This is absolutely an original book and a clever one.

A former maths professor comes up with a formula for writing about murders and then does so, in 7 short stories. He's then visited, many years later, by a writer keen to republish them. As she reads aloud each story, they discuss and Julia (the writer) finds herself 'the eighth detective' as she suspects the maths professor of a murder.

It's an interesting read with some surprises. However, I just found it an OK one as, for me, it was a bit of a slog to get through and was trying to be a little too clever and it didn't really pay off.

A decent read though and I'm grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview in exchange for this honest review.

A patchwork tale of mystery and intrigue, brilliantly written with characters that come to life with ease

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put this book down.
Anyone who likes a good crime read will like this book.
A cold case at its best. I like the investigation of how things unfold.

A murder mystery within several murder mysteries: what a unique take on this genre! Eight Detectives is an intricate puzzle of a story, packed full of clever twists and turns you won't see coming. Lots of other readers have made comparisons to Agatha Christie and I can see why. A classic detective novel, but with added layers and complexity, Alex Pavesi's debut novel is atmospheric, original and will certainly keep you guessing right up until the final page. Thoroughly enjoyed this one!

I really enjoyed this clever book that has so many layers to it, as we read about an editor as well as the stories that she is editing. Very well written, but a slightly abrupt ending - but one I didn't see coming, which was nice!

An interesting take on the classic locked room mystery. Evoking the golden age of detective fiction, do not be fooled into thinking this is "cosy crime". With a few twists I did not foresee, if happily recommend this to my customers.

I started by enjoying this quirky book, then became irritated and annoyed by it but in the final two chapters felt that I was glad I had persevered. I was intrigued by the thought that murder mystery stories could be defined by mathematical algorithms but towards the end of the book I found this irritating. A good book, but not a great one.

Grant McAllister is a reclusive mathematician. Many years ago he wrote a book of short stories to illustrate his theory of the patterns that come into play in a murder mystery. Now a publisher wants to re-release it. Editor Julia hart comes out to visit Grant, to talk about the book & his theories.

I like the premise of this book. It sounded interesting & unusual. Sadly it didn't live up to expectations. I found most of the stories fairly boring. The discussions only a bit less so. The ending did come as a surprise. However I was left wondering if the reader was supposed to chose which one they wanted. All in all a bit of a disappointment for me. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I love the idea of multi layered narratives - layers of story building on each other and retelling reevaluating reading each other - so this novel was a delight. Clever and witty, the interaction between the Agatha Christie-esque narratives and the 'real world' and the mathematics of detective fiction was delicious. Some I fear may have gone a little over my head, but it did not detract from the fun of this original murder detective story.

I didn’t really take to this book I felt like it was trying too hard to be something it’s not. I feel like if I wanted to read something from the ‘golden age’ of mystery/crime fiction I would prefer to read something from that era rather than a book that pays homage to that.

8 autumnal books that you should read right now
As soon as it turned 1st September, I was all ready to curl up with a book and a blanket. I had a look through my TBR and picked out some autumnal books – and I thought I’d share them with you too!

Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi
This autumn, I’d love to curl up with some cosy crime, and Eight Detectives is high up on the list. All murder mysteries follow a simple set of rules. Grant McAllister, an author of crime fiction and professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked them all out. Now he’s living a life of seclusion on a quiet Mediterranean island – until Julia Hart, a sharp, ambitious editor, knocks on his door. Julia realises she’s unwittingly entered a battle of wits where there can only be one winner. But Grant will soon realise that he underestimates her at his peril…

Self-referential, smart and suspenseful murder mystery within another.

Oohh, such fun. I'm not a huge fan of murder mysteries, I sample the best, the unusual, the clever, as so many of the genre repeat themselves and become a bit samey. I understand the conventions, I've read the staples and the famous titles, I've seen the adaptations. So a title that promised to unravel the structure and rules whilst playing with them? Right up my street. Nothing I like better than a writer who can have fun with their work.

Minimal plots giveaways here, a now reclusive mathematics professor who once worked out the rules of the murder mystery genre and explained them with a set of short stories is visited by a young editor, to discuss a reissue. As they discuss the work, and we see both their debating as well as the stories demonstrating each 'rule', it is clear that we are nested near the surface of a Babushka, with a lot of layers to uncover to reach the heart of both the books and the plot.

For me, this worked. I loved seeing the genre broken down into rules and elements. Writing may be an art, but it also shows definite scientific structure at times. The stories with the book were also enjoyable ones, with tangents you might not expect.

And the overall story gave me immense satisfaction by not staying still long enough to pin down exactly what was going on. While conventions are visible, Pavesi cleverly plays and twists, hides and reveals, and gives the theatre-like twosome a great connection and chemistry.

Yes, this could make a wonderful theatre production. Fans of murder mysteries should see if a book ABOUT them gives them some insight into just what makes them so enjoyable. And for those (like me) who like 'books about books', there's material here that will enlighten and entertain.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy.

