Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan, Alexandros Logothetis, Conleth Hill
Where to watch: Sony Liv
Seasons and episodes: 1 season, 6 episodes 45 minutes each
To watch or not to watch: A unique plot and investigation of a murder. Absolutely a must watch

Alan Conway (Conleth Hill) is a writer of the famous Atticus Pund novels and is writing a much-awaited book in the series (think Sherlock Holmes meets Hercule Poirot style murder mystery detective). Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) is a London editor for Alan, and doesn’t get along with him – mainly because Alan is an irascible man who is not happy writing Atticus Pund and punishes everyone around him for his unhappiness. Susan receives the latest Atticus Pund book, titled Magpie Murders, but it is missing the last chapter where the murder in the book is solved. Susan then goes to meet Alan to get the chapter, and finds that Alan has been murdered. Also, the last chapter is nowhere to be found. She then talks to everyone who was associated with Alan and slowly uncovers the real identities of the people Alan had used as characters in his book, and people had grudges against him for one reason or another. The suspect pool grows bigger.

The series is depicted through the parallels between the case in the book and real life murder of Alan Conway. While Susan is the real detective in real life, she is often thinking like Atticus Pund, to the extend that she hallucinates him. And since the people in the book are same as those in the vicinity of the murder victim, this whole depiction can be understood even with the chasm of the timelines.

The fact that the detective in the series is an editor, not someone who is qualified to find criminals makes the detection even more interesting for the viewers – it makes it more relatable. She is sure that the solution to the murder in the book will help with the murder of the author in real life, and she needs to solve both. Although the series is across timelines with frequent jumps from one timeline to another, it gets confusing only once through the entire length of 6 episodes. It keeps the interest going, not to mention refreshing. Lesley Manville is a very unlikely detective, she is a perfect editor and this goes with the vibe of the series. Highly recommend to watch.