Point of View

This story employs two different points of view. The frame story is told from the first person point of view of Susan. The first person point of view is important in the frame portion of the story because it allows Susan to discuss her feelings about the unfinished novel as well as her process of investigating what happened to the missing chapter.

Magpie Murders is told from the third person point of view of an omniscient narrator. Since this third person narrator does not focus on any one character, the reader gets a variety of viewpoints of the same occurrence. For instance, in the opening chapter, each of the main characters is the focus of one section in which his opinions of Mary and her death are described. In this way, the reader gets an idea of the opinions of Mary held by a variety...