Eight Detectives / Alex Pavesi

 

Eight Detectives: The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month by Alex Pavesi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has an interesting structure. It is basically a series of short stories stitched together by the conversations between their author and his editor. Each story exhibits a “rule" of murder mystery fiction, such as the roles of victims, suspects, and detectives, plus whether there are overlaps of these categories. I'm reminded of The Detection Club's Ten Commandments of Detection, which I recently became aware of on a discussion thread about Agatha Christie.

I had a pretty accurate idea of what was going on by about halfway through the book, but it was certainly worth reading to the end. Pavesi managed to surprise me with details I hadn't anticipated. As clever as it was, with interesting twists & turns, the novel felt rather mechanical to me. It was obviously meticulously planned and carefully executed but it left me feeling unattached.

If you find this kind of playing with structure entertaining, I would recommend Jeffrey Deaver's book The October List, which is a thriller written in reverse. In my opinion, Deaver is better at both emotional engagement and at surprising me as a reader. Both books are worth reading if you are intrigued by the writer's process.



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