An interesting premise, marred by a lackluster ending.

Not terribly long ago, I read The Eighth Sister, by another author. Now, The Eighth Detective (Eight Detectives, for the UK version) is here. Did I miss a memo?

In The Eighth Detective, Grant McAllister, a mathematician, once worked out a math formula for detective fiction - there must exist at least one victim, one detective, and so forth. As a proof of the claims he made, he wrote seven short stories, all of which contain one or more elements of his formula. He called the collection The White Murders, self-published one hundred copies, then moved to an unnamed island in the Mediterranean.

Julia Hart, ostensibly an editor with a small press, visits McAllister on his island, to sort the stories and edit them for publication.

The format of the overall book is this: one of the stories, which w find Julia is reading back to McAllister, then a conversation chapter, where Julia is reading the last line(s) of each story, then points out items that belong to his math theory, and then items that do not fit the story - inconsistencies. She asks if he purposely wrote these into the stories, and he claims he must have, but that his memory after thirty years have passed between his writing does not allow him to recall these things concretely.

There are seven stories comprising The White Murders, each with their own detective of sorts - that is, some have actual detectives, and some featuring amateurs. As each is read and discussed, more and more of the math is brought in, up to and including Venn diagrams. Each story is certainly what could be expected of the time they were written: crimes are solved by deduction and conversation (LOTS of conversation), and while some of the deaths are rather macabre, there are no lingering, lengthy, detailed description of the gore. If you expect to find car (or horse) chases or gunfights, you will be sorely disappointed. Think more Agatha Christie and less Robert Ludlum.

What we do not get, at least for most of the book, is any sort of character development of the two people about whom we should care the most: McAllister and Hart. Hart, from time to time, mentions an unsolved murder back in the UK of a woman with the last name White, and points out that elements of that murder appear in each of the stories. Was the impetus for these stories that murder? McAllister denies this was the case, and claims to not knowing he had placed these real life things into his fictional tales. He does, though, allow that perhaps he did so unconsciously do so.

As we reach the end of the book, we derive that Julia Hart herself is the eighth detective, looking into the very murder she has repeatedly questioned McAllister about. We also get more narrative of what she does when she leaves his company for the day and returns to her hotel, and that informs the big reveal at the end.

I'll not go into spoiler territory, but all is not as it appears on this lovely island or with McAllister.

Toward the end, the stories became a bit tedious, as did the math. The explanations we get from Julia Hart were confusing at first, given the swaps she'd done with material and the way they were presented, and her "testing" of McAllister. By then, this reader, at least, knew what she suspected.

The stories...well, at least one did not contain enough clues for the reader to actually solve the crime, unlike the larger story that wrapped them. Instead, we get a monologue telling us how things were - the story with the department store fire, for instance, was terrible in this regard, and would be terrible in any era if one didn't have ESP.

Overall, I'm giving it three stars out of five.

Thanks to Henry Holt and NetGalley for the review copy.

The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi follows editor, Julia Hart, in the 1960's tracking down the reclusive author, Grant McAllister, whose short story murder mystery collection Julia wishes to republish. Grant's stories from the 30's and 40's follow a simple set of rules he has come up with that highlight all aspects of the murder mystery genre. As Julia reads more, she becomes increasingly unsettled to realize that there are things in the stories that don't make sense. Intricate clues that seem to reference a real murder, one that's remained unsolved for thirty years.

This book was a super fun, meta take on the murder mystery genre. I absolutely adored the isolated closed circle short story that took place on the island. That short story was clearly a homage to one of my favorite books of all time And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I think the most disappointing part for me was I wanted a better conclusion to the overall mystery in this book. However, I did really enjoy the discrepancies in all the short stories and trying to catch them all before they were pointed out. Overall, I would highly recommend this to people who love classic murder mystery novels such as Agatha Christie and people that enjoy the meta commentary of the murder mystery genre.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Eighth Detective is an intriguing puzzle box mystery inside a mystery. Short stories of varying styles woven together in a deeper narrative forced me to pay extra attention to details and plot throughout. I enjoyed this intricately plotted novel and would encourage anyone excited by unusual narrative structures and cerebral writing to read The Eighth Detective.

This set of short stories gathered together within a larger mysterious frame will please fans of the genre who appreciate
story-length homages to some of the greatest mysteries ever written. The twists keep coming as the framing narrative progresses, and the meticulous way characters deconstruct the concept of a detective story is a fun juxtaposition to the stories themselves.

3 stars = fine, solid

The structure of this book is a mix of interactions between the mathematician/writer and the publishing professional who is working with him on his short story collection and then the short stories themselves. Readers get all 7 stories from the book. I enjoyed the short stories (although some were on the violent side), and if I was rating just those I would have given 4 stars. The context for those stories, though, wasn't as solid for me. I would give that portion of the book only 2 stars. Thus the average of 3 stars.

