The Eighth Detective" by debut author Alex Pavesi is a fascinating puzzle, a unique perspective on the murder mystery. "The killer or killers must be drawn from the group of suspects [mathematically speaking], the killer(s) must be a subset of the suspects...". Why is Grant McAllister's book titled "The White Murders"? Readers are in for an innovative, very creative read. Kudos to Alex Pavesi. I said the story is present-day-ish. One reading of the dates suggests that Hart and McAllister are meeting in 1965 – twenty-five years after the short story collection, The White Murders, had first been published in 1940. To fans of meta-fiction, 1965 would fit because it was the publication date of John Fowles’ The Magus, a novel about a similarly disparate couple on a Mediterranean island, but that may be no more than serendipity. In publicity Alex Pavesi has talked about Agatha Christie and country houses, but the stories show other influences, many of them post Golden Age. The third story, for instance , “A Detective and his Evidence” is set in the grand houses around a tree-filled London square, but the detective and his motives are closer to those of G F Newman than Dorothy L Sayers or Freeman Wills Crofts. Construction of the whole novel apart, if you have liked the post-war short story collections of Julian Symons, Ngaio Marsh or Christianna Brand, you will recognise something of the same atmosphere here – crime stories, not stories of detection, even if there is a detective. The Eighth Detective will offer little to readers who are fans of detective fiction and/or whodunnits. The short stories were populated by boorish caricatures, relied on predictable twists, and failed to amuse or surprise. 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.

Psychologists have a word for those who see patterns where no pattern exists: pareidolia, but I think it does not apply to me. For in my recent reading, and by chance, I have thought over and over, “I didn’t see that coming”. The latest book to make me cry out “I didn’t see that coming” is Alex Pavesi’s Eight Detectives . Henry strummed the guitar as a way of changing the subject. ‘Do you know how to tune this thing?’ He’d found it hanging on the wall above his chair. ‘I could play this if it was tuned.’

Did Grant put them intentionally to test the readers’ focus or does he have a hidden agenda to connect with those stories with real life murder? To illustrate his ideas, McAllister wrote seven detective stories, and published them in a book called 'The White Murders.' 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.

When I read those stories I felt like there were missing pieces about them but I happily got my answers. Especially the last conversation of the characters and two endings startled me! Twenty-five years later, a publisher called 'Blood Type Books' wants to re-issue McAllister's stories, with an introduction explaining the mathematical basis of the tales. To this end, the publisher sends editor Julia Hart to interview McAllister. The Eighth Detective" had my name written all over it. All in caps. With big blinding lights. It seemed written thinking in all my reading tastes, so...why didn't I enjoy it as much as I should? No, seriously, someone tell me why I didn't, cause I'm not sure.Julia Hart is an editor who visits Grant McAllister, the reclusive mathematician, with an offer to republish his sole book of short stories. The stories are mysteries that Grant wrote about 30 years ago as illustrations of his theory of mysteries. This book consists of alternating chapters. Each of the short stories is followed by a chapter in which Julia and Grant discuss the story and she tries to ferret out hidden meaning in the story and details of Grant’s life

She walked over to the window. Outside, the Spanish countryside was an indistinct orange colour. It looked uninhabitable in the heat. Hart wants to go through each of the mysteries with McAllister, being sharp and observant, she notes the inconsistencies in each story, leaving her curious, with many questions and wondering if something bigger lies within the stories. She becomes the eighth detective, persistent and determined as she discusses each mystery after reading it with McAllister, who claims to have a poor memory and insists that there is no connection between the stories. Hart, however, is having none of this and wants to know more, intrigued with McAllister himself, who is he and what is his personal history? Why do the mysteries go under the title of The White Murders?Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for sending me an ARC of The Eighth Detective in exchange for an honest review.

She turned to face him, her eyes narrowed. ‘Chess is a cheap metaphor. It’s what men use when they want to talk in a grandiose way about conflict.’Eight Detectives , w ith its necessity to keep reconsidering what has gone before, even while we move to the solution of the mystery (yes, there is a solution, and Julia Hart is its detective), may make readers think of last year’s Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastleby Stuart Turton (like Alex Pavesi a first time author), rather than Gilbert Adair’s Christie pastiches ( The Act of Roger Murgatroyd, etc) of ten years ago. Unlike Evelyn Hardcastle, however, which required learning how to read a present tense, first person, point-of-view narrative (if one was not a video game player from which it was adopted) Eight Detectives makes no such demands . Eight Detectives, though, does require an understanding of rapaciousness, duplicity, evil and disappointment, or why someone such as Sarah on “Blue Pearl Island” should find such an odd way to achieve independence and happiness (and which my spoiler alert prevents me from revealing: just go read). It’s hell, just waiting here.’ Megan was sitting to the right of the archway. ‘How long does a siesta normally take, anyway?’ This super-smart homage to the Agatha Christie tradition is a must. Stylish, ingenious and great fun * Sunday Mirror *