Julia Hart, an editor travels to aMediterranean island to meet with a reclusive author. What results is them reviewing his stories. The book is comprised of multiple short mystery stories with the editor and the author discussing each mystery.

The individual mysteries were intriguing; how they were set up an solved. I found the individual mysteries quite intriguing; reminiscent of Agatha Christie. As Julia and Grant discuss each mystery she becomes aware of inconsistencies. I will not say more I don’t want to spoil the surprise for the readers. But things are not as they appear. And I think readers will be surprised by the shocking end to this book.

Grant McAllister is a former mathematics professor who in the 1930s published a research paper in which he set forth the mathematical structure of murder mysteries. He also wrote a book called The White Murders that contained seven stories that illustrated the mathematical principles he set forth in the research paper and he had the book privately published with a small print run in the early 1940s. Twenty-five years later, he is contacted by the editor of a publishing company that wants to publish The White Murders for a wider audience. Julia Hart, the editor, goes to the small Mediterranean island where Grant is living in order to prepare the book for publication, including learning more about the mathematical structure so she can prepare an introduction to the book explaining the math, rather than including the research paper as an appendix to the book.

The book alternates between the murder mysteries in The White Murders and a discussion of each story by Grant and Julia. In their discussions, Grant explains the four ingredients that comprise a murder mystery, the various permutations of those ingredients, and how they are expressed mathematically. Grant and Julia discuss how each story demonstrates a different permutation. Julia also asks about inconsistencies she notes in each story, including references that seem to refer to an actual unsolved murder, known as the White Murder, as the victim was an actress named Elizabeth White, that occurred around the time the book was originally published.

The mathematical approach to writing a murder mystery is an interesting concept and the author has done a great job of explaining the mathematical concepts in a way that will be understandable to the readers. The seven murder mysteries are creative and enjoyable; some rather devious and macabre. However, what makes this book worthy of five stars is the ending, which involves some rather good surprises. Readers will likely suspect one of the surprises, but the others will likely truly be surprises. I would highly recommend this book.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Interested in publishing his work, an editor reads through the author his 7 short mystery stories and points out questions about each story as he teaches her about mystery writing based on his mathematical formula of what must be included. Stories within a story was a great idea and makes it hard to review as some of those were better or worse than others. It also means there were a lot of characters. A good one if you know you can only read in short bursts.

The Eighth Detective is the most innovative format I've seen in murder mysteries. The "author" and his new editor reviewing these stories written years ago in the "author's" career. All leading to a surprising climax. You won't be disappointed.

"An argument had been building between them all afternoon, ever since Bunny had brought their lunch to a sudden end." Why did he invite Henry and Megan to his house in Spain in 1930? "...a pointing finger of blood reaching from below Bunny's door...Bunny facedown, on the sheets-a knife handle emerging from his back". Upon further inspection, all windows and doors were locked. "If there are only two suspects, then both of them know who is killer is". This story was written twenty-five years ago by Grant McAllister, a retired mathematician, a recluse living on a secluded Mediterranean island.

In 1937, Grant wrote a research paper entitled "The Permutations of Detective Fiction". His goal-to explore the criteria needed for a tome to be classified as a murder mystery and list all the possible structural variations. He had published a slim volume of seven murder mysteries in a collection called "The White Murders". Having discovered this book in a second hand bookshop, a small publisher was interested in reissuing "The White Murders" for sale to a wider audience. Julia Hart, editor, was dispatched to the island to meet the elusive Grant McAllister. Julia is suspicious from the get-go, however, she gives him the benefit of the doubt. Each murder mystery has inconsistencies. Are these inconsistencies intentional? Why doesn't Grant provide any clarity? Julia and Grant continue to have lively discussions about the permutations of detective fiction.

The footpath on the southern coast of Evescombe was isolated. It was a perfect place to murder someone...all it takes is a gentle push...decades of erosion...possible 'Death by Distraction'? According to Grant's mathematical concepts-two suspects could be guilty...a suspect or the victim as suspect.

"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.

Thank you Henry Holt & Company and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Not one story, but seven. Or more, many more depending how you look at it. This is a very cleverly written love letter to mysteries. Grant McAllister worked out the mathematical formulas for mystery novels and wrote a story collection. He never published anything else, but thirty years later, Julia Hart, an ambitious editor comes to the island of his retirement to discuss republishing the book. It is quickly established how the stories, which are all great, by the way, have little inconsistencies that could be clues to something larger. I had fun spotting them in the rest of the chapters, even if I missed a lot of them. Then, there is a twist so unpredictable and smart, that it had me rethinking the whole novel from the beginning. But the mysteries don’t end there. This is simply an original, unpredictable and amazingly clever book that mystery lovers will eat up.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ Henry Holt and Co.!

