Eight Detectives

Great listen highly recommend

This was a really unusual debut and I really enjoyed it. Is is essentially seven short detective stories linked together by the narrative of a writer trying to solve a further murder. They were all great stories and I enjoyed them all individually, there is a really clever twist in the last third of the novel which took it off into a different direction altogether along with the twist at the end. I would recommend this very different thriller.

5 people found this helpful

Nasty versions of Christie tales

I wanted to like this book but I really didn’t.
The premise of an editor dissecting a tale to find the solution to a contemporary mystery is familiar from Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders, and more recent Moonflower Murders.
But this book is unnecessarily convoluted, and very drawn out. It’s more about the author being clever than writing a good story.
Moreover, the Golden Age murder mysteries are far more gruesome than the Christie ones they copy. The details are needlessly nasty and the stories are curiously dull and flat.
The book becomes tiresome after a while as there are no likeable characters in any of the stories, and the whole book is cold and clinical.
The 1960s setting is ill-defined and unconvincing plus the feisty female ‘editor’ is too young to be sent on any such assignment.
In addition, the language grates (a 30s starlet would have been called an actress not an actor) and the lumpy metaphors are too numerous to mention.
Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson is much better.

4 people found this helpful

Eight Detectives: absolutely original

Even one of these stories and subsequent conversations between the presumed author and acting publisher would have stood out as a most satisfying and thought-provoking book but the full book offers a rich, multi-layered ingenious treat.

1 person found this helpful

Just a series of short stories...

The book is a series of short stories tying together different forms of the detective genre, with a loose overarching storyline to link them together. Overall, the common thread is tenuous and the short stories necessarily lack depth. Maybe enjoyable for diehard fans of murder mysteries but perhaps give it a miss if you looking for a good story!

1 person found this helpful

It was ok

It was quite clever, some of the individual stories were better than others. Why was chess mentioned in most of them but it was never explained. When I finish a really good book I am left wanting more. In this case I am left feeling a bit irritated.

1 person found this helpful

A collection of whodunnits with a twist

A modern book with a whiff of Agatha Christie.

I didn't guess the ending, it was a complete surprise.

Abysmal

This book started off promisingly enough, but soon became very tedious and formulaic and it became apparent that the two dimensional characters were not going to be brought to life in any way. It was hard going but I stuck with it on the promise that it was all building to an interesting ending. Unfortunately it just sort of fizzled out and the hours of unenjoyable listening weren’t redeemed by the unsatisfying ending. It was an interesting premise but very poorly executed. If you want a book within a book, you’ll be better off with Death is the Word by Anthony Horowitz. This was dismal.

Shame about the ending

A lovely listen up to about the last two hours. Unfortunately the author then goes off on a bit of a power trip and start adding in details that the reader just doesn’t care about. But still worth a listen.

Page turner

This book kept me guessing until the very end. A riveting story, start to finish.

Bad short stories

If you enjoy short stories you might like this book, I personally found it terrible - I would have returned it but we had no internet for about a week so I stuck with it hoping it would get better. Several stories were so bad I fast forwarded to the last couple of minutes just to hear the solutions.