The Magpies

Decent book. Enjoyed it. Silly ending. All in all I’d recommend it.

I loved this book!!! I hated the ending!! So many options to change the outcome. It would have been 100% if there were twists, and alternate ending

I had to stop listening. It’s so inappropriate and so slow.

Way too wordy! Honestly fast forwarded through the middle 30 seconds at a time and I didn’t miss a thing. Besides that it was very good. It could have been half as long and more enjoyable. Onto the next one in the series so it could not have been that bad.

Very suspenseful! It had me on the edge of my seat while listening!

I enjoyed the story and the well written suspense of it all. I did not like the crude depiction of the sexual situations. I did not think that that was necessary and I’m not sure why the author chose to do it. To me it took away from the story instead of adding to it. You can’t listen to the story in the car if your teenagers or children are with you because of it.

Loved the mixture of humor along with the mystery. It gave the characters more of a human quality. Also loved the narrator, Elliot Hill.

What a psychotic,neurotic, erotic, addictive and fantastic adventure. It’s sick, chaotic and idiotic in a good way. ME respectfully I bow before thee. Also the guy who read the story to me. Luv u too.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
? Mark 12:31

Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.
?Romans 15:2

Devise not evil against your neighbor, seeing he dwells securely by you.
? Proverbs 3:29

Won't you please, won't you please,
Please won't you be my neighbor?
? Fred Rogers

Thou shalt not kill, but the reader of The Magpies will no doubt wish that he or she could do just that ... What kill.
The Magpies is a brutally gut-wrenching, and I mean brutally gut-wrenching psychological masterpiece. A heartfelt tale of utter evil ... Petrifying suspense ... And rage-inducing anguish. Surely, as you're reading The Magpies, you will have to take quite a few breaks from reading (which will be hard to do, as this page-turning thriller is difficult to put down) in order to catch your breath ... To just take a few deep breaths. It is a novel just that phenomenal ... And not merely one for the faint of heart.

An overwhelming rush of varying emotions will grip the reader?dragging, pulling, tugging, and twisting?with all of their strength: Fear, anger, hatred, malice, revenge, murderous rage, and a vicious blow of sadness. The Magpies is a very emotional read, indeed. And its readers will wish that they can absorb into the novel's setting (London) to embrace and protect its protagonists, Jamie and Kirsty. You will just feel for the smitten young couple as they both fall victim to their psychopathic, evil, conniving, and murderous neighbors ... Neighbors from Hell.

Mark Edwards' The Magpies is one of the greatest novels of the psychological thriller genre that I've ever read ... Ever. It is an effort extraordinarily-written, in a spirit of sheer ingenuity. Brace yourselves ... For The Magpies is guaranteed to have a drastic, bone-chilling, and boggling affect on your psyche.

Fast-paced, short-chaptered, and five-star worthy.

Books like The Magpies are risky investments for me. They can be either incredulous and/or poorly written. This book was neither of those things. In fact, I have subsisted on a heavy diet of mystery books for so long that it is nearly impossible to shock me...and yet this book managed to do so, and with the last few chapters in the balance, at that. Jamie and Kirsty are a young couple very much in love, with a promising future ahead of them. They manage to find the most perfect flat in the middle of London at a price they can afford. Their neighbors all seem nice and the neighborhood couldn't be more perfect. That is until strange things start happening to the couple. Before they realize it, their peaceful abode is anything put the haven of peace it should be. Someone is harassing and stalking them. But who?! Surely not their new neighbors? That'd be crazy, right?! I couldn't help but think of films like The Tenant or Rosemary's Baby. This book is definitely a psychological thriller, and even though the characters make dumb decisions and are slow to piece things together, I liked how it all came together in the end. I can't decide if it's a 3 or 4 star read; maybe it's somewhere in the middle? Either way it was very entertaining!

I couldn't stop listening , very frightening and it could happen to anyone

I'll admit I was disappointed that there was no final twist at the end -- or some kind of explanation other than the mundane. I suppose it works, in its own way, because it's realistic. But it wasn't really what I was expecting.

The story is okay, but as I mentioned, the ending is fairly underwhelming, especially in conjunction with the rest of the book. The sex scenes started to get a little repetitive and I honestly hated one of the main characters, Jamie.

