I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book. I found it puzzling - obviously that's how it's meant to be - but at times my head hurt as I tried to work out what was going on. Maybe that's a good thing in a detective mystery.

However, I didn't find it entirely satisfying - I can't put my finger on why - but I was left wondering what it had all been about. Clever - yes. Readable - yes. Did I love it - Mmmmm no. Others do though, so who am I to judge?

Nearly gave up reading this book, I found it a bit complicated in certain chapters. Decided to stick with it just to find out the ending, it was not an exciting book for me.

Julia Hart goes to a remote Mediterranean island to speak with Grant McAllister, she wants to ask him about a collection of detective novels "The White Murders" he published decades ago and also about his 1937 paper "Permutations of Detective Fiction"

We have 7 stories that are interspersed with Julia and Grant speaking. Julia feels Grants is holding something back and asks, sometimes personal, questions. She also notes inconsistencies in some of the stories......

On the whole I enjoyed the book, but found that more was given to the short stories rather than the actual main story, I don't feel that the story really developed and that the ending was rushed, we didn't get to know Julia and Grant that well

Thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read the book in exchange for an honest review.

"Julia nodded. '...The craft, then, is in the misdirection: in picking the solution that in some ways it seems the most unsuitable to the story you've written, but in other ways fits perfectly.' 'Yes,' said Grant. 'And that's what differentiates a murder mystery from any other story with a surprise at the end. The possibilities are presented to the reader upfront. The ending comes back and points to one of them.'"

Elderly Grant McAllister is a reclusive novelist responsible for a collection of short stories, murder mysteries, written in the 1940s, the golden age of detective fiction. He also wrote a research paper examining the mathematical structure of murder mysteries called 'The Permutations of Detective Fiction', which posits that there are a limited number of requirements for a murder mystery; these include a victim, a pool of suspects and a detective.
Publishing editor, Julia Hart visits McAllister on a small Mediterranean island to discuss republication of the stories.

As Julia interviews McAllister and reads through the stories with him, she suspects something is amiss. He appears unfamiliar with the stories' plots and there are a number of inconsistencies that link them and appear to be connected with real-life The White Murder.

Narrated from Julia's perspective, the novel goes through each short story and then she and McAllister discuss it. It becomes apparent it is building to an unexpected conclusion. I loved each individual mystery, trying to identify the killers, each serving as an example of McAllister's mathematical structure. This is a dazzling debut and an enthralling homage to classic detective fiction that adds a new perspective to the genre. I absolutely loved this and highly recommend it to fans of murder mysteries and detective crime fiction.

Editor Julia Hart, from a small publishing company, visits reclusive author, Grant McAllister. They are looking to re-publish a collection of stories he wrote and Julia spends time going through each of them with him. McAllister, a mathematician, had created a list of rules for detective writing and, as they go through each story, Julia is intrigued to uncover the clues and wonders about links to a real murder, which happened in 1940 London (every time I drive past The Spaniards Inn in Hampstead, with the jostling traffic attempting to get through the narrow – one car only - space, I wonder anew at the amount of times it is name checked in books!).

I think this will be a book that readers either love or, like myself, struggle with. One of the reasons I may have struggled is that short stories are not really a form that I enjoy and, to be fair, this is basically a collection of stories. This is, though, a very clever book. It is something of a homage to Golden Age detective writing, with puzzles to solve – but the stories are more unsettling, unpleasant and uncomfortable than those you find in the original genre. However, I applaud the author for trying something so original, even if it was not for me.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I really enjoyed this book. The plot is really clever and all the twists and turns make it a memorable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

A quirky and original novel that it is a meta-fictive mystery. Based around 7 short murder mystery stories, the two main characters analyse these stories whilst being involved in their own mystery. There is a nod of respect to Agatha Christie in the 7 stories, which are very much written in the classical style. The book starts off slowly but gathers pace as the stories become more complex. The characters, both the main ones and those in the 7 stories are all superficially drawn, the main emphasis of the book being the construction and analysis of plot. I found the idea of the book very clever but it all became a bit confused towards the end. The ending itself was rather disappointing.

An interesting idea that is centered around how a detective story is structured. It incorporated short stories to illustrate these points that are quite entertaining in themselves, however I felt that the background story knitting all of the threads together could have been stronger and the two endings left me feeling a bit short changed. I think for me personally, I would have liked to know more about the main characters and the island setting.

Thirty years ago mathematician Grant McAllister devised a set of rules which defined all murder mystery stories, eg there must be at least one victim. He then also self-published a book of short stories called the White Murders which explored the way in which these rules interact eg if there are only two suspects. Now Julia Hart, a book editor, has come to visit Grant and persuade him to republish the book.

Like Scheherazade, Julia reads each short story aloud to Grant (and the reader) but then points out inconsistencies with each story, she also draws out references to an unsolved murder of a woman thirty years ago which the newspapers referred to as The White Murder. Did Grant have something to do with that murder?

I can only liken this to the film The Usual Suspects because of the way you think you are reading one thing, then Julia exposes the issues with the short story which makes you think something else. And then there are further twists and turns which throw everything into disarray.

I think it is fair to say that this book contains pretty much every possible murder plot variation and keeps the reader confounded right up to the end. I started off reading this and not being very interested but by the end I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the next rollercoaster twist and turn.

