The Eighth Detective Audiobook By Alex Pavesi cover art

The Eighth Detective

A Novel

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Eighth Detective

By: Alex Pavesi
Narrated by: Emilia Fox
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.24

Buy for $20.24

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

"Dizzying, dazzling.... When did you last read a genuinely original thriller? The wait is over." (A.J. Finn, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Woman in the Window)

There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective.

Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked all the rules out - and wrote seven perfect detective stories to demonstrate. But that was 30 years ago. Now Grant lives in seclusion on a remote Mediterranean island, counting the rest of his days.

Until Julia Hart, a brilliant, ambitious editor knocks on his door. Julia wishes to republish his book, and together they must revisit those old stories: an author hiding from his past and an editor keen to understand it.

But there are things in the stories that don’t add up. Inconsistencies left by Grant that a sharp-eyed editor begins to suspect are more than mistakes. They may be clues, and Julia finds herself with a mystery of her own to solve.

Alex Pavesi's The Eighth Detective is a love letter to classic detective stories with a modern twist, where nothing is as it seems, and proof that the best mysteries break all the rules.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

©2020 Alex Pavesi (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
Detective Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Noir Suspense Traditional Detectives Witty Funny
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"[Narrator Emilia] Fox's warm, calm British accent is reminiscent of an Agatha Christie production, which fits perfectly with the mid-century setting" (Booklist)

What listeners say about The Eighth Detective

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    149
  • 4 Stars
    120
  • 3 Stars
    79
  • 2 Stars
    36
  • 1 Stars
    22
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    210
  • 4 Stars
    87
  • 3 Stars
    39
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    11
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    130
  • 4 Stars
    92
  • 3 Stars
    75
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    32

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Murders mysterious

Prepare for one Mystery on top of another in this cleverly constructed casebook of murders. I particularly enjoyed the new endings to the original stories and the multiple endings to the overall tale. Some of the murders were a bit too grisly but always interesting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant and delightful

I think of myself as hard to impress (I give Louise Penny 5s and hardly anyone else). This is genius, clever throughout and constantly entertaining. Give me more.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Detective mystery final exam.

I definitely recommend this book to those that love detective mysteries!

It contains not one, but over 8 mysteries to solve.
Uts like a test, how many can you solve yourself. I am very tempted to immediately start it over to see if I can catch all the things I missed now that it has all been explained.

No complaints on the narrator either, she was really good. Which is a huge improvement over this other book I tried to listen too with a horrible narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

I couldn’t listen to the Narrator

Maybe this would be better read book not a listen book. The story was good, but the narrator was not. Personally, I will not listen to another book she reads. Too dry and slow paced for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Yes! Yes! Yes! This Book!

I enjoy the characters- and do not like them all. I was surprised at some of the amazing twists, and not surprised by them all.

As close to a perfect detective murder mystery book as there is.

Brilliant.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable, but...

I liked the first half of the book. Stories and discussions, but for me it went on too long and became a bit convoluted. It is a clever premise and the narration was very good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

It was a clever idea, but I was still bored

I couldn’t wait for the book to be over. The plots were clever, but I didn’t really care about any of the characters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Trying too hard to be clever

Great premise, and the story reinforces my subversive view that editors do want to rewrite our books! :)
I thought this sounded interesting, but the enclosed mystery stories were, for me, rather tedious, and they're repeated. Two of the stories are (and acknowledged as) homages to Agatha Christie stories, but not as well-plotted. At every point, the plot and characters seemed like "stretches"-- not actually as deep or tricky as promised.


I just didn't find the overall stories and the 'inside' stories very thrilling or mysterious. There were some technical glitches, mostly in point of view, that detracted from the coherence of the scenes.

But I love books about writers and editors, so that part was fun. And the narrator was very good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Loved It - Hated It

Go up. Go down. Go right left. Go left. It’s this It’s that. Shake it up. Lay it down. Should be good right? Dunno. I felt manipulated by an author who wants to show how many tricks he can jam into one book. Ta dah! The big reveal. Not that. This. It became tedious. A great idea by someone who really wants to impress you with how many plot devices he can cram into one space. But I give him credit - I kept listening. Emilia Fox narration was excellent but I suspect this is a much better read than listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A rubix cube mystery!

Loved it! So many fun twists and turns in this unique mystery. The story is unique and complex and still believable. Fantastic narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!