An interesting concept which made me curious when I realised it would feature all of McAllister’s detectives as part of the wider novel. However, I when I came to read them, I just wasn’t wowed by the short stories that were part of The White Murders, they seemed to be lacking some kind of spark for me which made for a very long set up. I found that they weren’t holding my attention enough either and in fact I was only really enjoying the chapters with the interactions with Julia and Grant. The novel only truly got under my skin near the end with the dramatic reveal. I didn’t find it as a rewarding reading experience as other reviewers did which was a shame.

I really wanted to love this one, especially as so many people have been raving about it. Sadly, I just didn’t get on with it. And I’m sure it’s a case of it’s me, not the book, most likely it was just not what I was looking for in a book right now. It’s a great premise, has interesting characters is well written, but it’s just not for me at the moment!

I’m afraid I’m in a minority in not getting on at all well with Eight Detectives. It’s a very ingenious idea but it’s simply not very well done.

The premise is well described in the publisher’s blurb: a professor of mathematics once worked out the maths of detective stories and wrote some short stories himself. A young editor is sent to meet the author and revise them for publication and finds possibly disturbing clues to an old, unsolved murder.

So far, so enticing. My problem is that I didn’t find it well enough written to hold my attention. The stories themselves aren’t very interesting, are sometimes rather repellent and generally very implausible. The prose creaks and plods more than a little and the descriptions of present day events read in a very similar voice to the stories, which doesn’t help. In addition, the “mathematical rules for a murder mystery” are things like “There must be at least one victim” or “There must be at least two suspects” and that the sets of victim, killer, suspects, and detectives may overlap in different ways. It’s hardly earth-shaking stuff. I’m afraid I decided that life was too short for this, gave up around half way and skimmed to the end. Sadly, I found it just as unrewarding as the rest of what I’d read.

Others have plainly enjoyed this book very much and have found the puzzle engrossing, but I was very disappointed in it and can’t recommend it.

(My thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Eight Detectives is like nothing you have read before.

The name of the novel alludes to the fact that someone out there is the eighth detective, each story contains details that lead you to solve the mystery, and you do have to pay a lot of attention when reading it.

Perfect for those who enjoy complex, multilayered story lines and don't mind a slow burn read.

Disclosure: I'd like to thank the publisher for my advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

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Wow, do you need to pay attention when reading this book! Clever, intricately detailed and good twists in the second half. I found it quite hard work though and struggled with keeping track of the many little clues in each story.
The 'elements of a murder mystery' was great though, and the use of each story to portray them was well executed.

Eight Detectives is a real joy. Julia Hart has come to meet Grant McAllister, the author of The White Murders. Grant's book was written 30 years before and comprises of 7 detective stories, each of which sum up the rules of murder mysteries. The reader gets to read all of the stories, many of which are recognisable homages to classic detective fiction. They are creepy and uneasy stories to read and reflect on the interactions between Julia and Grant. Julia is the eighth detective and is trying to solve her own queasy mystery. I got increasingly worried for Julia and I would never have expected the outcome. The writing is so clever and engaging. Alex Pavesi shows a real love for the genre which is often not taken as seriously as it could be.

WOW, what a brilliant inventive debut novel .perfect for fans of Christie and Doyle’s stories. This is certainly a different take on mystery crime stories, brilliantly written, with more than one ending, and several twists that you may or may not see coming.

Grant McAlister, mathematician, and author, of a book with a collection of seven murder mystery crime stories The White Murders, a book he had written 30 years earlier, before taking himself off to solitude on a Mediterranean island. He applies mathematics to his theory on what makes a good murder mystery, you need three things to make it work, a victim, a suspect or even more than one, and a detective, once you have those all you have to do is shuffle the permutations and you have the perfect murder mystery. He is approached by Julia Hart an editor who would like to reprint his book. She goes to join him on the remote island, where she spends time with him reading the stories out, but as she does so she notices some inconsistencies within each story, but when she questions Grant about them he says he can’t remember. But the way Julia sees it there is something more going on with the stories, as she delves deeper she questions whether there are clues into a real life case that had happened 30 years earlier, but had remained unsolved. Could she be right? Or is it just a coincidence. Grant says it is? Julia is the eighth detective attempting to solve another mystery and unearth the secrets she believes Grant is keeping.

Each of the stories is different, very cleverly written, giving the reader a chance to play detective. It’s so unusual to be reading a story within a story. But watch for those riddles and twists, that will keep you guessing. Read carefully and take in all the clues and see if you can guess the answers correctly.

