The Eighth Detective

June 15, 2020
Mathematician and first-time novelist Pavesi creates a metamystery that could as easily go in a bookstore's puzzle section as on the crime shelves. In 1930s Spain, Megan, Henry, and Bunny are alone in a house when Bunny is found stabbed to death. There must be an intruder, but there can't be. Windows and doors are sealed, so it's a locked-room mystery. Megan and Henry accuse each other, and of course they both know the truth--but does the reader? It's the first in a collection of seven stories titled The White Murders written by mathematician-turned-novelist Grant McAllister, who lives in seclusion on a Mediterranean island. In the 1970s, book editor Julia Hart travels to the island to visit McAllister and talk about his book, which everyone knows editors do for obscure authors. McAllister had earlier written a research paper, "The Permutations of Detective Fiction," on the mathematical structure of murder mysteries and the specific criteria that must be met. That sounds like as much fun as analyzing a joke, but his requirements make perfect sense: a victim, at least two suspects, a killer, and a detective. And there are combinations, such as the detective being the killer or multiple guilty parties or even--wait for it--the victim solving his own murder. In one story, a restaurateur tells customers "I am sad to say there has been a death on the premises," and Miss Garrick, a teacher, is left to protect the crime scene. Elsewhere, McAllister and Hart exchange bloodless comments like "They never managed to find her killer." "How unpleasant." "Yes, it is rather." Enclosing all the stories like a Russian doll is the question of why the editor visits the author at all. But both hold back secret motivations that drive the grand plot. The book abounds with complications and twists, and puzzle lovers will have fun predicting the endings of the stories. In one case, McAllister says readers have "enough evidence to solve this mystery for themselves." Perhaps, perhaps. A satisfying mystery for the casual reader, even more so for the careful one.

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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.).

Starred review from June 1, 2020
This inventive debut sees editor Julia Hart visit a reclusive author, mathematician Grant McAllister, whose self-published work, The White Murders, she hopes to release. Grant is also the author of a mathematical paper in which he explains the rules of whodunits?there must be a victim or victims, one or more suspects, one or more detectives, etc. The seven stories in the book illustrate permutations made possible by changing the mix of these character types. There's a problem, however: the stories include inconsistencies, and Hart begins to notice that they also feature allusions to an infamous real-life case called the White Murder. As the tales within a tale unfold, readers are treated to wonderful mini-mysteries that are interspersed with the author and editor's conversations and followed by Hart's ingenious sleuthing into Grant's background and the truth behind The White Murders. Pavesi's language immerses readers in mid-twentieth-century England and in the struggles, cruelties, and oddities of his multitude of carefully portrayed characters. Give this atmospheric puzzle to fans of short stories and of the American Mystery Classics series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2020

In a debut from mathematics PhD Pavesi, editor Julia Hart hopes to convince Professor Grant McAllister to republish a series of detective stories mathematically calculated to represent seven perfect permutations of the genre, but she's starting to notice inconsistencies that could be clues to something more.

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June 12, 2020

DEBUT In 1937, mathematician Grant McAllister wrote a research paper, "The Permutations of Detective Fiction," which provided a "mathematical definition" for the murder mystery. He outlined murder mystery requirements--victim(s), murder, suspects, and an investigator--and then wrote seven stories illustrating some of these parameters. Each of the seven tales here is accompanied by a chapter in which Grant and editor Julia, who, 20 years hence, wants to republish them, discuss the stories. "Spain, 1930" is a closed-room mystery in which a man is murdered and there are two suspects. Obviously, they both know who "dunnit." In "Death at the Seaside," Vanessa Allen falls to her death from a narrow cliffside pathway. Daily, she crossed the path with her neighbor, Gordon Foyle, who had a motive to push her, but evidence is scant. Is it murder, suicide, or an accident? This story has a Sherlockian tone. Further pieces include a woman drowned in her bath, a grandmother smothered for her jewels, and a supernatural story in which a dead policeman solves his own murder. As they talk about the stories, Julia begins to suspect that Grant isn't telling her everything. VERDICT Although the stories in this first collection have twists and turns, and the book itself has a surprise ending, neither the tales, nor the writing are compelling, the latter containing more similes than imagination. [See Prepub Alert, 1/22/20.]--Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY

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