The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

No cover — Stuart Turton: The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018)

English language

Published Nov. 5, 2018

ISBN:: 978-1-4926-5796-5

(2 reviews)

"Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let's begin." Imagine the movie Groundhog Day as a riveting page-turner of a murder mystery. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins anew, Aiden wakes up in a deteriorating manor house, as a different person, and must work out who he is and how he relates to everyone else at the party commemorating the long ago death of a child. If he can't solve the murder that occurs at the party, he is doomed to continue the loop every eight days. The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will …

"Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let's begin." Imagine the movie Groundhog Day as a riveting page-turner of a murder mystery. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins anew, Aiden wakes up in a deteriorating manor house, as a different person, and must work out who he is and how he relates to everyone else at the party commemorating the long ago death of a child. If he can't solve the murder that occurs at the party, he is doomed to continue the loop every eight days. The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave readers guessing until the very last page.

15 editions

enne📚 reviewed The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

4 stars

I heard about The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle because Stuart Turton has another mystery coming out this year that is on my book wishlist, and I thought I'd pick up an earlier book by him in the meantime.

The setup to this book is that Evelyn Hardcastle has been (and will be) murdered at 11pm, and the protagonist is living through the perspectives of various people at the manor house where it happens, and is tasked to figure out who is behind the murder. Oh, and there's also somebody trying to kill all of the various hosts he is seeing the world through.

It took me a little bit to get into this, as it's (understandably) a little bit disorienting with a lot of details. There were a number of "how did this weird thing happen" that got answered by "oh that was just ~time loop protagonist shenanigans", …

I heard about The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle because Stuart Turton has another mystery coming out this year that is on my book wishlist, and I thought I'd pick up an earlier book by him in the meantime.

The setup to this book is that Evelyn Hardcastle has been (and will be) murdered at 11pm, and the protagonist is living through the perspectives of various people at the manor house where it happens, and is tasked to figure out who is behind the murder. Oh, and there's also somebody trying to kill all of the various hosts he is seeing the world through.

It took me a little bit to get into this, as it's (understandably) a little bit disorienting with a lot of details. There were a number of "how did this weird thing happen" that got answered by "oh that was just ~time loop protagonist shenanigans", but in the end these felt like red herring decorations around other deeper, layered mysteries.

I had to suspend my disbelief a little bit about the meta plot here. Structurally, having the protagonist jump from person to person is a fascinating way tell a story, particularly a mystery. However, the mechanics behind and around this were not quite as satisfying to me as I wanted them to be. These feelings I don't think ruined the book, but in comparison everything else felt so intricately plotted that this didn't quite fit as neatly as I wanted.

Overall, a quite satisfying mystery with a novel hook.

yuq

rated it

July 28, 2021

Subjects

Murder
Investigation
FICTION / Thrillers / Historical
FICTION / Occult & Supernatural
FICTION / Literary
Fiction