Eight Detectives: The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month

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The novel is ¾ made up by these short stories...and dare I say, or write, that they are at best mediocre? No other genre of literature has been subject to as many strict rules as detective fiction in its “golden age” of the 1920s and 30s. Crime author Ronald Knox established 10 commandments for its mechanics and insisted that it should present “a mystery whose elements are clearly presented at an early stage in the proceedings”. Jorge Luis Borges and WH Auden came up with their own formulae, the latter with an elaborate Aristotelian analysis in his essay The Guilty Vicarage.

The two suspects sat on mismatched furniture in the white and almost featureless lounge, waiting for something to happen. Between them an archway led to a slim, windowless staircase: a dim recess that seemed to dominate the room, like a fireplace grown to unreasonable proportions. The staircase changed direction at its midpoint, hiding the upper floor from view and giving the impression that it led up to darkness and nothing else. The novel is a set of seven mysteries, placed within an overarching narrative. They are all written in the style of the golden age of crime writing and the eighth detective (of the title) is present throughout, though perhaps not obvious at first. Thirty years later he's retired in a Mediterranean island until Julia Hart, an editor, shows interest in republishing his book, and while revising his stories she discovers certain inconsistencies that point to a bigger mystery.Has an intricacy rare in modern crime fiction. Alex Pavesi deserves huge applause for his plot, constructed with all the skill of the old masters * Sunday Express * This is unique, phenomenal, so smart, complex, challenging, mind blowing debut author! I could only clap and raise my glass to Alex Pavesi who is such a brilliant author and I cannot wait to read his upcoming works in near future.

The footpath on the southern coast of Evescombe was isolated. It was a perfect place to murder someone...all it takes is a gentle push...decades of erosion...possible 'Death by Distraction'? According to Grant's mathematical concepts-two suspects could be guilty...a suspect or the victim as suspect. Thirty years ago, Grant McCallister wrote a mathematical paper titled “The Permutations of Detective Fiction,” which set out to prove the ingredients* of every murder mystery. As part of demonstrating the paper’s arguments, he wrote seven murder mysteries later published in a collection called The White Murders. Now, Julia Hart meets with Grant on a remote island to review and edit the stories so that the collection can be republished. But Julia keeps finding subtle, deliberate errors in the stories. What do those errors mean? Are they clues showing some connection between the collection—and Grant—and a long ago unsolved murder? She walked over to the window. Outside, the Spanish countryside was an indistinct orange colour. It looked uninhabitable in the heat.Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for sending me an ARC of The Eighth Detective in exchange for an honest review. This is one of the most clever stories I’ve read in a long time and I love clever. It’s also a debut novel by the author and I’ll sign up for the next book he chooses to write and release. I wish I could share more but it would be much too spoilerish. It’s capped with a stunning ending that had me rewinding the audiobook to make certain I’d heard what I heard. And speaking of the audio format, the narrator was outstanding. She was not only responsible for distinctively giving voice to the two main characters but a host of others from the individual stories in the collection, which she handled excellently. This turned out to be a gem in the rough for me.