The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

A high-concept murder mystery whose central conceit needed a better author to do it justice. It is a genuinely good idea: Groundhog Day meets Quantum Leap meets Agatha Christie. A man, Aiden, wakes up on the grounds of an English country house, with no memory save for the knowledge of a single name: Anna. He soon finds that he has eight days to solve the murder of the eponymous Evelyn Hardcastle—with the twist being that each day, his consciousness will reside in the body of a different guest residing at the house.

The plot is intriguingly intricate clockwork, and Stuart Turton must have had one hell of a flowchart somewhere trying to keep track of who is doing what when. As a yarn, the book does work on a certain level. However, the show more rules of how the time loop/body jumping work are annoyingly vague and inconsistent (is this eight consecutive identical days with Aiden a singular person in a different body every time? is it an eight-fold person looping through the same day, his consciousness equally present in eight different bodies? the latter seems implied but then events can be changed so how does that work? I worked out fairly early on that we were dealing with some sort of holodeck situation, so is the much-dwelled on decay of Blackheath House because this has truly been going on for thirty years, as is revealed at the end? But we’re told that most of the characters are just… well, holograms of a kind, I suppose (though recreations of long-dead real people?), and if that’s true for the characters it’s true for the house so why would there be any decay?).

I might have been more willing to go with all of that if I’d found any of the characters in Seven Deaths more appealing, but they’re fairly flat and two-dimensional. The most vividly drawn character is Aiden’s sort-of love interest, Anna, but even there the relationship makes not a lick of sense and the reveal of her backstory made me roll my eyes.

More damning than all of that, however, is the fact that Turton somehow managed to write a whole book about the importance of seeing things from different perspectives, about the importance of empathy, without ever seeming to apply those principles to his own writing. Aiden only ever inhabits male bodies—despite the obvious potential in seeing how a man would handle being in a female body and with being viewed as a woman by others. Turton clearly has deep, deep issues with fat people, and the way the obese body of one of Aiden’s hosts was described was grotesque and horrifying to me—even before I read on and realised that Aiden was far less repulsed by being in the body of a serial rapist than he is of being in the body of a fat, gay man. Hey, so being a rapist isn't nice—but at least he's not a sweaty fatty!

Jesus.

Maybe that’s not an unrealistic viewpoint for some men to hold, but it was a fucking awful one to have to spend a lot of time in—especially since I didn’t get the impression that the narrative understood what it was endorsing. show less

As an Christie lover, I find myself drawn to the locked room mysteries that pull from her inspiring oeuvre of work. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle seems to fall in the category but not in the way that I expected. This romp of mystery starts in a chase and left me breathless at every turn. The unexpected approach to the confining elements in which the main character must solve the mystery made the conceit more intriguing as I found the rules of the world along side the narrator. Furthermore, unlike some other mysteries, all of the clues needed to solve the mystery were supplied in real time to the readers as they were for the narrator. There was no blindsiding information that the master detective discovered under our nose. This show more book is absolutely solvable and the joy is in the way Turton keeps the next clue right in front of you till the very end. If you allow yourself to be swept up into the dangerous scenery of Blackhearst, this novel will be a page-turner that keeps you engaged all the way through. show less

‘’I’m a man in Purgatory, blind to the sins that chased me here.’’

What would it be like if one day we found ourselves in an another body? What if this happened on a daily basis? Us changing the vessel but retaining most of the traits that make us who we are? What if by changing identities we could turn back the time and prevent an injustice, a horrible crime? This is the wonderful premise of this exquisite novel by Stuart Turton, one of the most unique books of the year.

A man has the opportunity to stop the murder of a young woman, Evelyn Hardcastle. In full Groundhog Day mood, he is given eight days and eight identities in which he must find the one responsible for the crime, otherwise everything will become irreversible. So, show more during a gathering that commemorates a tragic incident in the Hardcastle estate, justice must prevail. However, the wrongs that must be made right reach beyond a single murder…

‘’Nothing like a mask to reveal somebody’s true nature.’’

The story is set in Britain, around the late 20s, early 30s from what I could gather and the thing that fascinated me most in this novel isn’t the mystery itself or the unusual background- although they are both brilliant- but the focus on human nature and its various and interminable implications. I can’t even imagine the Herculean task of creating eight different characters to become the vessels of one person, all with their own characteristics and mannerisms and resulting in such a successful and marvelously written story. I admit I was a little bit cautious prior to reading Turton’s book. I thought it would be too confusing or wordy but I couldn’t be more wrong. Obviously, I cannot write a single sentence about the plot but I swear a most solemn vow to you that you will find yourselves with your mouth open in shock for about 60% of the story. That’s how perfect this book is. So many twists, so many different, complicated, tiny pieces of an exciting puzzle. I promise you you won’t be bored or confused. And if you do get confused, it will be in the best way possible.

‘’Now you see them as I do,’’ says the Plague Doctor, in a low voice. ‘’Actors in a play, doing the same thing night after night’’.

