Eight Detectives is a clever and engaging read which threads numerous stories together seamlessly, keeping the pace and the tension sustained and evident so the reader keeps turning the pages,

I would have never have thought eight mysteries could be all involved in one to read. Although it took me a while to get into the novel and stories, o thought it was a good read,

This is a very clever novel that sets out to tell us about a crime writer of the past with his collection of mathematically tested murder mystery plots and a young woman editor who on meeting him unravels a parallel tale of murder and much mystery herself.
I liked the way the stories wove with the interviews between Julia Hart and Grant McAllister and did have my suspicions that all was not well from the start but the author has achieved some excellent stories set very much in the golden age of crime mould to evoke classic Agatha Christie etc red herrings and a load of clever clues.
May not appeal to all wanting to just read through straight but this gave time for thought and our own detective skills to unravel the tale (s) very much Cluedo like within a book!

Grant is a famous novelist and Julia is a book editor who is working with him to republish an old set of short stories. As you read each, They discuss the necessary components for a murder mystery. Also, Julia notices each time something that is wrong in the story. Each ‘mistake’ links to a real unsolved mystery. What does this mean and what is wrong? This book was very clever and I think I would have liked it more if I was a greater lover of short stories. If you are, this would be ideal as it combines 8 short stories with an overarching mystery.

Alex Pavesi writes a fascinating, smart and imaginative novel that examines and analyses the murder mystery genre with author and Mathematics Professor Grant McAllister, with its echoes of Agatha Christie. Now an elderly recluse living on a Mediterranean island, many years ago he wrote a collection of seven murder mysteries under the title, The White Murders. In a research paper in 1937, The Permutations of Detective Fiction, he theorises that there are rules for murder mysteries, calculating the possibilities and the different structures, that he illustrates with the short mysteries in his collection. A publisher discovers the mysteries and wants to republish them that leads to young, ambitious editor, Julia Hart, turning up at McAllister's home.

Hart wants to go through each of the mysteries with McAllister, being sharp and observant, she notes the inconsistencies in each story, leaving her curious, with many questions and wondering if something bigger lies within the stories. She becomes the eighth detective, persistent and determined as she discusses each mystery after reading it with McAllister, who claims to have a poor memory and insists that there is no connection between the stories. Hart, however, is having none of this and wants to know more, intrigued with McAllister himself, who is he and what is his personal history? Why do the mysteries go under the title of The White Murders?

Pavesi's approach in his brilliant novel is different and original, offering the reader the opportunity to turn detective and hunt for the conundrums, riddles and clues that are present and underlie the unexpected and surprising ending(s). The clues are all there, in the well plotted and structured storytelling, the book within a book, that engaged me so thoroughly. This is a highly entertaining, twisted and intriguing thriller, that will appeal to many readers of crime fiction, especially those who love their classic golden age of crime mysteries. Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for an ARC.

From the outset of Eight Detectives the writer is toying with the readership, we are dropped into a world of murder mystery. A young editor visits an unnamed Mediterranean island where a long forgotten academic/author lives, her firm wants to publish a collection of murder mysteries (The White Murders) written 30 years ago. The narrative flips between the present and then one of the eight stories wondering if there is more to this arrangement than meets the eye. Its a collection of short stories built into a novel.. When reading you will notice some very obvious nods to the master of crime fiction Agatha Christie, the format a couple of the stories are a take on some very famous Christie novels, it's a bit disconcerting, you find yourself looking for other links to Agatha hidden in the novel.

It's a really easy, entertaining read, I sat down and read it in one sitting. My only however, was that I think it fell off right at the end, but thats a minor quibble. Fans of the Golden Age will love this.

This is an unusual book, definitely one for fans of the detective novel. The framing narrative is of a young woman interviewing an elderly detective story writer and reading aloud the eight short mysteries he wrote some time ago. In between they discuss the necessary components of a detective murder mystery and their mathematical ratios.
Fascinating.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin UK - Michael Joseph, for the ARC.

What a fabulously engrossing read! Don't be put off by the first chapter; in all honesty, reading this I thought I was witnessing an extremely poor piece of local Am-Dram production. However, things start to fall into place when you understand the setting regarding the telling of that mystery. The format is cleverly executed and well-written - such a unique perspective on murder/mysteries.

Julia Hart is a budding editor for a publishing company, sent to an isolated Mediterranean island where reclusive crime novelist and Professor of Mathematics, Grant McAllister, has lived for 25 years. Thirty years previously he had used his mathematical prowess to write a collection of seven short murder/mysteries - The White Murders - each exemplifying mathematical ratios of suspects, detectives and victims. Although published privately, Julia has a copy and her employers want to re-publish.

Julia reads each story aloud to Grant, following with a critical conversation where she highlights the inconsistencies she finds and asks him to explain his thinking; all the while questioning why he had entitled the book as he did, because there was still an unsolved case called The White Murder from 30 years ago.

This book just gets more and more interesting as it moves along - OK, so some of the mathematical ratios went well over my head, but that can be quite easily ignored. The main thing is - is Julia Hart and Grant McAllister really who they appear to be? They both have secrets.

