The Eighth Detective

A Novel

By: Alex Pavesi

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

"Dizzying, dazzling.... When did you last read a genuinely original thriller? The wait is over." (A.J. Finn, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Woman in the Window)

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 30 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

©2020 Alex Pavesi (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"[Narrator Emilia] Fox's warm, calm British accent is reminiscent of an Agatha Christie production, which fits perfectly with the mid-century setting" (Booklist)

Murders mysterious

Prepare for one Mystery on top of another in this cleverly constructed casebook of murders. I particularly enjoyed the new endings to the original stories and the multiple endings to the overall tale. Some of the murders were a bit too grisly but always interesting.

Brilliant and delightful

I think of myself as hard to impress (I give Louise Penny 5s and hardly anyone else). This is genius, clever throughout and constantly entertaining. Give me more.

Detective mystery final exam.

I definitely recommend this book to those that love detective mysteries!

It contains not one, but over 8 mysteries to solve.
Uts like a test, how many can you solve yourself. I am very tempted to immediately start it over to see if I can catch all the things I missed now that it has all been explained.

No complaints on the narrator either, she was really good. Which is a huge improvement over this other book I tried to listen too with a horrible narrator.

Clever

Do not give up on this book. It drags along and is boring and convoluted mess, but then finally, FINALLY, the loose ends are all tied up and it all makes sense.
Three and a half stars and I always round up.

I couldn’t listen to the Narrator

Maybe this would be better read book not a listen book. The story was good, but the narrator was not. Personally, I will not listen to another book she reads. Too dry and slow paced for me.