The Eighth Detective

A Novel

By: Alex Pavesi

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

"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.

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.

Yes! Yes! Yes! This Book!

I enjoy the characters- and do not like them all. I was surprised at some of the amazing twists, and not surprised by them all.

As close to a perfect detective murder mystery book as there is.

Brilliant.

Enjoyable, but...

I liked the first half of the book. Stories and discussions, but for me it went on too long and became a bit convoluted. It is a clever premise and the narration was very good.

It was a clever idea, but I was still bored

I couldn’t wait for the book to be over. The plots were clever, but I didn’t really care about any of the characters.

Trying too hard to be clever

Great premise, and the story reinforces my subversive view that editors do want to rewrite our books! :)
I thought this sounded interesting, but the enclosed mystery stories were, for me, rather tedious, and they're repeated. Two of the stories are (and acknowledged as) homages to Agatha Christie stories, but not as well-plotted. At every point, the plot and characters seemed like "stretches"-- not actually as deep or tricky as promised.


I just didn't find the overall stories and the 'inside' stories very thrilling or mysterious. There were some technical glitches, mostly in point of view, that detracted from the coherence of the scenes.

But I love books about writers and editors, so that part was fun. And the narrator was very good.

Loved It - Hated It

Go up. Go down. Go right left. Go left. It’s this It’s that. Shake it up. Lay it down. Should be good right? Dunno. I felt manipulated by an author who wants to show how many tricks he can jam into one book. Ta dah! The big reveal. Not that. This. It became tedious. A great idea by someone who really wants to impress you with how many plot devices he can cram into one space. But I give him credit - I kept listening. Emilia Fox narration was excellent but I suspect this is a much better read than listen.

A rubix cube mystery!

Loved it! So many fun twists and turns in this unique mystery. The story is unique and complex and still believable. Fantastic narration.