The math angle on this didn't work for me. The math itself - Venn diagrams and sets and subsets - felt pretty basic, as did the components of a mystery. None of it felt like it warranted a paper or book. I didn't care for Grant or Julia. Their work sessions were her pressing for backstory and insights and him resisting and saying how much he didn't remember. It all came together in the end, but it made those scenes pretty flat.

There are twists here, both in the short stories and in the larger story of the book that mystery fans might enjoy. (Violence)

This is different that anything else I have ever read, and that's a good thing! From the back of the book -
"There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective. Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked them all out – calculating the different orders and possibilities of a mystery into seven perfect detective stories he quietly published. But that was thirty years ago. Now Grant lives in seclusion on a remote Mediterranean island, counting the rest of his days. Until Julia Hart, a sharp, ambitious editor knocks on his door. Julia wishes to republish his book, and together they must revisit those old stories: an author hiding from his past, and an editor, keen to understand it.But there are things in the stories that don’t add up. Inconsistencies left by Grant that a sharp-eyed editor begins to suspect are more than mistakes. They may be clues, and Julia finds herself with a mystery of her own to solve."

As we get the short stories woven in with Julia's interview, we, as readers, also begin to unravel the mystery along with Julia. The book was suspenseful without being over the top and kept me wanting more until a satisfying conclusion. Highly recommend!

4 stars!

I've been going back and forth on how I wanted to rate this for a few days now. I ended up going a bit higher that my gut says because I applaud authors for going for the gusto. This is one of those stories. It is so unique (which is good, but can also frustrate others and turn them off), but I live for these books! I really appreciate authors who make risky decisions and think outside the box. The Eighth Detective definitely does that.

So, what's it about? Well, this is a short story collection within a book. We meet a young editor, Julia, who has been sent by her publisher to interview a recluse author who published a slim book of seven perfect detective stories thirty years ago. We get to read these seven stories and in between each story, we also witness Julia interviewing the author on each story after it is read. As we go, Julia begins to notice some discrepancies and she is perplexed when the author is unable to answer or address her questions. We learn there may be more to the author than meets the eye. What is he hiding? Why is he living the life of an exile? You just have to read to find out!

Let me tell you - I sometimes struggle with short story collections. The common problem is that the stories you love don't last long enough and the stories you don't like kind of drag along. I found that issue here, BUT I was not prepared for the last third of the book. I had initially wanted to rate this a little lower, but I'm telling you, you need to stick around for the end. It was SO COOL and so well done. I was thrilled with the ending. I cannot wait to read his next book and I hope many of you consider reading this one!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Henry Holt and Co. and Alex Pavesi for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review!

Review Date: 08/24/2020
Publication Date: 08/04/2020

Alex Pavesi's unique debut is at once a novel, a collection of stories, and a how-to guide on writing mysteries.

Pavesi introduces professor of mathematics Grant McAllister, who published a research paper in 1937 called "The Permutations of Detective Fiction," which lays out mathematical formulas for mystery stories. There must be a victim, a detective, a killer, at least two suspects, etc. McAllister then wrote seven stories applying variations on those rules and published them in a collection titled The White Murders.

Nearly 30 years later, young editor Julia Hart tracks him down on a remote Mediterranean island with an offer to republish the collection. Since McAllister's eyesight is failing and he wrote the stories so long ago, Julia spends days reading them aloud to him, followed by discussions of each, to refresh his memory. Right away she notices discrepancies in some descriptions... and details too similar to a real-life murder to be coincidences. Why is McAllister evasive every time she asks about them?

The short stories within the novel pay homage to classics penned by the likes of Agatha Christie--one mystery closely resembles And Then There Were None--and some are more surprising than others. Some readers might find Julia and McAllister's postmortem of each story a bit too technical, but wordsmiths will glean nerdy delight from the conversations between author and editor about structure and plotting. It's ironic that McAllister insists every mystery story follows a basic formula, when Pavesi keeps readers guessing with a novel that defies the rules.

Clever and charming, The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi reads a bit more like a short story anthology or a treatise on the murder mystery form than a novel. What pulls it all together is a frame story that seamlessly draws the reader into its lesson about the constituent parts of a classically constructed tale. Then, the book’s ending veers in such a way that makes the whole endeavor so much more exciting than anticipated. Julia Hart has traveled to the isolated home of an author on a remote Mediterranean island. They are meeting to collaborate on revisions and a preface for the re-release of his sole work. Grant McAllister lives in self-imposed exile but agrees to work with Julia to redress the disappointing sales of the original from 25 years prior. His collection of tales, entitled “The White Murders,” was conceived as a way for McAllister to delineate how mathematical concepts could be applied to literary efforts. In alternating sections, each one of his seven stories are presented and then followed by a “conversation” between the author and editor. They discuss how each tale exemplifies a particular configuration of victim, suspects and perpetrator. Over several days, the two dissect and analyze how plot can be built around a limited number of possibilities. The seven stories vary in tone and subject and are each individually strong and excellently told. During their work together, Julia comes to suspect that McAllister may have a mystery of his own that she will seek to uncover. Pavesi does an admirable job keeping interest in the connecting plot, but at times the painstaking description of story construction can become tedious. Still, The Eighth Detective is fascinatingly “meta” and the mysteries provided are well-conceived. As a whole, Pavesi’s book is a truly fun read that manages to be cerebral and informative even as it entertains.

