Right from the very first chapter you know you are in for a masterpiece of literature and I knew this was a book that would jump up into my top 3 books of the year… and my feelings never changed throughout.
Julia has travelled to the small Mediterranean island that Grant McAllister lives on to work through and re-edit his collection of seven short detective stories that he published a long time ago.
The stories are wonderfully clever and had me enthralled throughout, but what was even more smart about them, was that they proved Grant’s theory on the mathematics behind all detective stories. Julia would read a story out to Grant and Grant, in turn, would explain how it proved his theory and the limits of it too. It was fascinating and also made total sense, as I read along, I found myself nodding and being amazed that, of course, everything can be explained through a mathematical equation with variables and limits on these.
Having published these stories for the first time over thirty years ago it is no surprise that some of the details are a little rusty in Grant’s mind, but the more he can’t recollect, the more concerning it becomes, is his memory being stolen by time or is something more sinister at play?
It is so easy to be swept up in the short stories within this tale and forget about the “present” plot, which means the twists in Grant and Julia’s timeline took me by complete surprise. Thriller authors always strive to distract a reader from their show-stopping twist, but never have I seen it executed in such an incredible way – bravo Pavesi!
Pavesi’s writing style is intelligent, ever evolving and packed full of surprises. This is not a book to be missed.
Eight Detectives is out now in hardback and eBook versions from Michael Joseph.
Until next time, Chloé x
Reviews by Chloé 
I really enjoyed this book, very cleverly done. Great review 🙂
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