed with metal detecting and trying to find ancient hidden treasure on the hills of Derbyshire, a risky business for a teenager when so many professionals are on the scene too, as Joe is about to discover. Despite their differences Duncan and Claire share a secret, one that they are determined to hide, but when a body is found on their land, it seems that as always the truth will out in the end.

Sophie Draper's book is full of twists and turns and examines the destruction of not only a relationship but that of a family too. Look out for the twist at the end - I certainly didn't see it coming! If you have a kindle, at the time of going to press, Magpie is currently only 99p.

I loved "Cuckoo" by Sophie Draper so I was eagerly awaiting her next. However, I was somewhat disappointed. It was nothing like her previous one and I found it to be painfully slow. To the point of glacial. I wanted to enjoy it but I couldn't really find anything about it to enjoy.

Claire, Duncan and their teenage son Joe live in a beautiful hilltop house referred to as "The Barn". The setting was atmospheric, almost isolated, lending itself to a creepy sense of dread. But life is not as idyllic as it may seem. Claire has been secretly planning to leave Duncan, who has had a "secret" life of his own for years, when their son turns 18. It is clear neither of them have been happy in their marriage for a long time.

Duncan is a vet with a local practice in the village and Claire suspects his attentions has been on one of the many female employees. She just isn't sure who. Still, when Duncan is home he's absent emotionally and when he's not there, who knows where he is.

Joe is their 18 year old son, and while he hasn't been diagnosed, I strongly suspected he was "on the spectrum" with some form of ASD. He was a loner, fiercely focussed and obsessive in his interests - in this case, metal detecting - and very rarely spoke. He screamed ASD to me. So naturally he came with specific needs which of course added extra pressure to the boiler that was Claire's marriage, ready to explode at any moment.

When Joe goes missing, Claire is frantic with worry where he could be. She has constant nightmares in which she searches for her son, waking in sweats imagining the horrors that could have befallen him. Then as the story progresses to six weeks after he went missing, secrets slowly begin to surface in an attempt to keep the tension palpable.

Told in the past and present timelines titled BEFORE and AFTER, the story unfolds through Claire and Duncan's narratives. Normally I can follow this type of format, but this one I found confusing. We go forward, then six weeks back, then forward again, then six weeks back again...back and forwards constantly that I found myself dizzy and wondering which timeline I was actually in. Claire's AFTER narrative I found to be very confusing. There were times I wondered what she was talking about, alone in her dilapidated cottage she left Duncan for, hoping Joe would return.

And then when I got to the ending...it kind of made sense in a clever kind of way. However way we got there, the journey was too confusing, but when we did it was somewhat clever. But for me, it was a far too tedious journey to get there.

I have no idea why the book was called MAGPIE, though I'm sure someone may enlighten me, and in the end I really had no idea what the book was actually about. I couldn't find one redeeming quality about any of the characters. The fact that Duncan was a vet should have been a redeeming feature but he was morose and irritating and I didn't much like him at all. In fact, for a vet, I found his attitude to be rather impatient when it came to his customer's pets. Not at all like the vets I know. Both Claire and Duncan were positively depressing, as was Joe, with everyone always seemingly complaining which made MAGPIE a rather depressing read.

MAGPIE, for me, was very repetitive and tediously slow. I felt sad upon reflection as I really enjoyed "Cuckoo" and wanted so much to enjoy this one also.

I would like to thank #SophieDraper, #NetGalley and #Avon for an ARC of #Magpie in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this copy. Read this book in a day. Intriguing story that slowly draws you in. Loved the writing style. Will definitely look out for more books by Sophie Draper.

