This was my first book after reading mostly from my 20 Books of Summer list, so I was going for whatever struck my fancy at the time. This one had a nice cover, it had been on my TBR about a year, and the story sounded out of the ordinary.
The central story in The Eighth Detective is that Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, wrote a mathematical theory of the structure of mystery stories thirty years before and published a book with seven short stories to illustrate his theory. He then moved to a remote island and retired. Thirty years later a company wants to republish the book of short stories, with some edits, and has sent an editor, Julia Hart, to the island to go over the stories with him. This book includes the text of all seven stories, so it is almost like reading a short story book. Following each story, Grant and Julia discuss the story, its pros and cons, and questions she has. And pretty soon it is obvious that the real story of Julia's visit to the island is not so straightforward.
I always like books with an unusual structure and I enjoyed this one a lot. The short stories are good reading, and the dissection of the stories is interesting. The suspense is maintained well, as I tried to figure out if Julia had an ulterior motive, and what it might be. I liked the ending and it was handled well.
This book is slower paced than many contemporary mysteries, as the overall story is broken up by the short stories interspersed throughout. It is not a thriller. That was fine with me. It took me a while to figure out the time that the story was set in. Julia is visiting Grant on the island in the early 1970s and the stories were published in the late 1930s. So this also qualifies as a historical mystery.
This is the only book that Pavesi has published so far, and I know little about the author. He lives in London and writes full time. He has worked as a software engineer and has a PhD in mathematics. Logic and mathematics play a large part in The Eighth Detective, so that make sense.
Other resources:
Alex Pavesi wrote an interesting article for CrimeReads, "The Joys of Mystery Fiction's Most Enduring Tropes."
Also see John Norris's review at Pretty Sinister books.
This book qualifies as a book about books, so it fits the requirements of the Bookish Books Challenge, hosted by Bloggin' 'bout Books.
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Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 2020.
Length: 289 pages
Format: Hardcover
Setting: Remote Mediterranean island
Genre: Mystery
Source: Purchased at the Planned Parenthood book sale, 2022.
13 comments:
I took it out of the library once and never got to it. Maybe this time.
Patti, I am a lot freer with buying books that I know nothing about at the book sale, otherwise I might never have tried this. It is different and I liked that.
I read this one and remember liking it...though now I wish I'd blogged about it so that I remembered it better. ;D
That is funny, Lark. I thought you had blogged about and checked your blog to find it... but did not of course. It is kind of a quiet slow mystery, but it kept me entertained and interested.
Oh, this sounds really interesting, Tracy. Meta-stories like this can make you think about what is in a story and why it's there. And if there's a separate story about the characters, too, that sounds intriguing, too. The structure does sound unusual, but also as though it works for that story.
It was very interesting, Margot, and it kept me wondering what was going on. If there was a negative, it was that there was no apparent crime for quite a while and most readers want a crime early on. But it worked for me.
Hi Tracy, This is a really interesting idea for a novel and you explain it so well. I am intrigued because many mystery novels do have a certain formula and so a mathematician character who wrote a book of mystery stories in the 1930's each story dealing with a different mystery trope sounds very good. Julia is fascinating as well. Why decades later has she sought this writer out?
This one sounds a bit Anthony Horowitz to me, with his penchant for books within books. I like the sound of it.
This sounds really good. I love the way that it kind of sneaks up on you, allowing you to admire its structure as well as its plot. Very clever, and I hope to take a closer look at it soon.
Kathy, I liked this because it held my interest without being a stock mystery. And the different structure of course. I think you would enjoy reading the book.
Cath, It did remind me a bit of the Anthony Horowitz book within a book series. But different in some ways.
Sam, It wasn't a very long book but it was a slow read for me. I read either one story or two a night plus their follow up conversation for each story, and digested what I had read every night.
I finished this a few days ago - quite enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the discussions after each story where the "author" and the editor discussed how it fitted the theories about the standard features of crime fiction.
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