Eight murder stories wrapped around a central mystery. Some of the stories were excellent. I thought the structure was clever and unique but its very cleverness meant the overall feel of the book was a bit disjointed. I liked the reveals but was a bit mystified by the very ending.

Really interesting and such a different book. Twists and turns made it page turning. Recommend if you have overdosed a bit on thé récent thrillers from new authors. I was really sent back in time and engrossed in this novel.

Unusual yet totally engrossing. A book that harks back to Agatha Christie yet is fresh and new in its approach . Well thought out and totally deceiving the book kept me guessing right to the very end . Slow building tension that delivers a sucker punch of a finale

This book was a little bit 'meh' for me but I think I perhaps didn't get how clever it was trying to be. Separate murder mystery stories are woven together by another story that involves their writer. It was an easy and entertaining though not necessarily gripping read. Perhaps if you a devotee of the genre you would enjoy it more?

On a Mediterranean island, Julia Hart, a publisher, has tracked down Grant McAlister. McAlister was a professor of mathematics who worked out a set of rules to classify every type of murder mystery. He wrote a set of stories to illustrate the point, a set that was only printed privately, but now Julia wants to reprint for the modern day reader.

They take the stories one by one, but as they progress, a pattern seems to be emerging. A vague shape that seems to reference a real crime from the past starts to take shape – but who was the victim? And who was the murderer?

It seems odd that two books that deal with the truth and fiction of murder cases are published on the same day – this and Anthony Horowitz’s Moonflower Murders. They take very different approaches but the idea of fiction within fiction is common to both, in this case the seven short stories that are presented for the reader, and for Julia and Grant to discuss. Just as in Moonflower Murders, there is something hidden within the stories, but as I said, things go in very different directions.

I think Eight Detectives will end up being an acquired taste. It’s not the first book that deals with short stories with a framing sequence where something is going on within the framing – E & M A Radford’s Death and the Professor, for example, although to be fair, that only becomes apparent at the end. There’s many more twists and turns towards the end in this one but they ones that are mostly foreshadowed. Admittedly, one of them is foreshadowed too much, I think – the first main revelation can’t really be considered a surprise to the attentive reader (although, as ever, I give the caveat that I have read too much crime fiction.)

There’s also the fact that some of the short stories, purporting to be written in the late 1930s, actually have a more modern feel to them. But… this isn’t a reason for the mystery fan not to the read the book. Despite the stories having a darker feel to them than you might expect, there is something about them that I can’t mention, but if the reader was to read the first one, think that it was a bit unsatisfying and not read on, they would be missing something.

It’s an interesting experiment of a book, and it’s not perfect. One notable part of the conclusion, the rationale behind a common thread of elements in the stories, a thread that is necessary for the plot to progress the way it does, doesn’t really make any sense. It reminds me a tad of a line from Blackadder the Third, but I won’t say which one.

And the rules… Well, I can see what the author’s going for here, but they’re not rules, they’re a means of classification and if a Professor of Mathematics wrote a paper on that, Zeus alone knows which journal would have printed it. I can see why it inspires this set of stories, but it’s not something that you can hang a career on. I imagine non-mathematicians won’t have this problem, but as I do fall into that esteemed category – the intersection of mathematicians and crime fiction readers, one might say.

Overall, I’m a little divided on this one. It’s definitely worth a look, there are some really ambitious ideas here done in a very clever way. But there’s also some bits that niggled at me – by no means enough to spoil it, but niggles all the same. I’ll be very curious what other readers thought of it.

This turned out to be a series of short murder mystery stories couched in a larger narrative where one of the main characters reads each story aloud to their author and discusses their relative merits according to a mathematical crime fiction structure. I don’t like short stories so this wasn’t for me. I found myself skimming just to get to what I hoped was the point of the surrounding novel. If you like bleak little tales of murder in the vein of Agatha Christie you may well enjoy it.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot - there are many other reviews out there doing exactly that ...

As a fan of detective novels, I was looking forward to this one.

Sad to say, it wasn't what I expected, and I didn't really enjoy reading it if I'm honest. I think it's because I didn't find the "modern day" characters (Julia and Grant) or indeed ANY of the characters in the "novels within the novel" particularly appealing or likeable, and some of the stories left me feeling rather annoyed for some reason.

I agree that the whole premise of this book is very clever, but the ending felt a little rushed, and perhaps a little more background into the "modern day" duo would have helped to make them more appealing.

I am also unsure why the book has different titles in the UK and USA? Personally, "Eight Detectives" makes rather more sense to me than "The Eighth Detective".

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

Well. This has had so much hype, but it just didn't click for me. Its well written, cleverly done and all that, but maybe I just read it too close to the Moonflower Murders and preferred Horowitz's meta literary murder mystery to this. I'm sure other people will love it, and the cover is gorgeous so plenty of people will pick it up, but just not a rave from me.