What an incredibly unique mystery! Julia Hart is republishing Grant McAllister's book of detective stories, so she goes to visit him on a remote Mediterranean island where he lives. They go over the stories one by one and diagnose the "rules" of murder mysteries. I enjoyed reading each of the individual stories, and I thought the ending was very clever and inventive. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The setting:

Julia Hart, a young book editor, travels to a remote village in the Mediterranean in the hopes of convincing Grant McAllister, a reclusive writer, to republish his collection of detective stories. Grant, a professor of mathematics, says there are rules for murder mysteries--which are followed in the seven detective stories that he published decades ago under the title, The White Murders. There are victims, suspects, murderers, detective, equations--in various permutations. Julia notices inconsistencies in these stories, and tells Grant that she wishes to revisit them before republishing the book. {Notes: wouldn'/t/shouldn't an editor have noted these?!] The stories are told the Julia and Grant "discuss" [really, she reviews] each story. And so it begins.

I'm in the distinct minority, did not love. Was not engaged, Often found it tedious; in fact, it often was a chore to read this book, And, I found only some of the stories interesting.

In many ways, this book reminded me of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle--as it too well-written, inventive, confusing, creative, orginal [and better!]. BUT NOT ENOUGH.

However, there were some descriptions that caught my fancy:

"...his face was almost a perfect pink circle...the rest of his body seemed to be built solidly and exclusively out of dark-gray rectangles"

"sieved handfuls of dry leaves from her long red hair"

"Ceiling loomed like a fist..."

"...her solid bracelets clattered against one another, making her arm a musical instrument"

And in the end, a twist [no spoiler from me], that ultimately sealed blech. But, giving 3 stars because no grimacing,

An incredibly fun read that is breath of fresh air in the the current climate of mystery novels. The author weaves together seven short detective stories that are connected by an overarching story. While the short stories gave me classic murder mystery vibes (think Agatha Christie or Alfred Hitchcock), the larger plot makes these stories fresh and unique. It also incorporates descriptions of mathematical concepts to better understand the format of murder mysteries. These concepts were explained in an interesting and understandable manner and added depth to the plot. Best of all, the ending was completely shocking and totally satisfying! My only gripe is that I never really connected with the characters, which kept me from being fully invested and slowed down my reading speed. Otherwise, it was a wonderful read! Thank you to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I think the anthology aspect of the murder mysteries was fun. Many of the stories were reminiscent of Agatha Christie.

But I had a hard time connecting with the rest of the plot. Not really until the end. At that point it just feels like one more short story, which was fine, and maybe the point. But I found myself not wanting to read those sections between the other stories bc there wasn’t really much of a story happening.

I feel bad giving this any review as it was a DNF for me. I am not a fan or straight-up murder mysteries, I get bored with so little character development. I thought this one would be different since this was running parallel to another story, about the author, which is what intrigued me.

Unfortunately, I just found myself skimming through the murder mystery stories to get to the conversations because I was curious what was happening with the author. I ended up not being invested enough to finish.

The writing was very good, and I think folks that are fans of murder mysteries will really enjoy this clever novel. Just not for me.

A very interesting premise, but it became far too drawn out to maintain my enjoyment in reading it. It's a set of 7 mysteries nested within another story/mystery, nested within yet another story. Interesting right? However, the execution became too tedious and drawn out and the wish for it to give its final reveal was for it to come sooner than it did.

The title, The Eighth Detective is a good one that suits the book, although a bit of a mouthful to say. Perhaps if it had been reduced by a mystery or two? I would be interested in reading what this author comes up with again though.

I was craving something similar to Agatha Christie and this novel definitely delivered on that. The format of having 7 short stories with clues hidden in each story that join up to reveal a bigger mystery was fantastic. Each story was amazing on its own and definitely kept me hooked. My only complaint was that the the final big mystery was made a bit too convoluted, so I am not sure how I feel about that yet but I loved the individual short stories and trying to figure out the inconsistencies in each as well.
Recommended for fans of Agatha Christie
Rating 3.5 stars

I was so excited by the concept of this book, but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. Since the structure uses a framing device of the main characters reading the short stories that make up the novel, it didn't leave enough time to become invested in our main characters. They only appear in snippets between the stories and I felt they weren't developed enough for me to be seriously invested in their fate. So once I got to the big reveal, it was surprising but not satisfying.