I really wish the story HAD gone into a more horror and/or supernatural direction, especially with the way all the other neighbors were fleshed out. Honestly, I was kind of suspecting some kind of Rosemary's Baby type ending ...

But it's not a terrible book. Just, IMO, disappointing.

The enjoyment of a young couple in love and then questioning what was happening to them. Was it them or someone else? Good mystery!

This is a twisted page Turner. I’m going to read more of his stuff!

This one came highly recommended so was very interested to get stuck in. It was just what I needed in a busy week where an audiobook was the only option to get my reading fix. And stuck in is exactly what I did as it gets going very fast with an element of creepiness that makes your skin crawl. I was hooked from the beginning and just needed to know more. The pace was spot on with just enough suspense to make you wish you could listen faster. Loved the narration and it worked really well for the plot. Omg Mark Edward’s is a genius when it comes to writing characters you just detest. Would definitely recommend this one as it’s engaging the whole way and you just have to know the outcome. Outcome wasn’t as I expected but still such a good listen…

I really liked his book, intriguing. It did make me kerp listening.

I wanted to give 5 stars , but listening to it was both thrilling and upsetting as I am the victim of neighbours harassment.

The Magpies is a disturbing story about a young couple, Jamie and Kristy, who move into a new apartment only to find their neighbors are on the weird side - something everyone fears. The suspense builds nicely as they begin to realize just how crazy they are until they suddenly fear for their sanity and their lives: great suspense and a cliff-hanger ending.

Jamie and Kristy are wonderful, completely likable characters. When the first few incidences happened I wondered who it actually was that was doing them and whether they were just coincidences. Then they started to get worse....and then much, much worse. It was impossible to predict what would happen next at any stage of the book. If you have seen the films "Fatal Attraction" and "Jagged Edge"...then be prepared for the same feeling of terror as those physiological films gave you. I was just wishing that Jamie and Kristy would get out while they still could. I have loved everything that Mark Edwards has ever done but this one may well be the best ever.

This book was slow to start, like a slow burning fire. It drew the reader in as the need to find out what happens next took over. I found it compulsive reading, although it missed a couple of realistic situations, skipping them to help draw out the plot - I mean, why wouldn't they change the locks the second they suspected someone had been in their flat, rather than try and find out if someone else had a key? And although the ending was realistic in many ways, it was disappointing, even with a glimpse of hope at the end of some kind of comeuppence for the bad guys.

I had a tough time with this book, to be honest. I read the summary and thought I would absolutely love it. I mean, what is scarier than a realistic story about neighbors that seem perfect at first glance and then become monsters? I was even sucked in early on, but the thrill quickly faded. So, kudos to the writer of the summary for the book, because it hooked me in. I just wish I enjoyed the book as much as I thought I would.

The story follows Jamie and Kirsty as they embark on a new life adventure: living together. The young couple finds the perfect paradise to start a new chapter in their lives and fall in love not only with their new apartment, but also with their seemingly normal neighbors. Paradise slowly plummets into hell with the downstairs neighbors, Lucy and Chris, turn their world upside down. Dead rats on the doorstep, banging from the floor, harassing letters and spam mail are just a few of the things Jamie and Kirsty have to deal with, but the pranks get increasingly violent just when they think the worst is over.

For more thoughts on The Magpies.

mark edwards, where your mind goes...I can't imagine

Fear lives next door...

When Jamie and Kirsty move into their first home together they are full of optimism. The future, in which they plan to get married and start a family, is bright. The other residents of their building seem friendly too: the horror writer and the middle-aged herbalist who live upstairs, and the Newtons, a married couple who welcome them to the building with open arms.

At first, the two couples get on well. But then strange things start to happen. Dead rats are left on their doorstep. They hear disturbing noises, and much worse, in the night. After Jamie's best friend is injured in a horrific accident, Jamie and Kirsty find themselves targeted by a campaign of terror.

As Jamie and Kirsty are driven to the edge of despair, Jamie vows to fight back – but he has no idea what he is really up against…

The Magpies is a terrifying psychological thriller in which the monsters are not vampires or demons but the people we live next door to. It is a nightmare that could happen to anyone.
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Fab page turning urban thriller about the neighbours from hell. Perfectly paced - the author gradually builds up the tension until all concerned (including the reader) are past the point of no return and the inevitable outcome will be nasty, dramatic and rather unnerving

3.5*-- There were typos and grammatical errors, the gratuitous sex didn't fit with the book's genre or premise and secondary plotlines weren’t fully formed.