Magpie is described as a dark psychological thriller and while it’s true that the main characters becomes increasingly unstable as the novel progresses, the atmospheric Derbyshire countryside and the inclement weather - rain, snow and a thick, eerie fog - alongside certain other creepy elements mean there is a definite Gothic feeling to the book too.
This is the story of a the death throes of a marriage; Claire and Duncan shouldn’t be together anymore, any love that still remains between them has become tainted by words both said and unsaid. Now their complicated son, Joe is eighteen, Claire is planning to leave her husband but the book’s dual timeline soon makes it clear that something important occurred around the time she informed Duncan of her decision. The storyline isn’t a straightforward one to follow but the chapters are helpfully entitled as Claire - Before, Claire - After or Duncan - After and so it didn’t take me too long to adjust to the rhythm of the novel.
As the main narrator, Claire is certainly the more sympathetic of the pair. They met at vet school and married immediately after university but while Duncan has developed a successful veterinary practice, her career has stalled. Right from the start it is suggested that Duncan is at least partially responsible for controlling the way her life has turned out and that she resents him for it. However, she is also a devoted mother to Joe who although never given a label, doesn’t really fit in and displays behavioural traits commonly associated with ASD. As a baby and toddler he screamed if he couldn’t see her and childminders were unable to cope with his needs then his school years were obviously troubled, with neither his teachers nor his peers ever really taking the time to try and understand him. He also seems to be a disappointment to his father and so Claire has become his sole advocate, understandably putting his needs before her own.
Joe has an obsession with ancient coins and spends hours with a metal detector, hoping to unearth a significant hoard of Roman coins. When he comes across an exciting find on his family’s land, he is desperately worried that others will descend on the area, determined to discover the hoard before he is able to. He begs his mother to tell nobody, not even Duncan but it becomes apparent that Claire has more pressing concerns than the presence - or otherwise - of ancient coins. The chapters set in the after sections of the book imply that the coin may be connected to Joe’s disappearance but could there be another reason why Claire hasn’t seen him for six weeks?
Duncan is much more difficult to like but there are glimpses of a more caring man, particularly in his dealings with the animals he treats. He is obviously a very good vet and his strong belief in animal welfare is underlined by his angry refusal to euthanase an elderly dog who has a still treatable condition. Later in the novel both Claire and Duncan appear to become ever more irrational and there is one particular scene in the veterinary surgery which demonstrates just how unpredictable he has become, shocking colleagues and onlookers with his behaviour.
Claire’s frantic, uncertain search for the missing Joe is easy to empathise with but there are also repeated mentions of something seemingly awful happening years ago, something Claire still feels guilty about. The police make a gruesome discovery on their land and as the storyline continuously swaps between the near past and present, it becomes impossible to guess what each of them has done, causing them to become these tragic individuals haunted by some terrible shared event.
I immediately associated the title of the book to the reputation of magpies as treasure seekers but there is also another very clever reason for Sophie Draper to have chosen to have called her engrossing, emotional story, Magpie. The well-known rhyme about the birds features a few times but it’s not until later that I recognised the true significance of the words. I suspect that this book won’t appeal to those who prefer a more direct, linear timeline but I really enjoyed it. Magpie is a beautifully crafted, rather poignant novel which rewards its readers with a chillingly suspenseful and surprising tale which is perfect to read on a dark winter's evening. Highly recommended.

Having read and really enjoyed Cuckoo, I was excited to read Sophie Draper’s newest release, Magpie.

The book features the same great writing style and interesting characters, but I felt a bit let down by the plot, which I found confusing and a bit unengaging. It jumps around in time a lot, which is a style I usually really enjoy, but in this instance it was a bit confusing – despite the chapters having the name of the person speaking and ‘before’ or ‘after’ at the start, sometimes the way it moved between timeframes had me needing to keep going back to the start of the chapter or to other parts in the book to work out exactly when this scene occurred chronologically.

There’s a definite sense of suspense within its pages, and it’s definitely less action and more of a slow burner.

I really liked the way the reader slowly finds out more and more about Claire and Duncan’s life ‘before’ Joe’s disapearance. The alternative points of view means the reader gets to unpick more and more about their life. Both Claire and Duncan (and in fact Joe, too) have their problems and neither are perfect. I struggled to connect with them at points in the story, although out of the two I definitely liked Claire more – Duncan was a real piece of work at times!

