A New York Times Top Ten Thriller of 2020 “Dizzying, dazzling… When did you last read a genuinely original thriller? The wait is over.” –A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window “One of the most innovative mysteries in recent memory.” – The Wall Street Journal There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective. Grant … murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective.
Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked all the rules out – and wrote seven perfect detective stories to demonstrate. But that was thirty years ago. Now Grant lives in seclusion on a remote Mediterranean island, counting the rest of his days.
Until Julia Hart, a brilliant, ambitious editor knocks on his door. Julia wishes to republish his book, and together they must revisit those old stories: an author hiding from his past and an editor keen to understand it.
But there are things in the stories that don’t add up. Inconsistencies left by Grant that a sharp-eyed editor begins to suspect are more than mistakes. They may be clues, and Julia finds herself with a mystery of her own to solve.
Alex Pavesi’s The Eighth Detective is a love letter to classic detective stories with a modern twist, where nothing is as it seems, and proof that the best mysteries break all the rules.
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Dizzying, dazzling ― a potent potion of a thriller, a brew of bibliophilia (think The Shadow of the Wind), wire-taut tension (The Talented Mr. Ripley), and plot swerves so sharp and sudden you risk whiplash with each turn of the page, as bold as the best of Michael Connelly and Lisa Gardner. When did you last read a genuinely original thriller? The wait is over.
Truly original, and that doesn’t happen often. A must read (and I don’t say that often) for lovers of classic mysteries.
304 pages
3 stars
This book is not at all what I expected.
Years earlier mathematician Grant McAllister wrote a series of short stories about murders. It was to prove his theory about constant and consistent rules to these kinds of stories.
Julia Hart, an editor wants to now republish McAllister’s book and proceeds to go through the stories with their author. Her questions about the apparent inconsistencies in the stories set Julia off on a quest of her own to discover the truth behind the stories.
This is an interesting story with an attractive premise. I enjoyed reading it, but it is really not my favorite format. I will certainly take a look at the next Alex Pavesi novel.
I want to thank NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company/Henry Holt & Co for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review.
Complex story and strange. The ending did feel a bit lackluster after all the build-up, but that perhaps was due to the fact that so much time is spent pouring into the old stories, and not a ton of time is spent developing the characters in current time. his is a clever, original mystery. A mathematician wrote a book of murder mystery short stories in the 1930s. The book was meant to outline the necessary rules for a mystery. ”The number of suspects must be two or more, otherwise there is no mystery, and the number of killers and victims must be at least one each, otherwise there no murder…Then the final requirement is the most important. The killer must be drawn from the set of suspects.” his is a clever, original mystery. A mathematician wrote a book of murder mystery short stories in the 1930s. The book was meant to outline the necessary rules for a mystery. ”The number of suspects must be two or more, otherwise there is no mystery, and the number of killers and victims must be at least one each, otherwise there no murder…Then the final requirement is the most important. The killer must be drawn from the set of suspects.”
Julia Hart travels to a remote island to interview author Grant McAllister about is book The White Murders. She is representing a publishing company who wants to republish the book. Grant McAllister is an ex-mathematician professor who has added that element to his stories. He is also a recluse hiding from his past. When inconsistencies start showing up in Grant’s stories, Julia starts her own investigation.
The seven stories in this book are intriguing and thought provoking. Julia’s comments to Grant about the inconsistencies make the reader want to go back and reread them. I missed them all. By the third story I was trying to catch them and figure out the ending, but I wasn’t very good at it. Grant is an interesting character and his age has caused his memory to weaken.
Julia makes a great eighth detective and the ending is surprising. I did not see it coming and I love when a story does that. It makes the reader rethink everything they have read and thought throughout the book.
(Copy courtesy of Henry Holt Publishing)
Despite my general lack of interest in short stories, I really liked this one. The book is a back-and-forth with short stories from one of the main character’s books and the contemporary narrative interaction between a journalist and said author. There’s mystery and intrigue on every page, both in the shorts and in the longer story, and I found the alternations generally quite engaging and readable. I loved the way it all tied together – this book really is a love song for murder mysteries, and I found the ending satisfying and delightful. This was a great find!!
And how fabulous is that cover??
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
The collection itself contains secrets in this well-written set of mysteries that illustrate variations on the classic murder mystery.
I loved this very unusual book. Years ago, a mathematics professor self-published a book with seven short stories to demonstrate his theory that there is a formula for murder mysteries. He has since lived a very reclusive life, but breaks his isolation to meet with a book editor who wants to re-publish the book. As they review the short stories, a bigger mystery begins to unfold. A fabulous book for any mystery lover!
