All murder mysteries follow a simple set of rules. There must be two or more suspects. One or more victims. Eventually, one of the suspects must be revealed as the killer…

A brilliantly twisty thriller. I adored this clever, game-playing book - it's like Agatha Christie for bibliophiles Sunday TimesTitled "The Eighth Detective" in the UK this is a Christie-esque puzzle that offers not just one crime tale but several, as an editor works with an author on a book of short stories...these stories all together offer up a particularly intelligent formula that doesn't show it's true face until the end. Eight Detectives is clever, involving and has a practically styled prose that keeps you immersed throughout. Multiple detective stories with an Agatha Christie vibe. The murder mystery rules. Grant McAllister wrote 7 stories, hiding the secrets in them. Only those with a super keen eye will find them. This is a case of a blurb promising more than the book delivers. It certainly isn’t “thrilling” (it isn’t even trying to be thrilling) and I also wouldn’t call it “wildly inventive”. The short stories are Agatha Christie-esque, particularly “Trouble on Blue Pearl Island” which is intended as an homage to Christie’s “And Then There Were None”. That was my favorite story because of its diabolical ending. My problem was that the stories weren’t great. Late in the book there is a twist that presents an alternative ending for each story. The new ending didn’t improve any story. Then there is a second twist, and a third one. I think the plot actually had the potential to be clever if the characters had more bite to them. This is not a battle of wits. The characters are more likely to curl up into a fetal position than they are to engage. Also, the short stories could have been better. 3.5 stars

The story: Grant McAllister, a retired mathematician from Scotland, now resides on a beautiful Mediterranean island. At each session with the author, Julia reads one story aloud, and then she and McAllister discuss it in detail. I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It promised a clever twist on the classic murder mystery genre, a mind-bending story of books and mysteries within mysteries. The short story format probably doesn’t help – I’m not a fan of short stories, but I thought because there’s an underlying story running through all of them it would make for an interesting format. Unfortunately there’s really not enough of the main story between Julia and Grant here for me, and I didn’t feel able to connect with these characters aside from a vague sense of intrigue as to where it was all leading. For a debut novel this is a very brave concept and the author really goes for something different. Although it is a very good effort and certainly an entertaining read I am not sure he quite achieves the best mix of dialogue. I would have preferred more conversation between the editor and author rather than the short stories. It feels at times too much like a book of short stories, nevertheless an entertaining read. To illustrate his ideas, McAllister wrote seven detective stories, and published them in a book called 'The White Murders.'Julia Hart is an Editor sent to discuss the possibility of publishing an old work from a retired writer. He is understood to have not only written a collection of murder mysteries but also to be responsible for a mathematical analysis of the genre of which his book is an example. Each day Julia reads one of the stories to him and they discuss it, but as time passes it becomes clear something is amiss. Chess is all about rules and symmetry,’ she continued, ‘but conflict is usually just cruel and dirty.’