From an amateur dramatical start, the stories become increasingly complex and very dark. Are Julia's questions really being answered?

A "novel" way of writing, which I really enjoyed.

I recieved a digital edition of the book from the publisher Penguin UK - Michael Joseph, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone, please respect this and be aware of spoilers.

So to start of I found it very hard to get into and quite confusing for the first couple of chapters. I think this is mosrly due to the formatring of the arc (obviously its not a finished copy so its a common problem) but the jump between stories and 'real life' didn't really come across well, they tended to blend until i knew to specifically look for the jumps.

I found the short murder mystery shories a little strange and rather unnecessary... After 3 of them i skipped the short stories to get back to the main 'real' plot... So in essence i skipped a large portion of the book... I'm not really sure if it really affected my reading because I'm not a huge murder mystery fan... But with Julia and Grant rehashing the stories afterwards i don't think I missed much at all - I understood the relevance of the stories in relation to the 'real life' plot happening. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the stories on their own I just find them unnecessary as part of this story, it seems like a way to forward the plot without doing anything... Since you can skip them and miss nothing.

I found the ending was quite lacking, with Julia just disappearing and jumping back to how she found out about the book to Francis at the end. It seemed like a forgone conclusion that Grant had killed Elizabeth White from the synopsis, but it had little to do with the actual plot...

Franics seems like a freeloader, he only seems wants the money since he has none and clearly lives above his money. And Julia acts like a bitch, i understand why she's angry and upset and i did sympathise with her, but i found her general attitude to be very pushy and annoying.

Safe to say I wasn't a fan but I'd definitely give it another go once its full formatted because it makes huge difference in reading experience.

As a lover of the queen of crime, the thought os this book excited me, supposedly with some interesting plots lines and christiesque flavour.
This book I think will be a bit of a marmite book, you either do not like it and think it overly saturated with plot or you really enjoy the ingenuity of the planning.

It starts straight into the story,where we find the charecters in the Mediterranean, Grant McAllister a crime novelist and mathmatician has seculded himself from the world, but Julia Hart a snappy editor wants to republish his early work form many years ago, but as she reads, things just do not add up.

The book is a contradiction on it's self, as it is a fast, yet slow paced book, one that weedles itself into your conciousness, and does not put you down, until the very end.
Having said that, it does make you work for your entertainment, makes you seek out clues, but you must not jump to conclusions, as it does have a habit of being twisty and turning, like a twisty turny thing, I did find it engaging.
This is not a single narrative, but a tale of several stories, it is intelligent and imaginative in the set up.
As mentioned earlier, this book will not be for everyone, you will love the ingeniouness of it all or think it pretentious and say, it was not well done.
I am of the former.

I did read this book in chunks, with rather large gaps between each sitting, hence, i did find it a little taxing on my poor brain to pick up the pieces from the previous read and continue.
It was a sign to me , that i was enjoying it and wanted to reach the conclusion , otherwise, i would have just closed it and moved onto my next book, so it does have engagement.
I won't lie and say that it was not confusing at times ( gor want of a better word) but if you stick thorugh it all you are rewarded with an ending to be proud of!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this proir to publication and I have indeed orderd a hard copy for my collection.

Description 🔖

Grant McAllister is a mathematician with a passion for murder mystery stories. He combined the two to create the mathematical rules for every murder mystery. All of them require a victim, a suspect and a detective; how many of each and the roles in which they play in each story can be configured, but they are the basic requirements. Grant chose to prove his theory by writing seven short stories following his own guidelines.

In his old age, Grant has retired to a remote island but is contacted by editor Julia Hart who would like to work with him to publish his short stories. To do so, Julia visits Grant so that they can go through his old work, his theory and understand both. This unearths more questions than answers and Julia finds herself as the detective in a real life mystery.

General Thoughts 🤔

I was hooked on this book as soon as I started. I had no idea what was going on and why each chapter seemed to be so random. I can’t remember at which point I realised what was going on, but the penny dropped eventually. The fact that the book forced me to really pay attention and concentrate made me love it.

Given Julia’s quizzing of Grant after reading each story, I knew that some kind of secret was going to be revealed at some point, otherwise it’s just a book of short stories right? What I didn’t foresee was what that secret was going to be and it was the secret that just kept on giving.

Characters 👫👭👬

This is an interesting section for me to write about for this book as there are only really two “real” characters; Julia and Grant. As a reader we don’t get to know an awful lot about them but I didn’t find that necessary.

I didn’t know what to make of Grant from the start. I couldn’t work out if he was genuinely just old or purposely blasé about his personal life.

I honestly didn’t think much of Julia until towards the end of the book. She always seemed like she was a character included to help the telling of Grant’s story. I didn’t expect her to be quite so wrapped up in her own investigation as she was.

Writing Style ✍🏽

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book structured in this way before and that was partly what made me love it as much as I did. I was immersed into each short story like I was reading a full murder mystery book. Having the opportunity to then analyse and breakdown each short story with Julia and Grant was awesome.