“The Eighth Detective” opens in Spain 1930, with trickery, a trick on Bunny, a trick on Megan, and a trick on the reader. This chapter is a short story, and the heart of the book follows. Julia Hart is interviewing Grant McAllister, author of “The White Murders, The Permutations of Detective Fiction. It is a book of seven classic traditional short stories that illustrate the key elements of every successful murder mysteries. A publisher has sent Hart to interview McAlister and update the stories for republication.
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The short stories are everything that readers crave in a murder mystery, all the key elements:
• A victim or group of victims who have been killed in unknown circumstances
• A suspect or suspects
• Detectives or characters who are trying to solve the crime.
This book contains the short stories that readers devour. They are all prefect examples, but there is something more. An unusual story unfolds in the chapters in between each story. Hart suspects that McAllister is evading certain issues, and she has something to hide as well.
The title implies that there are eight detectives, and there are but seven stories. So who is detective number eight? That is the critical question and I will not reveal the answer. Readers must find out for themselves I received a review copy of “The Eighth Detective” from Alex Pavesi, Henry Holt and Company, and Macmillan Publishing Group. I loved all eight stories.
I didn’t finish it.
Clever and charming, The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi reads a bit more like a short story anthology or a treatise on the murder mystery form than a novel. What pulls it all together is a frame story that seamlessly draws the reader into its lesson about the constituent parts of a classically constructed tale. Then, the book’s ending veers in such a way that makes the whole endeavor so much more exciting than anticipated. Julia Hart has traveled to the isolated home of an author on a remote Mediterranean island. They are meeting to collaborate on revisions and a preface for the re-release of his sole work. Grant McAllister lives in self-imposed exile but agrees to work with Julia to redress the disappointing sales of the original from 25 years prior. His collection of tales, entitled “The White Murders,” was conceived as a way for McAllister to delineate how mathematical concepts could be applied to literary efforts. In alternating sections, each one of his seven stories are presented and then followed by a “conversation” between the author and editor. They discuss how each tale exemplifies a particular configuration of victim, suspects and perpetrator. Over several days, the two dissect and analyze how plot can be built around a limited number of possibilities. The seven stories vary in tone and subject and are each individually strong and excellently told. During their work together, Julia comes to suspect that McAllister may have a mystery of his own that she will seek to uncover. Pavesi does an admirable job keeping interest in the connecting plot, but at times the painstaking description of story construction can become tedious. Still, The Eighth Detective is fascinatingly “meta” and the mysteries provided are well-conceived. As a whole, Pavesi’s book is a truly fun read that manages to be cerebral and informative even as it entertains.
Thanks to the author, Henry Holt and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
Original plot & a welcome break from serial killers mysteries!!
Firstly, this book was unlike any books I’ve read in this genre before. I found myself completely drawn in to the short murder mystery stories – the book within a book – but also the plot of the book as a whole.
Grant McAllister is an author who thirty years ago, wrote a book filled with short stories of murder that follow a set of rules that all murder stories must follow. I was interested from the first page and I couldn’t put this book down. I love a new, original concept and I truly believe that this book falls into that category.
Secondly, I’m a huge fan of Agatha Christie and that style of writing and I really do feel as if Alex Pavesi has completed a book that can compete in the genre. What a thrilling and complex read! It kept me guessing the entire time and just when I thought I was understanding things, I was proved otherwise.
Huge thanks to Netgalley, Penguin UK – Michael Joseph and Alex Pavesi for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Alex Pavesi has written one of the most creative detective novels of the year… if not of all time. Sharp writing, crisp dialogue, and the end will leave you reeling. An incredible debut novel!
It’s rare for me to read a book in a single day, but I couldn’t put The Eighth Detective down. Compelling, clever, and beautifully-constructed. It deserves to be huge. I genuinely wanted to applaud at the end.
An absolute triumph of a novel. I read it in two greedy gulps. Intelligent and compelling storytelling. Utterly brilliant.
In The Eighth Detective, Alex Pavesi constructs a remarkable puzzle that turns readers into literary detectives with every new twist. Both a celebration and a reinvention of mystery fiction.
So, so clever. A twisty story and an education in the math of murder mysteries. Agatha Christie would take her hat off to this one. Bravo!
The Eighth Detective is really a series of short locked room type mysteries tied to together with an overall story arc about the author. Starting with chapter one, every other chapter is a twisted short mystery with the even number chapters involving a discussion between the author of the stories and a representative of a publisher considering republishing the books. The author has a mathematical formula all figured out to write the perfect mysteries and is full of secrets and seems to have a bad memory but alas the story takes another twist. The short stories do have an old air to them like mysteries of the early twentieth century and if you love short stories you’ll probably love this. For me it was just okay and not what I expected. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.