Eight Detectives: The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month

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The stories themselves are well written but not particularly original (some very close indeed to stories from the golden age as was Grant's aim) and at first it felt like a bit of a slog to get through, but the book must be read as a whole to appreciate the role of each story in the overall context of the novel.

His peace is disturbed by the arrival of Julia Hart, an editor, whose publisher wants to reprint the book. So as I trudged through the 7 “short stories” that make up a good part of this book, I realized it was taking effort.

At the beginning of the book, I was into it but thinking, OK this is pretty good, but nothing too exciting. None of these insights are breathtaking and I found it frustrating to wade through the stories only for it to be revealed that the only relevant thing to takeaway was something as straightforward as individuals can collude and any subset of suspects can be guilty. com Best Books of the Year, the Crime Book of the Month in the Sunday Times and was named a top-ten Thriller of the Year in the New York Times. The premise of this book is that a young female editor visits an elderly author who lives on a Mediterranean island to edit a collection of murder mysteries he wrote decades beforehand.

I think that when you’re reading about death as entertainment, it should leave you feeling slightly uncomfortable, even slightly sick,” observes Julia. It’s really a miracle that the human brain could ever be surprised by such a solution, when you think about it. Many thanks to NetGalley, Henry Holt and Alex Pavesi for this totally original and very smart mystery to read in exchange for my honest review. I’ve always loved a good detective novel, particularly, it has to be said, a good Agatha Christie (and now I find myself living in Harrogate where she famously disappeared). Sadly these rules are obvious and I doubt any reader will need to read a short story before being enlightened with the obvious information that every murder mystery needs a victim, at least two suspects, a detective and a killer and these can overlap (with the detective being the killer and so forth).

Eight Detectives tell the stories, all with echoes of Christie and all solved by observation and deduction rather than by modern-day forensics.

The format works well and the original stories have an Agatha Christie feel to them which I like and the post story discussions between Grant and Julia are fascinating as those are the sections I enjoy the most because they are revealing. Think of two circles separate from each other: one represents the suspects, the other the detective. It was genuinely a joy to read and I would recommend it, no consider it a mandatory read, for any mystery reading enthusiast! He is understood to have not only written a collection of murder mysteries but also to be responsible for a mathematical analysis of the genre of which his book is an example. It promised a clever twist on the classic murder mystery genre, a mind-bending story of books and mysteries within mysteries.

She found a small stone on the ground and threw it at the window; the black cloud scattered at the audible clunk, but no sound came from inside. And that is where I stop before giving away any spoiler bar this one: from then on it was not just once that I thought “I didn’t see that coming”. The plot sounded intriguing but I was thrilled to find that every short story this fictional author wrote was also included here, on each altering chapter. Even Julia and Grant are not detailed characters, there is no pen portrait of either, but it is the mystery itself which becomes the focus and drives the novel.

The Eighth Detective" by debut author Alex Pavesi is a fascinating puzzle, a unique perspective on the murder mystery. It felt absurd now to think of the three of them in Oxford together, all those years ago; he’d aged seemingly ten years more than they had. This book is about a mathematician who has a long-forgotten book of short mysteries rediscovered by a modern day publisher.Okay,’ Megan whispered back; and because she was an actor she whispered in a way that was as clear as speaking. Julie Hart is sharp minded, extremely smart editor who can easily read the messages hidden behind the lines and her detail oriented mind helps her to extract the secret essence of the stories and discrepancies as well. Now, Julia Hart meets with Grant on a remote island to review and edit the stories so that the collection can be republished.