Very uniquely written mystery, which I appreciated a lot. These are interwoven short stories. Very interesting concept. I'd definitely read from the author again. Really courageous to write in this style.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Original and revealing. A perfect book for a crime fiction reader. It pays homage to the genre and plays with the writing process; endings and authorship.

Eight detectives is a book of several short stories which are presented to illustrate the fundamental formulae that governs their structure, plot and endings.
Grant McAllister is an author living a secluded life almost as a recluse. His book The White Murders never really the success it might have been his severn stories represent the golden age of crime fiction. Perhaps now is the time time to re-visit then. Enter, Julia Hart representing an modern publisher wants to review his work and re-issue his forgotten masterpiece; especially with a summary after each one detailing the art of murder mysteries looking at victims, suspects, murders and detectives.
This book is a breathe of fresh air and innovative in its approach to unwrapping an author’s work and thought processes.

I loved the tension that builds between author and the book agent as they review each story in turn.

A surprise bestseller I would suggest.

It is crammed with nuance and nods to the greats of crime fiction. I loved the growing menace but ultimately it is the simplicity of the fiction that won me over. Full of shocks and thrills. Each conversation after they read one of the stories become more tense and ultimately a sense of jeopardy grows.

The mathematic analysis with Venn diagrams is amusing and entertaining. Indeed it may just take your eye away from what is really happening.
Reader beware. McAllister argues the endings and outcome can be interchangeable in his work.
Of course the genius here is Alex Pavesi who devised this enchanting novel it is this author who perhaps is manipulating the audience and pulling more than rabbits out of his sun hat.
Delightful and quite devious debut novel that celebrates the crime thriller and then tops it with this innovative book which everyone should read.

This was a real brain teaser and kept me fully concentrated the whole way through. Interesting concept, breaking down the composition of a murder ,mystery using mathematical precepts. Loved the conclusion, biter bit!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

All murder mysteries follow a simple set of rules. Grant McAllister is a crime fiction author and a professor of mathematics, who has worked out those rules. Thirty years later, he is living alone on a quiet Mediterranean island when Julia Hart visits him. She is an editor, sent by her publisher to look at Grant's stories with him in view of republishing them.

As Julia reads the stories, she realises all is not what is seems, and believes the clues reference a real, unsolved murder from thirty years ago.

I loved the unique, clever way in which this book was written. Every other chapter was a different short murder mystery, seven in total, with the chapters in between being Julia dissecting and probing the short stories with author Grant. Julia spotted inconsistencies in each story, believing they were put there to trick the reader, and as she read on, as I am someone who works in publishing, I felt like I was working on the stories with her.

The murders are grotesque in places, but with clues so cleverly placed, the reader - and Julia - can easily miss them. It was like reading an Agatha Christie novel!

It was a brave concept for a debut novel, but a very clever one! It's a book you really need to pay attention to while reading. I'm glad I chose to read Eight Detectives!

I received an e-arc of this book free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph UK.

4 stars

Described as an 'original love letter to detective fiction' I had incredibly high hopes for this book, further buoyed by the continuing stream of excellent reviews. Although this book IS by all account very clever, intricately woven and, yes, very good...I'd hardly call it original.

Whilst it can be certainly said that the 'stories with a story' element is fairly new to this genre, it's been done before, and with books like The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, this book's type is definitely out there. A lot of the plots were very clearly directly inspired by Agatha Christie's works, one of them almost an absolute copy, and the ambiguous-ness of whether this was intentional means that I'm slight put off by the fact that the plots themselves are nothing new.

That said however I did immensely enjoy this book. It was fast paced and twisty, with some real brain work involved which is something I really enjoy about good books in the genre.

Whilst it can definitely be said that some of the end twists were wholly unnecessary, the book as a whole was an enjoyable ride through detective fiction tropes with intriguing and beguiling puzzles throughout.

