The eighth detective : a novel

Select an Action

Title:

The eighth detective : a novel

Alternate title:

8th detective

Author:

Pavesi, Alex, author.

Summary:

"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."-- Provided by publisher.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

289 pages ; 25 cm

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Authors -- Fiction.

Editors -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Henry Holt and Company,

Publication Date:

2020

ISBN:

9781250755933

Publication Information:

New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2020.

Call Number:

PAVESI

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003474049	Adult Fiction	PAVESI Alex	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A New York Times Top Ten Thriller of 2020

"Dizzying, dazzling... When did you last read a genuinely original thriller? The wait is over."
--A.J. Finn, #1 N ew York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"One of the most innovative mysteries in recent memory." - The Wall Street Journal

There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective.

Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked all the rules out - and wrote seven perfect detective stories to demonstrate. 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 brilliant, 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.

Alex Pavesi's The Eighth Detective is a love letter to classic detective stories with a modern twist, where nothing is as it seems, and proof that the best mysteries break all the rules.

Author Notes

A former bookseller for Waterstones, Alex Pavesi holds a PhD in mathematics and is currently a software engineer for Microsoft in London. The Eighth Detective is his first book.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Pavesi's cerebral debut blends a mystery with an academic discussion of the mystery genre. Book editor Julia Hart has come to a small Mediterranean island, the home of reclusive author Grant McAllister, to help him prepare his 25-year-old story collection, The White Murders, for reissue. Privately printed in the early 1940s, the collection was based on a 1937 paper by Grant, whose intent was "to give a mathematical definition of a murder mystery." As the editor and author go through each of the seven stories, they discuss Grant's mathematical rules for his fiction. Julia spots inconsistencies in each, and remarks on the fact that the collection's title echoes an unsolved crime from the time of the book's origin. Pavesi clearly knows his classic murder mysteries, as shown by a story that evokes Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, and all his plot tricks will please readers with a similar passion. Some may be put off by the lack of emotional depth and an overly long denouement that serves chiefly to illustrate the author's cleverness. Whatever one's take on this ingenious if schematic novel, Pavesi is a writer to watch. Agent: James Willis, Watson, Little (U.K.). (Aug.)

Library Journal Review

In a debut from mathematics PhD Pavesi, editor Julia Hart hopes to convince Professor Grant McAllister to republish a series of detective stories mathematically calculated to represent seven perfect permutations of the genre, but she's starting to notice inconsistencies that could be clues to something more.