The inconsistencies in the murder mystery stories were such a fantastic part of this book. After the first set of inconsistencies were mentioned, I was doing my own detective work trying to spot them in the subsequent stories. I found myself re-reading the short stories before reading the Grant and Julia chapters to see if I could spot them myself.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This is unlike any other mystery book I’ve ever read and I think it’s such a special piece of work from Alex Pavesi. It was everything that I love about murder mystery stories amplified by 10. It was more than just a classic whodunnit, it was seven of them with one big overarching mystery to trump them all. If you haven’t already read this, READ IT.

Eight murder mysteries neatly packed up into one delightful read (or is that 17 mysteries?!). With (many) hints of Christie, this book had me hooked. Very clever written, it had me guessing right to the end. And it turns out that nothing is as it seems. Loved it!

I was intrigued by the premise of this book, and it certainly was not a disappointment. Hugely inventive, and a cracking read. A young editor travels to a Mediterranean island to interview a reclusive crime writer to put together a collection of my mystery short stories, linked with a mathematical theory about how mysteries are written. The stories themselves make up a large proportion of the book. Inspired by Agatha Christie, the stories are excellent, and the interviews between the editor and author are intriguing and absorbing, I absolutely loved this book.

This is an unusual crime novel, a series of short stories by a writer, interspersed with a conversations between him and a publisher. The stories each have their own twist, and the reader of many crime novels will recognise some, such as the ‘locked room’ scenario. There are a few twists at the end that took me by surprise. On the whole the idea works well, but for me, the stories became a bit similar towards the end.

I think this book just wasn't my thing because I ended up feeling confused and wondering what was going on so I gave up. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

Many years earlier, maths professor Grant McAllister published a research paper, The Permutations of Detective Fiction, which sought to give a mathematical definition of a murder mystery. It also served as the appendix to a book written by McAllister whereby his theories were distilled into seven short stories, self-published as a collection, which provide examples of the various permutations of suspects, detective and victim.

Eight Detectives comprises those stories interspersed with conversations between Grant and Julia Hart, an editor interested in republishing the book, who has visited Grant on the Mediterranean island where he now lives in seclusion. Together, they go through the stories one by one, revealing in the process curious discrepancies which seem to refer to a “real-life” unsolved murder. Even the title of the book, The White Murders, references the case - the death of Elizabeth White - though Grant denies any knowledge.

I enjoyed reading the short stories, although some were a bit overly unpleasant at times. My favourite, like Julia’s, was Trouble on Blue Pearl Island, a faithful homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. (It’s notable that Christie’s works contain various examples of McAllister’s permutations - the murder where all the suspects did it, the detective as murderer, etc.) The eventual truth about Grant is very Christie-esque.

I’ll admit, I was a bit relieved that the research paper referred to wasn’t appended here as well. I’m not sure I could have got through that.

I’d never have picked up on the discrepancies which Julia spots - I’m just not that careful a reader. Hats off to anyone who did.

While I enjoyed the stories, I liked the last part of the book best, where we learn more about what has really been going on, and the rug was pulled from under the reader more than once.

There’ve been a few examples lately of the detective story within a story format (Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders spring to mind) and it makes for an intriguing and juicy framework (and fun to write, I imagine). Eight Detectives is very cleverly constructed and the short story framework worked well in avoiding taking the reader too far out of the overarching narrative. I enjoyed it a lot.

Eight Detectives is a mystery in pretty much every sense of the word. Opening with a short mystery, it soon becomes apparent that the first chapter is happening within the narrative - the 'main' plot, as it were, follows a book editor as she visits a reclusive author in the run-up to the re-publishing of his collection of murder mysteries from twenty years before, and the chapters alternate between that narrative, and the short stories of the collection.

The author of the collection is a mystery in himself - originally a mathematition, he found a formula which all murder mysteries should follow (with variations) and produced a collection to showcase these. But as these chapters go on, you start to become aware that all may not be as it seems. Why did he leave Britain for a small island suddenly? Why is he cagey about his past? What is the connection between his collection and a real-life murder which happened shortly before the collection was originally published?

For me personally, I found the disperate parts of the narrative confusing for a time, and I felt slightly distanced from the it as a result, unable to fully invest in the story/ies to the extent that I would have wished. However, I will say that the ending was deeply satisfying and was very sucessful in pulling together all these different strands.

A mystery book with a difference, that is for sure!

I was intrigued by the description of this book, but found it very disappointing. The central story is lost between the (rather dull) short murder mysteries, and by the end of the book I was so relieved to finish it that I didn't really care about the ending. The author's writing style is odd, and off-putting and I would rather read an Agatha Christie.

I looked forward to this book with real excitement following reviews and lots of interest on Twitter.

Sadly for me it’s not really one i enjoyed and found very hard to get into the story and struggled with the writing style and couldn’t take to the characters.

I like the premise and the idea of the stories with the stories and I can see how many readers will enjoy this book but for me I just found it a bit disjointed and was reading with a distinct lack of interest

A book that might appeal to a prospective author of murder mystery using short stories to illuminate the balance of suspects, victims and killers. In that respect it was clever.

For this reader it failed in a fundamental way: a lack of character development in the main cast members. By the end I just didn’t care.

I am left with some thoughts: the author is very intelligent and I am less so..... Or, like the Emperor’s New Suit, it is a load of baloney.