"There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective. The rest is just shuffling the sequence. Expanding the permutations. 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 ...
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"There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective. The rest is just shuffling the sequence. Expanding the permutations. 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. THE EIGHTH DETECTIVE is a cerebral, inventive novel with a modern twist, where nothing is what it seems, and proof that the best mysteries break all the rules."--
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New. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 304 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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New in new dust jacket. New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory.
I had very high expectations of Alex Pavesi's The Eighth Detective/Eight Detectives, I was imagining something like The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - an intelligent and well-crafted mystery story. Eight Detectives is very different from what I was expecting - the book alternates between an over aching plot and 8 short stories of murder/mystery as an editor interviews their author about the equation for a great murder mystery.
Although I really enjoyed some of the stories (the house on the island in particular), there were some I enjoyed less and so all of the pitfalls of an anthology were present in this book as well. The pacing was off as the stories I enjoyed I raced through and the ones I didn't I felt like they dragged. With the one about the elderly aunt and her jewellery I actually started skimming which was a mistake for later on in the book! The little discrepancies that Julia notices were buried a little too deeply for me to notice and it would have perhaps been better if they were slightly obvious from the initial reading. I did really like how the book pulled all of the stories together at the end though and it was very clever and showed how well constructed the book was.
I would have perhaps wanted a little more of the through-line plot - we only got the chapters with Julia and Grant discussing the books and then at the end it all felt a little rushed. It got to about 85-90% of the book before that plot really started to get going and I would have enjoyed a little expansion on it.
Overall, Eight Detectives is a good anthology of murder mysteries, with enough to cleverly pull them together at the end, however I would have enjoyed a bit more expansion on the main story line. Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
