Eight Detectives

 Eight Detectives (2020) by Alex Pavesi

Grant McAllister was a mathematician in the 1930s with an interest in murder mysteries. He determined that all murder mysteries follow a simple set of rules that could be explained as a mathematical formula. He wrote a scholarly paper about it and then put together a set of short stories titled The White Murders with seven examples of the "permutations of murder" (as he called them). The book sold modestly during the boom years of the Golden Age of mysteries but never reached the fame that McAllister hoped for. The book fell out of publication and Grant McAllister disappeared.

Years later, Julia Hart is on a mission to find him. When she tracks him to a Mediterranean cottage, she sends him a letter from Blood Type Books, a publisher that, after discovering an original copy of The White Murders, would like to bring out a new, annotated edition of his only mystery work. He invites her to visit and as they work through the stories together, she realizes that there are more mysteries here than just those on the written page. McAllister is an older man, but is he really so old that he's forgotten how/when/why he came to write the stories? And why are there references to a real unsolved murder throughout the book--not least the title itself? And who exactly is/was Francis Gardner? 

For the most part, this seems to be a love it or hate it kind of book. There are a few reviews out there that hit the middle of the road, but not many. Personally, I love it--with two qualifications. I think it's a very clever twist on the classic murder mystery. It takes tropes from the Golden Age and gives them a little whirl. I enjoyed the way the story was framed and that there are mysteries surrounding the mysteries and even when you think Pavesi has twisted things round as much as possible, there is one more up his sleeve. My only qualifications--First, Pavesi is obviously well-versed in his Agatha Christie. So much so that he steals the plot of two of her most famous stories. One practically point for point. Yes, there is a twist in the tale that is clever* (see below for a spoiler point), but I'm not in favor of this kind of poaching. Second, as the Puzzle Doctor points out in his review, the short stories within the story have a pretty modern feel for work that was supposedly written in the 1930s. But neither of these qualifications kept me from enjoying myself thoroughly. There is a lot to like for those who enjoy classic mysteries--if only to spot the tropes that have appeared in stories actually written during the Golden Age.  ★★★★

SPOILER AREA

*Just a couple of spoilerish points: I am curious, however, to know how the Colonel's wife plans to get away with the only murder that wasn't part of the original ten. Is she going to plead ignorance--that her husband opened that drawer and fell prey to a booby-trap that neither or them knew was there? Oh--and for a man who had served in the army, he seems awfully squeamish about danger and bodies and such....

First line: The two suspects sat on mismatched furniture in the white and almost featureless lounge, waiting for something to happen.

Last line: But in his soaked white suit he looked like a snowman, already starting to melt.
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Deaths = 31 (four stabbed; four poisoned; seven natural; four fell from height; one drowned; seven strangled/asphyxiated; one hanged; one hit on head; two burned to death)