Dark, twisty, intellectual, challenging and deeply satisfying.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

4.5 stars.
This is notsomuch just a novel, rather a bunch of short stories all linked by a continuing narrative regarding the republication of them. It's unique in delivery and that's what kept me going throughout, not being the greatest fan of shorts... That said, it's also quite hard to do justice in a review as I really don't want to give anything away. We follow Julia Harp, a young publishing editor, who has travelled over to the Mediterranean island that Prof Grant McAllister now calls home. Many years ago, he wrote a collection of seven short murder mysteries to accompany his paper on the rules for that genre. You know, you need a killer, a victim, an investigator etc etc... Julia wants to re-publish his book and so she requests that they revisit each story and dissect them...
Right... so the format is, a bit of chat, a story, a dissection of said story, a bit more chat and on to the next story... and then we have the finale. But it's so much more than that as you will discover after the first dissection. And that will also get you wondering. Also what you will wonder about is why the title for the collection... All things I can't possibly go into here. And it may all seem a bit weird initially but, and you have to trust me here, read on - by the time you eventually get to the nitty gritty, well... it kinda shocked me sideways! And made me kick myself - hindsight - clues were all there - built up extremely well... yep... I missed most of them!
Each of the stories within the story are all well done - again, trust me with the first one - extremely well plotted and all delightfully interconnected within the volume. I did have to hold onto quite a few thing along the way but, by the time I got to the final denouement I started clapping the author for a job well done. My only fear is that the book may lose readers along the way. But honestly, if you are confused or struggling, READ ON - trust me, it will be worth it.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I LOVED THIS! A wonderfully original and delightfully playful murder mystery, with a host of twists and turns. It was incredibly self-conscious of the genre but never felt stale because of that. Even with the repetitive structure, this was not a negative but a joy.

I am still thinking about this after finishing! It is most certainly a mystery within a murder mystery and so cleverly done. It has layers upon layers and definitely got my brain ticking. I really recommend this for anyone who loves a murder mystery and also fans of short stories because of the broken up format.

This was interesting, but more like reading a book of intellectual puzzles than a novel. The concept is books within a book. There are seven mystery stories, each linked. The story was a little stilted and I was left feeling the conceit could have been so much cleverer. Some of the links are very tenuous. It needed more punch to pull all the strands together.

I was sent a copy of Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi to read and review by NetGalley
This novel read rather like a book of short stories interspersed with chapters of explanation, which I suppose is sort of what it was! The stories are discussed by a publisher and the author of the book ‘The White Murders’ which uses the different formulae of the murder mystery novel in each separate chapter. I enjoyed the book, but I can’t say that I was blown away by it. It was interesting to discover the different permutations and structures of the genre and I particularly liked story number 7, which was the last in the fictional novel. I have given Eight Detectives 4 stars as the writing was good and I didn’t not want to read to the end but it didn’t engage me quite enough to award it the maximum 5.

I really enjoyed the stories within the story in this book despite not being a fan of short stories in general.
The premise of a mathematical solution to writing a murder mystery was innovative and well explained.
The style of writing for the stories within the story was very reminiscent of Agatha Christie (Poirot was firmly in my minds eye throughout) and the characters really stood out.
The only downside for me was that after the big reveal there was around a further 10% of he book that became very repetitive and didn't really add anything for me....I would have preferred the reveal to be the curtain fall of the whole tale.

Eight Detectives follows the story of an editor who tracks down the writer of a book consisting of 7 murder mysteries, who used maths to formulate the rules for these murder mysteries. The book includes the stories and focuses on the mystery surrounding the author.

I liked the structure of the book which consists of a story being told, a story which is from the writer’s book and followed by a discussion on the context around the story. However, the book was hard to read because although it was interesting to read these stories I did not like the way they were written as it was hard to read and boring at times even though I enjoy murder mysteries. Also, as these stories are following certain ‘rules’ it means that they are cliché and predictable.

The conversation parts of the book are short and so we know very little of the 2 main characters and their personalities were non-exist/bland. The discussions were repetitive and boring, even though they add to the plot I still found them useless.

The ending reveal is predictable and disappointing and the 2 endings that were given were boring, Very little happens in the book and I thought the reveal would make up for the dragged out plot but it did not.

2/5

This is an unusual and ingenious book which I enjoyed reading. A publisher visits an author on an island to discuss republishing an old book of mysteries which he wrote. He has a theory that murder stories can be categorised mathematically and demonstrates as the stories are read (this is not as boring as it sounds). The stories themselves are good and the overall book is well worth reading. More details would spoil!

Eight murder mysteries by a writer with a secret. Publisher Julia Hart is asked to read seven previously unpublished stories by reclusive author Grant McAllister, who has decided his masterpieces now need to be seen. Each demonstrates a particular facet of the detective novel genre as defined by McAllister, such as the need for a both a list of suspects and an accuser. An enlightening, clever and fun read with a totally unexpected ending.

Put simply - I didn't want this book to end.
Loved it from start to finish and it's quite unlike anything I've read before in the way that the short stories stand-alone and yet are all subtly linked together.
Very, very cleverly written - a great deal of thought has gone into this and it's a book I'll happily re-visit in the future too, which in itself is also something rare.
Can't recommend it enough. The only surprise is that all of the reviews are not 5 stars as it's a dead-cert 5-stars from me. Deserves to smash the best-sellers list.
Thank you so much for the ARC.

What an uniquely written book
It is in Agatha Christie style writing
7 short stories, that are chilling and intriguing - but don't make sense - or do they
there's are twists and turns within twists and turns that you don't foresee
different to anything I've read before
Definitely a 2020 must read