Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Saturday, 16 July 2022

"Eight detectives" by Alex Pavesi

An audio book. A woman finds an old book of stories and tracks down the author, asking him for an interview. He agrees, and she goes to the island he lives on. We're given each story then after each the woman asks the author some questions about the piece. The author gives his structural analysis of the genre, studying Suspects, Victims, Detectives and Killers, determining max/min sizes for each set and whether some sets can be subsets of others. The stories illustrate some of the more extreme examples. There are 6 whodunnits to enjoy, most involving breaking glass.

But all is not what it seems. We get alternative versions of the 5 stories, a replacement for the other story and 2 endings to the framing book. Scattered through the stories are clues that help solve another crime.

The pace slowed during the re-write phase. Otherwise it was fun.

Other reviews

  • Jake Arnott (This metafictional conceit has much potential, but Pavesi doesn’t quite pull it off. ... Pavesi lacks that delicate precision needed to construct a true mystery as accomplished as any classics of the period)
  • goodreads

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