This is such a unique read, challenging, clever, engrossing. If this is what Alex Pavesi’s debut novel is like I cannot wait to see what comes next. A truly exceptional book for lovers of the good old murder mysteries/whodunit plays that I loved so much growing up.

I would like to thank #netgalley and #MichaelJoseph for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

This is essentially 7 short stories linked together by an 8th - but ones that I really enjoyed. The 8th story takes place between Julia and Grant and unfolds between the readings of the other 7. They start to critique the stories and explore the 'rules' of murder mysteries. Julia spots many inconsistencies in the books, and as a reader, you start joining in, looking for the inconsistencies, rather than necessarily trying to solve the murders.

I thought they were excellent mysteries and the ending of the book which linked them all together even more was very satisfying. It's a new take on the old murder mystery genre, which is always welcome, but ultimately nothing revolutionary here.

It's an enjoyable read that fans of murder mysteries will love, but it's also easily forgettable - hence the three stars. However, I'm looking forward to more books by Pavesi.

A full review will appear in the Bert's Books Podcast released on 7th June 2020

I enjoyed the machinations of the plot more than the narrative and while the short stories were brilliant, I found myself lost for most of the book. I really loved the structure, but I think the plot leave the reader floundering for much of the novel for anything secure to latch onto - to the detriment of the book.

I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if my head isn’t in the right place for this book as I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I love a Murder mystery, I love trying to work out what the connection is to help prise apart the story so it can give up it secrets. With Eight Detectives however I just did not care.

The premise is that a publisher goes to visit a reclusive author to discuss a series of short stories he wrote many many moons ago. She reads each story (so the reader can ‘listen’) and then they discuss it along with the theories he has written about regarding the perfect murder mysteries. I didn’t particularly like the stories as they never had any redeemable characters, and I found that I kept skimming over their discussions as I found them a bit tedious. The extra twists at the end were a nice addition, but by this time I simply wanted to finish the book and be done with it.

I feel like I’ve let it down, which saddens me.

I am always on the look-out for genre fiction that tries to something different with the genre it is operating in, so when I heard about Eight Murders, I thought I'd give it a go. The basic premise is a book editor (Julia Hart) has been commissioned to edit and compile a retrospective collection of stories called the White Murders by ex-professor of mathematics, and one time author, Grant McAllister.

To do this she journeys to the quiet Mediterranean island McAllister has retired to, to quiz him about his life, his ground-breaking mathematical work on the maths of the murder mystery, and his old mystery short stories.
Structurally the book has Julia re-read each story to McAllister and then them discuss it and what he remembers of it and why he chose particular things. The question is whether or not there is an additional mystery to solve.

Of course there is, otherwise what would be the point of the book!

I love the idea of this book. But. I think this is one of those books where the idea behind it is slightly better than the execution. This – at least in part, for me, is because the writing of some of the 'original stories' was a bit meh. In some ways that is not the point, but as they do take up the majority of the book they have to be satisfying in and of themselves and not just be props for any potential later twists. In that sense I felt the end of the book was written first and then worked back.

On the positive, it was still an enjoyable read and one twist, I'll admit, I didn't see coming at all.

Thanks to Netgalley, Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and Alex Pavesi for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

The premise of Eight Detectives was intriguing and I really, really wanted to love it but I was left underwhelmed. It was a bit clunky and the narrative thread holding the stories together wasn't really strong enough to carry the book. Although the short stories are brilliantly written - they are tightly constructed and very clever - I was left feeling unsatisfied and a bit disappointed.

I had absolutely no idea I was going to love this book as much as I have.
No review I write will show how absolutely fantastic this book is. I have devoured this book in one sitting and been kept gripped. Absolutely loved it.