There is seldom such a rich array of characters who are all interesting, secretive, twisted, kind, intelligent, manipulative. Think of any adjective in any language and it will apply perfectly to this perfect cast. As Aidan discovers clues -only to be left in the darkness soon after- so do we. As he meets the guests, as he gets the chance to live inside some of the characters, he gives us the opportunity to collect more evidence. We know nothing before he does and we obtain a much clearer picture of every person involved in the story. How many times can we claim this happens in a mystery? Not even in some of Christie’s finest creations, in my opinion. Personally speaking, the figure of the Plague Doctor was the king of the story. Such a creepy, intimidating, cryptic character that elevated the novel into a whole new level. He embodies the concept of the Mask perfectly since nothing is as it first appears. Everyone undergoes a major transformation and every expectation and belief is turned upside down right until the spectacular ending.

I would love to tell you so much more- good, old, blabby me- but I can’t. You absolutely, utterly (...again with the adverbs, I know…) NEED to read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It is a reading experience unlike anything we’ve seen and read before. I would like to end this text with a question taken from the Reading Group Guide, included in the book, which I feel captures the psychological weight and the very essence of the entire story.

‘’If you know someone you loved had a devastating secret, would you choose to find out what it was or love them for who they’ve become? If you knew you did something terrible, would you want to remember or live with that shadow for the rest of your life?’’

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange of an honest review. show less

That was... a lot. I couldn’t put it down, it got under my skin and dug tunnels through my brain that I’m probably going to spend weeks trying to sort through. I kept thinking I had it figured out and I was wrong (almost) every time. Usually best selling thriller/mysteries don’t do much for me, this was a rare exception.

This is one of the more divisive books I've come across, eliciting either love or hate in readers. I fall firmly on the love side of the divide. I savored every single word.

The writing style is equal parts poetic and witty. It's literary-level writing with a comedic undertone. The sentences have rhythm and color and style. So, yeah, I'm gushing. As you can tell, I really loved this author's style.

The plot is a kind of closed-door mystery that takes place in a decrepit mansion. It's wacky and weird. It requires your attention, because all kinds of craziness occurs.

Then that aha moment comes near the end, and it was a drop the mic moment. Except I dropped my Kindle. (On my lap, fortunately.) Then I told my dogs how brilliant it was.

And show more suddenly I see the sneak attack of thought-provoking content Stuart Turton spun into this wacky story.

I noticed some reviewers complained about this revelation coming to late in the story. I don't agree. (Obviously.) Knowing the situation alters expectations and perceptions. In my opinion, Turton played it just right. show less

OK, mystery lovers, this one's for you! Stuart Turton's first book is a unique puzzle-type mystery. A man wakes up and finds himself at an estate, Blackheath, for a party on the 19th anniversary of the death of a child who was murdered. He has little memory of who he is, but figures out he is a doctor, Sebastian Bell. That is, until he wakes up again on the same day in a new body. Then he figures out (with a little help) that he is going to inhabit 8 different bodies on this same day and he only will escape living this loop over and over if he is able to discover who murders Evelyn Hardcastle, who will be murdered at 11 pm that day. There are others also trying to solve the mystery and escape the loop, though they are all there for show more different reasons.

There are actually several "mysteries" going on. The first is the main character figuring out what is happening to him. He's a person/soul waking up each morning in a different body and reliving the same day. Why he is there and who he really is are questions to solve. Then there is the mystery he's charged with solving - who killed Evelyn Hardcastle. Through his various bodies (he sort of takes on the personality of each while retaining part of himself and his memories of the day lived as each previous person) he sees different parts of this same day and must figure out who killed Evelyn Hardcastle before his 8th body falls asleep at the end of the day. Otherwise he starts the day over, not remembering anything about his failure. A third mystery is who his companions are and why they are trapped at Blackheath with him. And a 4th is who killed the child that died 19 years ago that really started the whole thing.

The whole book is an intricate puzzle. It really worked very well, though of course, I think you do have suspend reality and not think things through too deeply. And because the plot is so intricate, the characters aren't as deeply drawn as they could be. That always bothers me a little, but the book was innovative in so many other ways that I was ok with it. I found this a lot of fun and was able to just go along for the ride.

I hope others read this because I'm very curious whether people will like it. I think it could be a love it/hate it type of book.

Apologies for the convoluted review - it's really hard to put into words what it's about without giving too much away. show less

Hands down, this is the strangest book I have read this year. If I had to label it, I'd go with historical fantasy mystery, but it really defies description. Various bits of Quantam Leap, Groundhog Day, And Then There Were None, The Masque of the Red Death all mixed up into a totally unique story. It requires a great deal of attention on the part of the reader to keep track of what is going on, as the protagonist leaps from character to character, repeating a single day until he can find the solution to a murder. Who is a friend, who is a foe, who can be trusted and how far and what alliances exist are all murky.

It's a complex and bizarre tale, yet one that is engrossing from beginning to end, if you have the patience for it.

(FYI, this show more book was also published under the title "The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle". I suspect it was changed to avoid confusion with a totally different book, "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo".) show less