The Magpies by Mark Edwards is a story of a hopeful young couple who buy a flat outside London. Their happiness comes to a grinding halt when their sociopathic neighbours instigate a game of harassment that quickly escalates from a nuisance to a threat.

Edwards portrayed Jamie well by gradually developing his protagonist's personality to support his ending. He did a realistic job of showing Jamie’s psychological reaction to the events he faced by illustrating the character’s stages of grief as he struggled with his circumstances.

The fact that Kirsten had the same dream as a cameo character she’d never met was a miss. It shifted the genre from psychological thriller to supernatural, which didn’t support the plot. There were episodes of redundancy that dragged the pace, and the secondary characters’ roles were weak. Paul was an important addition to show the level of threat and the abandonment issues Jamie faced, but Edwards’ emphasis on irrelevant points left the storyline dangling. Again, it shifted to supernatural but Edwards abruptly abandoned the direction, leaving the preceding passages disjointed. The buildings’ other tenants were a confusing addition. Removing superfluous details and focusing on their role would have tightened the suspense.

Overall, an easy to digest read.

The Magpies is another electrifying and spellbinding psychological thriller by Mark Edwards, giving new meaning to the phrase, “nightmare neighbors,” with a twisted, and horrifying plan to drive neighbors to leave their home, or lose their sanity first.

Jamie and Kirsty, a nice young couple, excited about buying their first flat, a home, security, a new life, and even planning for their future and a family. They immediately want to meet all their neighbors and connect with their new found friends.

The garden level flat neighbors seem to be problematic. (we all have had bad neighbors-nothing worse). However, this story is so realistic, making it even more suspenseful.

At first Lucy and Chris start off with minor things, like their complaining the music is too loud, then gets worse when it comes to their intimate and personal sex life, violating their privacy, dead rats, spiders, junk mail, CDs, computer viruses, and fear for their lives, their friends, his marriage, his job, and their future baby’s life; Jamie becomes obsessed with stopping this couple, and risking everything, as he is determined not to allow his neighbors to run him out of his own home – he cannot let them win (no matter what).

When the authorities offer no assistance, Jamie begins to search for the prior owners to see if they can shed some light on his wacky neighbors from hell, and develops a plan to get inside their garden flat in order to find evidence. However, what he finds is shocking, keeping you on the edge of your seat, fearful, with your heart pounding, as a race against time.

I am loving Edwards bewitching writing, as he keeps you terrified with the suspense high throughout the novel. You can almost feel each of the characters’ heart pounding as they wait for the next move to destroy their dreams. After reading Edwards’ latest book, Because She Loves Me (highly recommend), was intrigued with The Magpies, and could not wait to read. Was not disappointed!

I liked the relation to Magpies, (how appropriate), as they are quite mysterious creatures. If you have ever watched the old Heckle and Jeckle (two inseparable black magpies) or the old film, The Talking Magpies (Mr. and Mrs. Magpie find a new place to live and prove to be very bad neighbors. Story by John Foster. Music by Philip A. Scheib. Produced in 1946). Ironically, involves real estate as well, driving the old man and dog out of their home.

Magpies are the intelligent and mysterious birds that everyone loves to hate. Magpies may engage in an escalating series of behaviors to drive off intruders and are among the most intelligent of birds, so are quick to make use of new food supplies, such as car kills. What's more, they are adept at avoiding being run over themselves, yet the humans are killed driving the cars. (too weird).

The Magpies also reminds me a little of the movies Bad Neighbors (2014), Pacific Heights (1990), and Lakeview Terrace (2008).

Would highly recommend the audiobook, as Elliot Hill’s performance was outstanding, combined with Edward’s brilliantly crafted plot–offering a chilling tale for your pre-Halloween enjoyment!

More like 4.5 stars.

This book was awesome. So glad I decided to pick it up. Psychological thrillers are wonderful if executed well and Mark Edwards did it fantastically. Can't wait to read more of his novels.

The story was good, but the writing seemed quite amateur really. I certainly didn't find this book as 'creepy' as some of the reviews have made out!