Eight Detectives

Thirty years ago, professor of mathematics Grant McAllister privately published a limited edition collection of stories to support his theory that all murder mysteries must follow a simple set of mathematical rules. Now a publisher has come across a rare copy and sharp, ambitious editor Julia Hart visits the quiet Mediterranean island where McAllister lives a life of seclusion to review the original text for republication.

McAllister offers various explanations, but it soon becomes a battle of wits between an author, apparently hiding the past with his refusal to talk about his personal history and an editor committed to probing it and struggling to read the messages she thinks are hidden behind the lines.

Former software engineer and part-time bookseller Alex Pavesi turns his readers into detectives with every new twist in an intricately knotted plot. This puzzle inside a puzzle features seven short, sometimes almost boorish and brutal murders, clever mind games, a grotesque, claustrophobic, often witty, world combining slow burning tension with plenty of twists – and offers a choice of shocking endings.

Pavesi’s book is no soft read. This exam for mystery readers makes its audience work for answers, examining every clue and detail, interpreting new theories about mysteries – and even adding up the maths!