Pavesi has done an amazingly good job of keeping a complicated plot together in a coherent way without causing the reader to lose their way. I really enjoyed his prose and structure, it made for a quick but engaging read.

Julia Hart a Publishers editor is interested in re-publishing a book of seven short stories which was called "The White murders". It's author Grant McAllister retreated to a remote foreign island some years ago.
Julia visits the reclusive author and discusses the book with him. He is very interested in receiving some money for the reissue as his income has fallen over the years. However he is reticent and it is hard to get him to give any real background to the stories.
Why for instance did he title the book "The White murders"? Did this have anything to do with a famous murder in 1940? No one has ever been arrested. What happened to the author's wife, abandoned when he moved to the island?
Julia challenges the author over each of the stories. He tells her they are based on mathematical equations! Can she get him to reveal anything else?
The ending is unexpected, surprising and very well worked out. A good debut novel from an interesting and intelligent author. Where will he go next?

Very clever, kind of case book study on the crime story .. I have to admit that its contrived formulaic approach distanced me at first, but the intellectual challenge soon melted into an intense urge to know who did it .. and to think on why that urge is so strong when, after all, I'm simply reading fiction .. I mean, what are the stakes? The layers of meta narrative make it hard to pinpoint a central plot ..you are always being undercut.. so intellectually and morally stimulating is content I have to offer... I'll be following this author to his next one.

I just didn’t enjoy this book at all to be honest, I struggled to stay interested, and I just found the murders and conversations afterwards boring.

I’m sorry, this just wasn’t for me.

My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for the advance copy

I found the first murder story contrived and I'm afraid it didn't improve. Even the final image of the melting snow man, left me flat.

I really enjoyed this murder mystery.

The book is well written and creative and strikes a good balance between traditional outcomes and interesting perspectives.

This book is on NetGalley as Eight Detectives.
This is a very different crime thriller but I did enjoy it.
The book consists of seven short murder mystery stories and a conversation between the author and a possible editor follows each one.
Julia finds discrepancies for which Grant doesn’t seem to have a valid explanation. Julia’s inquisitive mind soon finds her in the role of detective. Is he hiding something?
I can’t say too much more as it will spoil it but give this a go if you fancy a crime book different to all the others.
Thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book

I was intrigued by the premise of this book, as the blurb promised a combination of my two interests - detective fiction and mathematics. The Eights Detective consists of seven short whodunnit stories (not particularly original or well-written), which alternate with conversations between the author and an editor, who analyses each story. I don’t want to reveal any more in fear of spoilers. All I am going to say is that nothing is as it seems, in more ways than one. This book is a whole different experience and definitely worth a read.

What does a good murder story need? One or more victims, a murderer, suspects, and one (or more) detective(s). Those are the rules to follow for the perfect murder story according to mathematician and author Grant McAllister. Julia Hart has travelled to a remote village in the Mediterranean because she wants to publish a collection of stories Grant has written years before.

Julia reads each story analysing it in every single detail. In each story, Julia finds discrepancies for which Grant doesn’t seems to have a valid explanation. Grant’s elusiveness is no match for Julia’s inquisitive mind and, soon, she finds herself in the role of detective. Is he hiding something? Why doesn’t he remember writing the stories?

I was completely addicted to these stories. Each story is smartly constructed. It has an Agatha Christie resonance, a gripping whodunit plot, a claustrophobic atmosphere, and unexpected twists. The entire novel is unique, smart, challenging and I was quite surprised to find out that it is a debut. It has an original concept, the structure of book-within-a-book, and two protagonists that remain a mystery for most of the novel. If you are looking for something different from the usual crime novel, then Eight Detectives is the right read for you. Highly recommended!

