Book Review: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Author: Stuart Turton

Title: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmarks

Date: 2018

Plot: Tonight, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed… again.

It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot. 

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath…

I received The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

There has been so much hype surrounding The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle that I put off reading it: hype always makes me dubious and I worried it would be disappointing.

That was a mistake.

This has been one of the strongest books I’ve read this year and I can’t recommend it enough.

It was unique, refreshing, complicated and keeps you guessing throughout. This is one of those tricky reviews to write where not only do you not want to give anything away, the premise is so complicated and caught up in itself that it’s not possible to explain it in one review.

Aiden Bishop doesn’t remember who he is. He doesn’t know what he is doing at the mysterious Blackheath, or how he got there. But he does know someone will be murdered, and it’s up to him to find the culprit. He has eight chances: eight different guests whose mind he will inhabit. I’ve never read a book where the plot is told through various characters, and at the same time you’re getting to know just one. Caught in a deadly race against time, Aiden must relive the same day eight times in his hunt for the killer.

“As a rule, I ignore half of everything he tells me,” I say distantly. “Call it a health scepticism of any wisdom delivered through a mask.”

But danger lurks in this house – and not just towards the murder victim. No one is whom they seem and Aiden has no idea who he can trust. He wants to believe he is a good man, but can’t be sure of it. Assisted by a maid known only as Anna and haunted by the Plague Doctor (a man with all the answers but forthcoming with none), Aiden must find out how far he is prepared to go – and how much is his own character and how much that of his hosts.

It’s impossible not to love Aiden, despite knowing nothing about him. He is trying so hard to do the right thing, disgusted and inspired alike by the bodies he inhabits and how they help him unravel the mystery. He has to make impossibly hard decisions and the reader – like Aiden – wants to believe that he truly is a good man.

This is one of the most intricate plots I’ve ever read. A time loop caught in itself, with each character trying to influence how the day will go; knowing that at midnight, the clock will rewind: their choices have to somehow influence events in such a way the repercussions are felt across a timeline that is far from linear. It’s the type that blows your mind a little the more you try and figure it out.

Hats off to Mr Turton. He must have had a crazy timeline drawn up for everything to come together, seeing every event through multiple perspectives. Despite events taking place in just one day, the plot is fast-paced and you won’t want to put the book down.

This is the type of book that makes you wonder what choices you would make… A strong recommendation – the hype is worth it!

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