This book creates an unusual context for seven detective stories. The overall setting for these is a research paper created by Grant McAllister in which,many years ago,he analysed the essential components of detective fiction. The separate murder mysteries demonstrate these themes. That is an interesting glue to hold the separate short stories together. Grant and his partner moved to a remote island many years ago but only one of them is alive. The survivor is visited by Julia who wants to question Grant about his original thesis and an unpublishe book about White murders written a long time ago.She is in many ways acting as a detective on Grant's case. Much of the book is to do with the anomalies she discovers in the early short stories and she wants to know if the mistakes were accidental or a means of holding readers' attention. The whole package moves to an unexpected conclusion. The best of the book is the short murder stories. The attempt to analyse what makes a gripping murder mystery is more of an effort for the reader. The book achieves its importance by pursuing an unusual idea.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for this arc. I was intrigued by the premise and the book within the book is one of my favourite tropes so I was excited to read this.
This follows our writer Grant who lives on a Mediterranean island. He published a book of short stories in 1940 with a small publishing company, which barely sold 100 copies. Now many years later (it's not clearly specified what year the novel is set in) an editor, Julia, from a publishing company that specialises in crime fiction wants to republish the short story collection with a new introduction and an explanation for the stories. As time goes on Julia begins to notice similarities to a real-life crime that happened in 1940 and took place on Hampstead Heath. Is there more to these stories than meets the eye?...What is Grant hiding?...
The story for this was promising and hooked me in, however half through I realised what this book was and it just didn't work for me. Basically the Grant and Julia storyline is barely in this book, and this is mostly a collection of short stories written in Agatha Christie style. I liked the first short story about the two people in Spain and the one that follows a woman who is having dinner in a top floor restaurant when she sees a burning building, but the others just didn't intrigue me much and I found the ending of the short stories rather abrupt and hurried. The main problem for me was that I just couldn't connect to most of these characters, and the mathematical theory aspect of this novel which sounded intriguing was actually rather basic with victims, suspects, murderers etc. Overall as a novel Eight Detectives fell flat for me, because what I got was eight short stories held together by a thin narrative. Had the short stories been shorter, and the main narrative more fleshed out and better plotted this might've worked. Unfortunately this was no The Shadow of the Wind. This isn't a bad book by any means, but it just didn't meet my expectations. If you enjoy short stories and love the Golden Age of Mysteries, then maybe you'll like. 3/5

This was a good murder mystery that felt very Agatha Christie. I did enjoy it but towards the end I felt it dragged a bit. I loved the premise of this book and the description of a nesting doll describes it so well. I enjoyed the mysteries and I did guess a few things. The books is clever but for me there was something that held me back from loving the book.
It begins with a mystery story then the next chapter shows that it was just a story. The story then alternates between the stories written by the author and an interview with the author. I found it to be engaging and it requires you to be involved and try to figure out the mysteries.
The characters were okay, I didn’t really connect to them and I felt they could have been developed more.
Overall I did really enjoy this book and I know that others will enjoy it.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 - Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi.⁣
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Thank you @michaeljbooks for approving this ARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.⁣
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I cannot recommend this to all thriller and murder mystery lovers. This book was quite unlike anything I have read before, completely original. I absolutely loved having 'short stories within the bigger story' concept, a unique element that is new to me.⁣
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Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I've been reading a lot of crime novels lately and found myself guessing the endings/ not really being surprised anymore but Eight Detectives has changed that. It was a completely different experience and so cleverly written. I am so glad I've been given the opportunity to read it.⁣
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It is out August 20th and I recommend you get this in your pre orders.

This is a really quirky and well plotted book.

Twenty years ago Grant McAllister wrote a series of short murder mysteries to prove that all detective stories have the same mathematical structure.
Editor Julia Hart is looking at the book for republication and the impoverished author is keen to do so.

What follows is very clever, seven very well written and clever mini detective stories but then twists and turns and links to other events and people.
I loved it.

I really enjoyed this book, it was so unlike anything else I’ve ever read!

I really enjoyed the individual murder mystery stories and the main overarching storyline. I did t guess any of the mini story endings correctly or the main story arch, the twist took me entirely by surprise. I won’t spoil the ending though...

If you like a murder mystery, this is for you!

This book offers a range of short stories all held together with an extended interview between a fictional writer and editor about the nature of murder mysteries. The stories explore some of the main permutations of classic crime that people will be familiar with from writers like the great Agatha Christie, but the stories are then discussed and dissected.

The stories are framed by the discussion between Julia Hart, a book editor, who has travelled to an island in the Mediterranean to interview a writer, Grant McAllister, with a view to republishing his 30 year old book, 'The White Murders'. Each of the 7 stories in this book is presented and discussed by Julia and Grant, the latter sharing his mathematical analysis of detective fiction - sets and subsets of victims and detectives and killers which allow for unlimited combinations in the imagination of the crime writer.

I'm actually in two minds about this book. It is a clever idea and I liked the stories and the analysis generally. However, I did feel like some of the stories were so open that there weren't really enough clues for the reader which did kind of undermine my investment in the stories a bit - something that was utterly confirmed for me by other developments in the story's denouement.

Overall, I can see that some will read and love this - it is clever and engaging. For me, I like a bit more emotional investment in my detective stories that I didn't really find here - I'm not sure if it was the short story element or the mathematical approach that stopped me from engaging fully. However, it is definitely worth a read for fans of detective fiction as it is unusual and surprising.