An exceptionally clever and original concept for a detective novel. We have Julia Hart - an editor - visiting the author of a book shortly to be published to discuss one or two modifications prior to printing and to agree a fee. Unusually, the author - Grant McAllister - asks that she read him each of the 7 separate stories, prior to suggesting any changes, as he had written the book 25 years previously and needs to have them fresh in his mind before commenting. This doesn't seem unreasonable but Julia finds the exercise very puzzling and is increasingly intrigued by the author's responses. So what Pavesi gives us is 7 detective stories overlaid by an eighth mystery - what will Julia discover? By the end of this book you will understand the formula followed by writers of detective novels but, as with all good novels, there's a real twist in the tail to this one!

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin UK - Michael Joseph in exchange for an honest review.

Oh wow, what a treat this book was! I adore detective fiction and this was just one big love letter to it. Eight Detectives is the story of an old crime author named Grant McAllister and a young editor named Julia. Years ago he published an academic essay on the mathematical formula for writing murder mysteries, accompanied by several short stories as examples of this formula. It had little success but Julia has rediscovered this collection and wishes to publish them again, expecting a much more successful run. As she reads through the stories though, she begins to find hidden references to an unsolved murder and she suspects something sinister may be going on.

The format of this book made it a joy to read. It alternates between one of the short stories, followed by Grant and Julia discussing it afterwards. Each short story is brilliant within its own right and many have homages to famous detective fiction (for example, one is essentially a twist on Christie's And Then There Were None). All homages are acknowledged within text by Grant and so this prevented the stories from just being rip-offs, and all the stories had their own flavour and energy which made for delightful reading.

These stories on their own would make this book great but amazingly, there is a fantastic plot beyond them. Julia soon starts to spot inconsistencies in Grant's stories and these begin to add up to a bigger mystery. The whole thing is clever, delicious and fantastically done. I simultaneously wanted to power through this book and languish in the sheer brilliance of it all. I kept waiting to be disappointed but I never was. And this book actually scared me at several points as well! I am rarely scared by books but a few of the short stories truly unnerved me to the point where I didn't want to be alone.

Overall, this book is a must-read for any fans of murder mysteries. The love for genre spills onto every page and the result is possibly one of my favourite books of all time. Everything is crafted so carefully and executed so well. Pavesi has some serious talent to hit the balance so well and I could not have wished for more from a book like this.

Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

A book marrying mathematics and murder fiction. Two of my favourite subjects. I found the book intriguing and a very good read.

Loved it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read a free advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion

Sadly I found this book really hard going. It was an interesting premise to link seven short murder mysteries and look at the mathematics and permutations of their plot through the discussions of two central protagonists. However, I found the stories quite clunky and they didn't hold my interest, and the characters of Julia and Grant remained fairly two dimensional with quite a protracted ending throwing twist after twist into the mix.


Thank you to netgalley and penguin books for an advance copy of this book.

The Eighth Detective from Alex Pavesi comes with a staggering amount of good plaudits but I’m afraid it didn’t work for me. The first murder story was written in such clunky English that I double checked it wasn’t a translation and nearly gave up. It improved almost as each story unfolded but it certainly didn’t live up to its “thrilling” description for me. It will resonate with those who enjoy old-fashioned style novels, aside from the mathematical angle (which didn’t engage me at all). I was most disappointed in the ending and felt that the two characters of Grant McAllister and Julia Hart were not as well developed as the characters in each of the murder stories. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.

An interesting take on the traditional murder mystery, Eight Detectives is presented as 8 separate stories linked by the conversation between editor and author following each reading.

The premise is simple enough, an author (Grant McAllister) writes a group of short stories some 20 years earlier called the White Murders. McAllister theorises about the writing of murder mysteries in terms of mathematics and uses his stories as examples of these theories.

Upon interst from a publisher, McAllister is put in the spotlight and required to defend his earlier work when Julia, his potential editor finds a number of concerning discrepancies.

A solid 4 star read, with plenty of plot twists to keep you engaged.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a fabulous, engaging and different book. Full of twists and turns, right until the end. Clever in the extreme and thoughtful and well-written to boot. Well worthy of my five stars - I don't give these out easily!