I really did enjoy the short stories that made up the book though. And I thought the twists were very creative and cleverly done. And the stories (and whole book actually) felt like they were old-fashioned (and a little cheesy, in a fun way) and could've popped right out of actual, classic detective fiction, which gave an air of authenticity to the whole book.

If you're a fan of classic mysteries, it's worth checking out!

This was such a compelling read- it felt a little bit academic, a little disturbing, and full of questions that kept me wondering where this story could be going.
I'm sure people with much more literary education will be able to dissect this novel full of stories far better than I can, but as a mystery fan I appreciated the way the tropes we know so well were not only used well in order to offer examples of the genre, but also used to turn everything on its head by the end. There's hints of the greats, like Agatha Christie, in the short mysteries within the novel, but the overall story is entirely its own thing, with many different motivations for the characters who are conversing between each of the mysteries.
Again, some of the content is very disturbing, but if you're looking for a page-turner, I highly recommend this one.

This book was definitely written in a unique format, but it just didn’t capture my interest. I felt like I was watching a series of 30 minute Hitchcock stories with each one dissected at the end by disgruntled viewers. The short stories were OK, just weak and unsatisfying. The dissection at the end of each by the reporter and the author was boring and the whole overlay of unearthing this author who had hidden himself on an island was, quite frankly, just not at all interesting.

I appreciate this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I wish the author well.

A different kind of murder mystery. Mix several old fashioned murder mysteries with the author who doesn't want to talk about himself back when he wrote it 25 or so years ago, along with an editor who wants to republish the book .or maybe not.
Add in talks about the mathematics involved with writing a mystery book, the rules so to speak and an exotic setting in a small island in the Med. What could go wrong?
3 stars for originality.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Embedded within this mystery book are seven short mystery stories and discussions between the aging author and a woman who wants to edit and republish his work. The author wrote the stories years before in an attempt to analyze the elements for a true mystery: the number of suspects, victims, detectives, and killers. In each situation, the mathematical possibilities are revealed.

But, wait, nothing is quite the way it seems!! That is the beauty of this book.

What an ingenious, intelligent and totally inventive mystery. Be warned: do not read this book when you are in the mood for a mindless thriller. This book will make your brain WORK for the cookies. You’re gonna have to look for clues and details, interpret new theories about mysteries, and even do some math. But lord it is fun.

This book is about a mathematician who has a long-forgotten book of short mysteries rediscovered by a modern day publisher. Through their discussions, we learn he has a mathematical theory about the structure of mysteries. We also see that he may be dropping clues about a larger motive for writing these stories. This is a book within a book, and within both stories the reader is given a bunch of theories and clues to figure out. Some of the time I felt like I was reading Agatha Christie and other times I was put in mind of the Encyclopedia Brown books I loved as a kid. All the stories culminate in a larger mystery to solve. The structure of the book is unlike anything I’ve read before and I can’t imagine how tough it must have been to create.

I loved the characters, especially editor Julia Hart and mystery author Grant McAllister. I liked the theories very much although I had certain intellectual quibbles with them. (What about mysteries when you already know who the murderer is up front, but you’re just waiting to see him get caught, for example? Is that not a mystery too?) This book will make you want to race through to get to the ending, but you can’t really do that, because it’s so dense and intellectual and you might miss some clues. When you DO get to the ending though, it is a fantastic payoff. It’s the kind of book you may want to read again, now knowing what you know.

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.

Interesting concept that did not engage me in execution. An editor meets with the reclusive author of a book of murder mystery stories that illustrate the mathematical rules for the genre. As she works with the author on republishing the book, an underlying mystery emerges.

Some of the images are well-crafted and evocative, and some of the illustrative stories are interesting, particularly the account of a great detective who receives an ominous box of chocolates.

More often, the stories reminded me of dated mystery magazines - more puzzles than stories. One even employs the device of addressing the reader with a challenge to solve the crime. The mathematical rules articulated -- at great length -- seemed banal: there must be at least one killer; more than one suspect, etc. And the illustrative stories interrupted the development of the underlying mystery, which impaired the suspense.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.