“Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day . . . quite unlike anything I’ve ever read, and altogether triumphant.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at … Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense.
For fans of Claire North, and Kate Atkinson, The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive mystery that follows one man’s race against time to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist that means nothing and no one are quite what they seem.
This inventive debut twists together a thriller of such unexpected creativity it will leave readers guessing until the very last page.
Costa First Novel Award 2018 Winner
One of Stylist Magazine’s 20 Must-Read Books of 2018
One of Harper’s Bazaar’s 10 Must-Read Books of 2018
One of Guardian’s Best Books of 2018
One of Buzzfeed’s 17 Mystery Books You Won’t Be Able to Put Down
One of BookRiot’s 10 Mystery and Thriller Authors like Agatha Christie
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Dazzling. A revolving door of suspects (and narrators); a sumptuous country-house setting; a pure-silk Möbius strip of a story. This bracingly original, fiendishly clever murder mystery – Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day – is quite unlike anything I’ve ever read, and altogether triumphant. I wish I’d written it.
This book is Black Mirror meets Groundhog Day meets Agatha Christie and I absolutely loved it! It’s a lot creepier than I usually go for so I mostly tried not to read it after dark (which was VERY hard to do given how unputdownable it was). I was completely hooked start to finish, and if you love intricate, complex mysteries, this book is for you!
I absolutely ADORED this book. Easily one of my all-time favorites. Think Agatha Christie meets Downton Abbey meets Quantum Leap meets Groundhog Day. Definitely a book that will keep you turning pages as you try to figure out what the hell is going on. Once I hit about the 70% mark, I couldn’t stop reading until I finished. Extremely satisfying ending. BUT! This is definitely a thinking-person’s book. If you get confused by multiple timelines, plot twists, and interwoven and overlapping storylines, steer clear!
If Agatha Christie and Terry Pratchett had ever had LSD-fuelled sex, then The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle would be their acid trip book baby. Darkly comic, mind-blowingly twisty, and with a cast of fantastically odd characters, this is a locked room mystery like no other.
This was such an incredible concept, and executed with an absolutely brilliant eye for detail and connection. I cannot even imagine how difficult it must have been to write and plot this interwoven tale of Aiden Bishop and his quest to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. There are secrets and lies everywhere and no one is who they seem – including Bishop himself, who has no idea who he even is for much of the first third of the book, as he struggles to wake up each day in a different body with no idea why, where he is, or what he’s supposed to be doing – other than staying alive. It’s difficult to call those around him a supporting cast, since so many are iterations that Bell wakes up as, but regardless of how they’re described, each and every person in this story is a tale unto him(or her-)self.
The population at Blackheath is stunning in its complexity – almost as stunning as the mysterious setting itself. Blackheath’s secrets are revealed with devastating slowness – in an absolutely spot-on display of the prowess of suspense-building… The Big Reveal took me utterly by surprise – as did many of the smaller mini-reveals along the way. That doesn’t happen often. And while it was nowhere near where I thought things were going, and could easily have felt over-the-top or eye-rollingly odd, somehow it worked for me and felt satisfyingly plausible.
I couldn’t put this one down. Turton has crafted a brilliant tale and demonstrated a master’s eye – and ear – for storytelling. I do hope to see a lot more from him in future!
My review copy was provided by NetGalley. An earlier iteration of the book (The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) is currently available on Amazon; the new copy, reviewed here, will be available via Amazon in the U.S. on September 18, 2018. I’ve seen a publication date listed as early as September 4 though – so try a local store if you can’t wait (and believe me, you can’t)…
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton was chosen by followers, friends, and fans on my blog’s monthly Book Bucket List contest. I added this book because I liked the concept and the occult intrigue associated with the story. I borrowed it from the library and read it in a couple of days this weekend. So, what did I think about it, you ask? I’m still a bit confused, not an uncommon reaction to a book of this sort. Let’s chat a bit about the plot.
A man wakes up and has no memory of his identity. He quickly meets people on an estate and is told who he is, but it feels wrong. We learn that he’s trapped in some sort of a game and over the course of a week, he will inhabit the body of 8 different people in the hope she can solve the identity of Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder. During this week, we meet tons of guests and family members, each of who has a secret or strange personality quirk. When the realities behind the game become too real, everything unravels. Underneath it all, there are several deaths, multiple villains, and a few guests we hear about but never quite meet. What’s really going on here?
I mentioned I was confused, right? To start off with, I write books with immensely complicated plots, including a series with over a hundred characters, so I’m well-versed in understanding how to keep track of it all. I struggled on this one! I love the concept of confusion, intentionally done to keep a reader guessing, but only if it is fully solved by the end. My biggest issue with this book is the lack of any real, fully developed conclusion. Tons of people were picked to be the host bodies, yet many where not. Why? Some of the different characters had partial stories, so I couldn’t connect with them. If this had all come together in the end, I’d be raving about the book. Unfortunately, while the plot is wickedly good, the approach and explanation didn’t work for me.
