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The Eighth Detective

A Novel

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"Dizzying, dazzling... When did you last read a genuinely original thriller? The wait is over."
—A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling 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 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.
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
"[Narrator Emilia] Fox's warm, calm British accent is reminiscent of an Agatha Christie production,
which fits perfectly with the mid-century setting" — Booklist

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 22, 2020
      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.).

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Emilia Fox performs this audiobook, which consists of short mysteries interwoven within a larger story. Julia, a young book editor, meets with Grant, a reclusive author, to bring a collection of his stories back to print. As they read the pieces, one by one, they discuss the elements that make up a good mystery. Fox narrates at a measured pace with a pleasing level of emotion, using a variety of voices and accents to distinguish the characters. Listeners will have fun identifying the classic mystery hidden within each of the nested stories--for example, one is a nod to MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS--but they may have trouble puzzling out Julia's and Grant's motives for their collaboration. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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