Thanks to the author, Henry Holt and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book is comprised of a short story collection written by Grant McAllister called the White Murders that was only release in a very small run and then never talked about again. Within these stories are clues to the bigger story (the one you are reading), which if you are paying attention, you can figure out most of the final mystery.

I really enjoyed how this story was set up. All of the short stories were interesting and I enjoyed the breakdown and inconsistencies that popped up in each of them. I was able to figure out most of the story with the clues given, but you are not given all of the information, which left it open for the author to unravel the twist at the end for you.

You only get bits and pieces of the two main characters but it worked well with the story, as you will find out more about them towards the end. I liked not knowing everything, you know, like in a detective mystery.

Again, if you pay attention to everything being told to you throughout the story, you are able to piece together the majority of it. I highly enjoyed this and can't wait to see what else comes out by Pavesi.

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt and Co, for a copy of this title in exchange of an honest review

Riveting. This is one fine debut novel. It is a puzzle with all of the pieces just waiting.
Many thanks to Henry Holt and Company and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

THE EIGHTH DETECTIVE by Alex Pavesi is often and aptly described as inventive. It is a terrific set of murder mysteries within a mystery and will appeal especially to fans of Anthony Horowitz (The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death) or of the debut novel, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton. In Pavesi's work, readers meet the main characters, Julia Hart (an editor) and Grant McAllister (a writer) after having already been entertained and surprised by a short story involving murder at a villa in Spain. McAllister is a mathematician who many years ago had self-published a collection of short story murder mysteries, each intended to illustrate his theories about the permutations of detective fiction. Julia is an editor working to get some background prior to a forthcoming wider publication of the stories. After each story is read, she asks several probing questions and Grant attempts to explain his thinking. The stories themselves are suspenseful and intriguing, often paralleling the features (locked room, detective as killer, etc.) used by famous mystery writers such as Christie or Conan Doyle. However, there are some inconsistencies in the stories and a sense of menace increases as they become darker (a woman falls to her death, another is drowned in the bath, a grandmother is smothered). I definitely enjoyed the mystery aspect, but also found much to appreciate in Pavesi's descriptive writing style and his use of frequent similes. I am highly recommending THE EIGHTH DETECTIVE which received a starred review from Booklist.

I was 13 the first time I read And Then There Were None, and it frankly blew my mind. I’ve loved Agatha Christie’s works every since (* which is not to say her works, especially her short stories, don’t use racist tropes sometimes - they do and it’s upsetting to encounter them). When I heard about The Eighth Detective, the premise of a good old-fashioned mystery with a modern twist caught my attention.
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Well, let me tell you that it DID NOT DISAPPOINT! The structure is cleverly constructed, and you as the reader get the mystery of not only Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics and the writer of an out of print book of short stories, and his enterprising and sharp-eyed editor Julia Hart, but also the stories of Grant’s collection, which serve to demonstrate his theories about the permutations of detective fiction.
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The stories range from tidy puzzles to replays of classic tropes, including the ones made famous by Christie in And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express. While the middle portion felt a little slow, once the inconsistencies in the story started piling up and the twists started being revealed, they continued at a feverish pace. It was at this point, as I marveled at the revelations, some of which I had guessed and some of which I didn’t see coming at all, that the book fully won me over.
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(Review and annotation to come on Instagram @annotated.reads)

I was looking forward to reading this book, but I struggled to finish. I think that in an effort to be clever and/or nice the author didn't quite pull off his attempt.

A really good mystery! It’s highly reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s books so I’d definitely recommend this one to admirers of this author. It keeps you guessing until the final terrific last chapter.

The concepts, a book within a book, mathematical model of a murder mystery were intriguing. But Pavesi didn’t quite pull it off. The ending, with its alternative book endings and denouement, were rushed and questionably believable. Overall, a disappointment.

The reader gets all the rules explained and discovers all the clues and then everything is turned up down and inside out in this very smart, complex and fun book. Lots of surprises, suspense and really fun twists!

I really enjoyed this book! I thought it was fun and creative. It was like reading a bunch of short stories that are all mysteries. I’ve never read a more original book.

This book was so different from any other type of murder mystery I have ever read and it was fantastic!! Pavesi has a very clever mind to come up with this kind of concept. I would find myself trying to pick out the inconsistencies but I always missed them and the ending I did not see coming! I am blown away that this is the authors debut novel, I cannot wait to see what else they have in store! Highly recommend this book!

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book for an honest review. This book is made up of smaller murder mysteries which are interesting,. Where the book gives a huge twist is after you have read all the smaller mysteries there is one twist after another. I did enjoy the book but it could have held my attention a little better.