Without giving away spoilers, I will say… if you’re looking for a traditional thriller with some unique storytelling methods, you’ll like it. If you like occult / paranormal / fantasy / sci-fi with unique storytelling methods, you’ll like it. But the book sits between these two genres, and without a strong hold in either, I found myself floundering to truly grasp the plot and feel the mesmerizing beauty of a masterpiece. I totally understand how/why the murder happened, and it is intricate and shocking and believable; however, at the same time, what does the game have to do with it all? I felt like that was too much of the focus for the purpose of confusion without clarity that ended up proving the reason for all the extra drama and subtle behaviors. It failed for me for the same reason I don’t like fantasy and sci-fi books — there are rarely rules. Death is meaningless if you can come back to life, so therefore I find myself unable to latch on.
On the positive side, the writing is wonderful. The characters are some of the most vivid I’ve seen in awhile. The concept is really fantastic, and it draws you in. I was wild for a few hours trying to solve the puzzle, and I didn’t want to put it down. But I also skimmed a few paragraphs because the timing was slightly off. Just when you were getting info, it slowed down. Or when you were finding out surprising facts, it stops and goes elsewhere… so I flipped pages to reach that connection, not because it was an amazing read. Then I went back and read what I missed. For those reasons, I waffled between and 3 and 4 on a rating. I rounded up because I recognize how much effort the author has put into this book. I’d definitely read more by the author, assuming the plot is less fantasy/sci-fi and more grounded in reality.
Even though I’ve not yet finished this book, it’s easily my book of the year so far and one of the best books I’ve read in the past few years. It’s original, clever, atmospheric and a delight to read.
My goodness, strap yourself in for this one. Captivating and completely original. Even a little ‘out there’—but I loved that about it. Kept the ‘leetle grey cells’ active!
I’ve never read a book like this. How the author managed to keep all the strands going in his head without them becoming hopelessly knotted is beyond me. A real original.
If you like Gothic thrillers, then I highly recommend this one. It’s part whodunnit part supernatural mystery. The ending is both unexpected and well written.
A wonderful spin on the Classic English manor mystery. Crisp, flawless prose propels a great idea into a masterful novel of mystery and suspense. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
A kaleidoscopic mystery that brilliantly bends the limits of the genre and the mind of the reader. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is urgent, inventive, creepy and, above all, a blast to read!
An excellent novel full of twists and turns. This reminded me less of a murder mystery—although it’s an excellent one—and more of a movie like Memento, where time isn’t to be trusted. And, to be fair, neither is the narrator. Maybe.
This is one of those books that is more enjoyable the less you know about it, so stop reading reviews and synopses and pick this up now.
This book is said to be like Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day, and boy they weren’t lying. Talk about unusual- but in a good way. This story is so unique, and I tied myself in knots imagining what a feat this was to even write! My head was spinning just reading it!
Our lead character wakes up not knowing who he is, where he is, and someone is dead. And it only gets crazier from there. He wakes up every day in a new body, doomed to live the same day over and over until he solves the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, which will occur before his eyes over and over again.
But here is the kicker, he only has eight chances to do it.
Each character was just amazing. So amazingly original and gripping. Not a dull moment in the whole book. This should really be a Masterpiece Theater miniseries, I would watch the hell out of it.
Murder, intrigue, and even a plague doctor. Highly recommend, it’s sheer brilliance is just mindblowing.
This book was very original. It kept me guessing from page one, and the ending is nothing that I could’ve guessed or expected. This story is absolutely brilliant, and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a mystery that will challenge you and take you on a wild ride.
What an original story idea. As many have said, a cross between an Agatha Christie mystery and the movie Groundhog Day. I don’t usually give spoilers in my reviews, and I won’t in this one either, but I feel like it’s hard to talk about a lot of things without giving plot points and twists away, so this might be a really short review.
First of all, if you enjoy mysteries, just go read it.
I was a bit concerned when I saw the invitation at the beginning of the book and all the names, but The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was written so well, I never became confused. This also takes place in the era around Downton Abbey, and while you get some of that era, if you’re not a huge fan (but isn’t everyone?!?) I think you’ll still enjoy this book because it’s not really in your face. In fact, after a bit, I stopped even thinking about what time it was set in.
I really enjoyed how something would show up in one character’s story and then two or three characters later you would see why it had happened. You continued to get mini mysteries throughout the larger mystery. Also, as Aiden became more characters, those character’s traits would stay with him. I thought Stuart Turton did a fabulous job writing how difficult these characteristics could be for Aiden.
The big reveal that is done isn’t quite up to Agatha Christie’s standards, but I still didn’t see it coming. And besides all the small mysteries and the large mystery, you also get ethics and morals incorporated into the story. You can either dwell on these and get your head spinning or you can just read it as a fun mystery.
Even though this came out in 2018 and it’s only January, I could see The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle being on my top 10 books of 2020!
Wow. What a tour de force of plotting! I’m re-reading this to find all the clues I missed along the way. A man wakes up a stranger to find that he has eight days to solve a mystery. But those eight days are the same day, and each day he starts out in a new body. A remarkable debut.
A truly original book, this one requires the reader to play close attention. A body-hopping, time-travelling, traditional mystery. As soon as I finished I wanted to start again to pick up on all the clues.
I loved Stu Turton’s book, The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. If you ‘d like a fiendishly clever puzzle of a book, something completely original but set in one of Agatha Christie’s country houses, then this one’s for you. One of my absolute favourites this year : )
One of the most unique books that I have ever had the pleasure to read! Turton has taken pieces of the literary style book and shuffled them into a highly original and entertaining story