Bury Rotary's Monthly Book Club

The Book Club meets monthly at 7.15pm on the second Tuesday of every month - preceded by the option of dining at 5.30pm - at The Brown Cow, Burrs Country Park, Woodhill Road, Bury BL8 1DA . One member chooses a book - the only restrictions being that there must be Audible and Kindle versions - and then colleagues meet the following month to review it. Some members produce a full written review and others make notes, but all give an oral presentation on the basis that any and all opinions are equally valid. In fact we hope that the chosen book will receive a range of differing reactions!! 

Over recent months, members have chosen a wide variety of books to suit different tastes, exch one offering the opportunity to discover a book or author which we may not have chosen ourselves. Recent books have included:

•  East West Street by Phillipe Sands
• The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers 
• The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy 
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

A typical review: Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi

Story:

This book contains 7 short horror-crime stories that are presented within an overall story.

The author’s proposition is there are rules for murder mysteries. There must be at least 1 victim, 1 killer, 2 suspects and 1 detective (although the roles can overlap). The rest is at best and at worst a maze of sub fusion for the reader to explore and unravel.  Expanding the permutations. Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down with Venn diagrams and worked them all out – calculating the different orders and possibilities of a whodunnit mystery into seven simple “perfect” detective stories he quietly published. But that was thirty years ago. Now Grant lives in seclusion on a remote Mediterranean island, counting the rest of his days.

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

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

Comments:

1.     A set of seven golden age-style “whodunnit” mysteries with an abundance of brutal slayings in genteel surroundings are offered in a heightened pastiche of this literary format. The classical denouement should be like a balanced equation with the reader able to follow the workings of the puzzle. Instead, this author’s readers are unfortunately led into a series of confused twists that don’t seem to rely on any clues given to readers early on, so they are effectively locked out of the “game”. 

2.     By necessity the plots in the short stories have to be short and simple but, and as well as that of the overall story, they are somewhat weak (e.g. choking on a fork tine!) Although I did enjoy the mental challenge of spotting the inconsistencies before they were revealed!

3.     The twist of producing 2 credible alternative endings to each mystery appeals to my personal view on potential solutions to classical murder mysteries e.g. Agatha Christie novels

4.     As seems typical with first novels the intent is more laudable than the result!

Conclusion:

What makes the book interesting is that it is structured in a novel way, and for this creativity alone the book is well worth reading.

Rating: 6.5/10

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