*Please note this review contains spoilers*

Picture this: a beautiful English country estate with green grass and a babbling brook. Blue skies (with a few clouds so you have the reminder of rain). A beautiful library with a fire just starting to warm the room. A maid in uniform bringing someone a cup of tea. Then there’s a scream and you hear the smashing of china (the teacup!)

Finally someone yells “there’s been a murder!”

I, like many, love a good fictional English murder mystery. It doesn’t usually have the deep cynicism of a modern crime drama or the weight of real tragedy linked to true crime. There will be a murder and the alarm and dismay that comes with it – but it will be set up, investigated, and usually resolved, in such a specific way so you never forget its fiction. Although it may seem like Poirot and Miss Marple and Sidney Chambers are all cut from the same stock and follow the same pattern, Pavesi’s novel – and his background in mathematics – shows that although the classic murder mystery always has the same elements, there are endless variations to keep us coming back for more.

I loved, loved, loved the structure of the book. Switching between mystery short stories and the larger narrative of Julia and Grant (and Francis and Elizabeth ) was the perfect way for Pavesi to both write mysteries and examine their structure. As a reader, I loved the immediate reflection as Julia and Grant (well its actually Francis, but I’ll call him Grant) discussed each story with the added intrigue of their own mystery. Plenty of writers are capable of both literary insight and engaging narratives, but it is not common to find both within the same volume. Because Pavesi lends his main character his combined knowledge of mathematics and mystery writing, he is able to do both.

For instance, in The Cursed Village, at the pivotal moment right before the revelation of who murdered Agnes, there is a challenge issued to the “more ambitious” readers. Apparently, all of the information needed to solve the murder has been presented, but like so much in this book all is not as it seems. As you are reading it, you have an immediate reaction to the challenge. Are you an active mystery reader or a passive mystery reader? Are you going to put the book down and figure it out? Have you already? Or are you like me and happy to let the fictional detectives work it out for you. (I personally love the grand reveal at the end, the gasp of “oh of course it makes sense now.”) However, after discussions with friends this week I understand just how many mystery readers are actively tracking clues, taking note of small confessions and little details (kudos to them – especially if you manage to do it without actually taking any notes.) But once you finish the novel you see how Pavesi is also playing around with narration in this passage. The challenge starts with “here it is my duty, as the author of this story…” but by the end we know there could be four people fulfilling the role of author. It might be Pavesi himself breaking through and speaking to us. It might be Julia, adding this sarcastic challenge during her edits and rewrites to The White Murders. It might be Grant adding his flair to the stolen manuscript. Or it might be Elizabeth White herself, speaking to us as readers directly for the only time in the book.

It is worth noting that although Pavesi’s enjoyment of murder mysteries is clear, he also acknowledges the inherent strangeness of the genre as a form of entertainment. Pavesi’s book has violence and torture that goes above and beyond a gunshot wound or a poisoned cup of tea and some of the stories have a significantly higher body count than your average Agatha Christie. He even makes one of the scariest villains in the text a detective, flipping the expectation of the genre on its head without actually breaking any of the basic rules of a murder mystery. Julia and Grant’s discussions don’t let those details go unnoticed, but Pavesi and his characters do not come up with an explanation about why so many of us like stories about murder. I don’t know either and I’m not sure I’ll never know why I like a good murder mystery whether it’s a well-worn paperback or a new BBC adaption. All I know is the final, brutal revelation of Grant as a murderer didn’t make me throw the book away in horror or disappointment – it just made me gasp and hope Pavesi publishes a new mystery soon.