I felt the plot lagged a little in the middle and I wanted it to hurry up, but the ending is really impactful and I liked the way the author laid some clues that only become clear at the end.

This is an interesting read, but I just didn’t enjoy the structure of this novel and felt it was a little clumsy. However I would still read (and look forward to) future releases by Sophie Draper.

An unsettling and disturbing domestic noir thriller with echoes of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, Sophie Draper’s Magpie is a haunting, twisted and captivating read guaranteed to chill readers to the bone.

Claire is the kind of woman who seems to have a life most people would envy. Her relationship with her husband Duncan is rock solid, she has a gorgeous son and lives in a beautiful house overlooking the water. But scratch beneath the surface and you will find plenty of cracks in this less than perfect marriage. Claire simply cannot shake off this feeling that Duncan is not the man she thought he was. He is a perfect stranger whom she is sure is leading a double life. Claire wants nothing more than to take her son Joe with her and leave Duncan behind and as soon as she can, she plans to bid her married life adieu and start afresh somewhere far away from her husband. However, as Claire begins to discover the truth about the secrets her husband is hiding, she is shocked to the core when his lies and deception lead to shocking consequences that she had never planned for…

When Joe goes missing, Claire is distraught and determined to find her son. As she pieces together the events of the night that tore them all apart, Claire is all on her own with nobody she can rely on and trust – yet she refuses to be deterred in her quest to find her missing child. As she hides from her husband in a desolate cottage, Claire tries to untangle the web of lies and untruths that have held her family captive for so long. But with the lines between truth and fiction becoming increasingly blurred, Claire wonders whether she can ever find out what truly happened that fateful night and whether she can face the truth of the shocking revelations she will uncover.

A fabulous thriller that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, Magpie is a clever, intelligent, sinister and jaw-dropping read that will keep readers spellbound from start to finish. Sophie Draper deftly ramps up the terror and tension and will keep her readers glued to the book’s pages unable to put Magpie down.

Scary, terrifying and unnerving, readers need to cancel all their social engagements, lock their doors and sleep with the lights on for weeks as they find themselves completely and utterly consumed by Sophie Draper’s Magpie.

This book is strongest on character development and scenic description. The reality behind the story of Evangeline was a bit of an anticlimax and I was really cross with both Claire and Duncan for bringing up their son Joe in such an unhappy home. Neither communicated properly with each other or with Joe and Duncan, for all of his compassion with animals, failed to acknowledge that his son was so desperately unhappy (or on the spectrum?). This frustration with the characters did affect my enjoyment of the book but I don't think this was a book to be enjoyed as such. Sophie wrote it in such a way that I think the reader is intended to feel frustrated by the characters as they cannot seem to shake off the past to make decisions in the present to affect their future. They're all just stuck in a loop of non-resistance. A book that would have benefited from some tighter editing to keep the pace and tension even throughout the book - some parts meandered whereas other parts galloped by with no room for deeper exploration. I look forward to reading Sophie's third book as she grows as an author.

Magpie is a slow burner filled with intrigue and twists and a cracking ending. 3.5 ⭐️ Rounded up.
Claire is married to Duncan and they have an eighteen year old son, Joe. Now Joe is eighteen Claire has decided she can’t live in this unhappy marriage any more so has arranged to rent a house a few miles away and she is going to take Joe with her. Claire believes Duncan has had several affairs and has reached the point of no return.
The chapters are told from Duncan’s and Claire’s points of view starting with six weeks before and alternating with after chapters. At first I did find this slightly confusing but adjusted overtime and got into the rhythm of the book. This was an intriguing read and I was really interested where this was going, the ending came for me from absolutely nowhere and I think the clues along the way I never gave thought to, so for me it was a really good ending that made reading it worthwhile.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Avon Books for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This was a book I was looking forward to reading so when Magpie by Sophie Draper came out to read. Sadly I found this book confusing. I could not get on with the characters with this story and it could not get into like Sophie's other book's. Sorry Sophie x

Big Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

The description of the book grabbed my attention. The actual book? Not so much. It wasn’t for me. I didn’t care where the story went.