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.

So my normal reviews of books do not contain synopses or spoilers but the last paragraph of this one will because I feel the need to vent about part of the twist.

Now for the safe part of the review. Magpie is a story told by Claire and Duncan. They met during veterinary school and married in their early 20s. They have an 18 year old son named Joe who is very unique. Claire's chapters occur during both "before" and "after" while Duncan's are just "after". While their marriage is falling apart something major happens that includes their son. We spend the book watching their marriage implode and then Claire fall apart. The book feels like it drags a little because the before only seems to span as week at most and the after is the same but it seems to take a while to get to the event. But I will say that the twist/event was very unexpected which was nice for once. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a mystery/thriller novel or also just a family drama.

Now for my vent/spoiler moment. Part of the twist is who the coin Joe finds belongs to and you think that it is a former affair of Duncan's but it is in fact their daughter. When they were 22, Claire became pregnant and after a few months of pregnancy it was determined that the fetus was not viable due to non-development of organs. The fetus' issues are no ones fault and nothing can be done about it. It will not live after birth because it cannot consume food among other things. As a result they abort the child. I do not have a problem with that, my issue with this plot element is that the author made this required abortion cause the marriage to degrade over a couple of decades and cause Claire to emotionally fall apart. She spends an entire chapter having Claire discuss this abortion and how she was "forced" to do it yet blamed that it was her choice. I feel like this is a bad manipulation of the abortion issue. Maybe there are women out there who have abortions of nonviable fetuses and their lives fell apart afterwards but it did not feel true to me.

Are you looking for a creepy read? Then look no further than Magpie.
Chilling and hair raising at times.
We meet married couple Duncan & Claire in this story.
We see quite early on that Claire doesn't have too much trust in her husband.
She decides to leave him but their son Joe disappears before she does.
I enjoyed the dual timelines before and after as they gave us such a great insight into their marriage and Claire's reasons for leaving.
I never did take to the husband Duncan. I felt he was a man that thought he could have it all in life while totally disregarding other people's feelings.
I couldn't help wondering throughout what Claire was hiding though...an interesting character.
It's the son Joe that I felt so sorry for in this story.
Caught between two parents who didn't love each other any more and had no respect for one other.
An interesting read, very atmospheric in its descriptions of the Derbyshire countryside.....
Well done Sophie.....

This was quite a slow moving, well detailed story with hints of supernatural.

Claire lived with her son Joe and husband Duncan in a beautiful home. But things were not okay. Her relationship with her husband had broken down, so she wanted to leave him with her son. 2 things happened, she got to the truth of her husband's secret life, and her son went missing. The darkness of the night tore her family apart.

My second book by author Sophie Draper, I was pulled into the story by the sense of a haunting lilt that the prose had. When I went to analyze it, I didn't really have a word to describe that emotion. But it was hypnotic. I kept feeling that so many things were hidden from me.

The need to unveil the truth forced me to turn the pages faster. The suspense and mystery were built over the chapters. Written in dual timeliness with both the husband and wife's POV, the words brought out the almost gothic atmosphere. Something was more than what met the eye.

The rural setting of the village was well described, it was creepy. The mystery was hidden quite deep in the layers where nobody could reach. Characters were human and hence flawed. I felt myself sympathizing with them.

The ending did give me a swift rush when the truth was revealed as I realized that the author had hoodwinked me throughout the book. Wow. Well done.

I’ve read Cuckoo by this author and loved it so was looking forward to reading this story. I wasn’t disappointed.

Claire is married to Duncan. She has everything she ever wanted.Sadly she isn’t happy and wants out. She doesn’t want to live with a stranger anymore. When their son Joe goes missing she needs to find the strength to get through it. 

This story is told in before and after chapters. Although it was slow to start for me I did enjoy it. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

The description of this book sounded like it was the type of novel I would enjoy, unfortunately that was not the case. I found the before and after timeline rather confusing and this is a method of writing I normally enjoy.  The book was very slow to develop and when I reached the end I found a lot of it meaningless.  Having finished the book and then spending a day thinking about it, I had to go back and re-read the last couple of pages to be sure about what had actually happened.  I wouldn’t class this as a thriller and unfortunately I would not recommend this book.

This is one of those reads that leaves you with so many contradiction feelings that it took me a while to re-read some parts of the book and get a clearer view! Don’t get me wrong, the book is original and intriguing but with a few twists and surprises that I simply needed to put my thoughts into perspective.
Magpie is not the read you’ll expect, it’s about a family, their secrets and lies through the years and how as the time passes it gets more unbearable till it explodes with a chaotic result.
The story is told between an “after” and “before”, but we don’t really know what’s the “event” that changes everything till the end, making it suspenseful and intriguing. The story is told between Claire and Duncan, their marriage and how they are as parents and couple. I’ll say that I didn’t like much Claire, she is a resentful woman with not much in her life apart from her son; she is bitter and angry towards her husband, she has motives, yes, but it’s in part her fault too. Duncan is not an angel neither, but I think I understood more him than her, he has his own regrets too and demons to fight.
There’s a few stories running at the same time, but you always feel that there’s something darker hunting them, like a bad omen waiting for the right moment.
This is a book that will have the readers divided, there’s a mystery but more of a hunting and stressful atmosphere that lead to the event. Not easy to categorise or to talk without spoilers; so you’ll have to believe me to take a chance on the read and decide your thoughts on it. Ready to discover “Magpie”?

This is the story of Duncan, a vet and his wife Claire who have a very unhappy marriage. They live in a beautiful barn conversion with their teenage son Joe who has his own problems. The book is written in Before and After chapters from both Claire and Duncan's points of view and centres around the disappearance of Joe. I thought this was a very cleverly written story and I was convinced that I'd worked out just what was going on but I was completely wrong and the ending was quite a surprise. Most enjoyable.

I had heard so much about this book I was determined to get stuck in as soon as I could. The cover looks decidedly creepy, and the book continues along those lines. Certainly not a cozy read to warm your heart, it is nonetheless one that will glue you to the pages and have you staying up late to finish it!

I LOVE Spohie's first book and so was excited to get to read this one as well. It did not disappoint and like her first book absolutely held my attention from beginning to end. I think Sophie has an amazing talent for writing that grabs you and pulls you along with the story so you find yourself sneaking off for extra reading time to get to the end to find out what happens. Brilliant writing

This book was kinda all over the place as the story is told by both the husband and the wife so a lot of back and forth, an easy read for me ..

Claire lives in a beautiful ban with her husband and son. Her husband runs a succesful vet clinc in the village and Claire has spent her life looking after Joe.



Now Joe is older she has decided she needs to leave, taking Joe with her - but not is all as it seems as she tries to flee & learns more about Duncans life.



Magie was unexpected. It was full of twists and turns. I honestly didnt know what was going on (obviously i could follow the narrative) but i felt like it was so shocking i had to consider if i had focused on every single word i had read. 



It was brilliant, it really drew me in as a reader and because it shocked me so much, it really worked. We follow Claire as she prepares to leave Duncan with Joe beside her. I was never sure if the characters were reliable or not and i was certainly questioning everything. 



This was creepy, slightly spooky and tense to a reader that been said, i certainly enjoyed these feelings it evoked in me as we started to follow their tales and discover the lies they had all told.



One to pick up and give a chance.

When this book started I thought it would  be a quick easy read. However, this book just got stranger and stranger as it went along.
At points it was hard to distinguish what was actually happening and what was real or a dream. I expected a bit more of a plot especially a plot twist, however I just didn't get this.