Title: Eight Detectives
Series: -
Author: Alex Pavesi
Description: 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.
Review: Thirty years ago, Grant McAllister wrote seven stories that formed the
thriller “Murder in White”. Since then, he has lives a secluded life. Young,
ambitious editor Julia shows up at his door. She is handling the re-release of
the book and want to interview Grant about it.
The book starts with a murder mystery story, one of the seven stories
McAllister had written. It’s a really good start. But the start was the only
thing I really liked about this book. The detectives stories are alternated by
the conversations between Grant and Julia, talking about each story in depth.
This is a book within a book situation. And when I mostly like this, I really
didn’t like it here. Aside from the first story, they were just okay. They all
had a different type of twist to them, but none were really groundbreaking.
This book is supposed to make the reader think about the murders that
happened, trying to solve them themselves. I was not invested at all, an even
less in the story of Grant and Julia. I wasn’t enjoying it at all and I didn’t
look forward to continuing the book once I had put it down. I finished it
merely because I was still waiting for that big WOW. But it never came.
I think the set-up of the book is original and it’s well-written, but
the stories and the characters didn’t captivate me and I found it boring it
times. Wouldn’t recommend.
Rating: 2/ 5
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