The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

I could not put this book down! I remember seeing this in 2018, as it was the Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery and Thriller and for Debut Author. The cover caught my eye, as did the title. Unfortunately, I did not start reading this book until this past Sunday. Most of the books I read nowadays are actually books I listen to through the app Overdrive. James Cameron Stewart narrated. The production of this audio book was very well done. The book opens with the following invitation: You are cordially invited to Blackheath House for a Masquerade. Introducing your hosts, the Hardcastle Family: Lord Peter Hardcastle and Lady Helena Hardcastle and their son Michael Hardcastle, their daughter Evelyn Hardcastle. Notable guests: Edward Dance, Christopher Pettigrew, and Philip Sutcliffe, family solicitors. Grace Davies and her brother Donald Davies, socialites. Commander Clifford Harrington, Naval Officer (retired). Millicent Derby and her son Johnathan Derby, socialites. Daniel Coleridge, Professional gambler. Lord Cecil Ravencourt, banker. Jim Rashton, Police officer. Dr. Richard "Dickie" Acker. Dr. Sebastian Bell. Ted Stanwin. Principle Household Staff: The Butler, Roger Collins. The Cook, Mrs. Drudge. First Maid, Lucy Harper Stable Master, Alf Miller Artist in residence, Gregory Gold. Lord Ravencourt's valet, Charles Cunningham. Evelyn Hardcastle's Lady's Maid: Madeline Aubert. We ask all guests to kindly refrain from disusing Thomas Hardcastle and Charlie Carver. As the tragic events surrounding them still grieve the family greatly. Chapter one starts off in the middle of the woods where a man, yet to be named, sees a murder and is shouting the name "Anna." He is then handed a silver compass and told "East." When he goes East, the man stumbles upon a residence and seeks shelter inside. Our main character appears to have suffered a traumatic event and must be told his own name: Sebastian Bell. Over the next few hours, Bell meets a man wearing a plague mask, and that will stay his name until the conclusion of the novel. The man, referred to as the Plague Doctor, tells Bell that he is actually Aiden Bishop, that he has eight days to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, each day Aiden will be given a "host" to occupy to help solve the mystery, and Aiden must find him by the lake at 11 PM with the answer or risk starting the loop all over again. Aiden can't believe this and ends up "wasting" two of his hosts in denial. Eventually, Aiden buys into what the Plague Doctor is saying and begins attempting to figure out who murdered Evelyn Hardcastle. Without giving spoilers, I want to address why I so thoroughly enjoyed this novel. First, it was very complex. Some popular authors, take James Patterson for example, do not always provide a complex story. I enjoy being challenged as a read and several times I fought the urge to pull out a notebook and pen to jot down clues. That urge, and the desire to figure out "whodunit" was very powerful and made me not want to book the book down. Between keeping track of which host Aiden was, who talked to who, how interactions from two decades ago bear relevance to the story at hand, as well ad Aiden being able to change the day over time while in different hosts, there is a lot to keep track of in the novel. Second, the setting was beautiful and tragic at the same time. The book is set on a remote estate called Blackheath. We are not given a specific time period, but it reminds one of the early twentieth century Gothic style. The estate is owned by the Hardcastles: Peter (patriarch), Helena (matriarch), Michael (son), Evelyn (daughter), and Thomas (deceased). As with most Gothic literature, the estate is eerie and holds many secrets. The death of Thomas Hardcastle almost two decades before has tainted the grounds. Most of the novel occurs in dark rooms and tiny spaces, or at night near the woods and the lake. Very foreboding. There are also secret passages ways, boat houses, and carriage houses, and other outbuildings scattered throughout the property that come up. Additionally, there are other elements about the setting, that would be spoilers, and so I will not discuss them. I find these elements brilliant. Third, I thoroughly enjoy the character development. We are forced, as the reader, to assume 9 different characters: Aiden and all eight of his hosts. Aiden in and of himself is a very complex character. We do not learn why he is at Blackheath until much later in the novel, but we do learn that he is no longer the Aiden he was when he originally came to Blackheath. Aiden has had to reinvent himself and choose who to be. Additionally, as Aiden gets closer and closer to day eight, the character of his hosts increasingly exert themselves on Aiden. Our protagonist is often having to shake off his hosts memories and personal flaws. Some of each host seems to "rub off" on him as the story unfolds. Finally, the numerous themes throughout the book have given me much to think about, as well as much to continue to think about. Some themes include: good vs evil, betrayal, fate vs free will, injustice, and manipulation to name a few. We are told in the book that Aiden is up against two other rivals. We learn that Aiden must present the final answer to Plague Doctor before the other two in order to escape Blackheath's continuous loop. As time goes on, we assume as the reader that those two rivals are Anna and a dark, murderous character called "The Footman." Aiden is trying to free not only himself, but Anna as well. Anna and Aiden represent "good" and The Footman represent evil. It is a constant cat and mouse game throughout the novel between these two forces. Another theme is the theme of betrayal. The Plague Doctor, and other characters, hint to Aiden that he is being betrayed. The turmoil Aiden goes through in whether to decide to trust others lingers throughout the book. Blackheath's loop is likened to fate; this day has been repeating, ad nauseam, for a lengthy period of time. Yet the Plague Doctor and Aiden attempt to exert their free will on the loop. You will have to be the judge of if they are successful. We see the injustice of not only Evelyn's murder, but Thomas' and others as well; and we see manipulation of events and characters regularly. I do not think I can praise this book enough as a fantastic murder-mystery and an absolute page turner! I hope you each decide to pick it up for yourselves, and when you do, come back here so we can chat about the mystery that is Blackheath. Happy Reading! -Hession

Context: I read this book as part of a book club, and it was one already on my TBR. We spaced it out over 3 weeks and discussed the read pages weekly. Review: This was an excellent book club book! It’s a complex story with a lot to theorize about and unravel. I adored the writing style - every time I picked it up, I was sucked right back in. I love twisty stories, so it would have been just as enjoyable as an individual read for me, but it’s pretty complex and so some readers may enjoy reading it most in a book club-like setting so they can discuss and ask questions. The main character was really interesting, and I’m a sucker for amnesia with a side of identity crisis. It was really fun to try and parse out what parts of his hosts were him and what parts were the hosts - made extra fun because the main character didn’t know either. The plague doctor was an interesting take on a character being a symbol of death without being Death. I’m also a sucker for Death-like characters. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising to me for a time-loop story to have a theme of second chances, but it was. Overall, I’m happy with how it ended, though I do have mixed feelings about Anna, and it does leave some up for interpretation. I would have liked to know what the consequences of the characters’ choices are more clearly, and I would have liked to understand the world of this book better - specifically what time period did this actually take place in and is Blackheath technologically, supernaturally, or magically created? - Sofia

Just okay, way over-hyped if you're well-versed in sci-fi media. It got increasingly better as it went on. The first half was just okay, and the first time I tried to read it I stopped at Chapter 5 because all the first 4 chapters did were world building by info dumping. It was florid with clunky metaphors & similes throughout; terribly written. So many painful phrases, some that don't make sense at all. As such, I feel the author wasn't writing to be read, for normal people, but instead to shout "Hey I'm a writer! I'm in the club! Look at what I can do! Give me accolades! Gaze upon my works, ye mighty!" unfortunately. This book could've been maybe 40% shorter easily, and not miss anything crucial. The "OMG twist you'll never see coming" reviewers must be people who haven't experienced much sci-fi media in their lives and also miss blatant context clues. The twist 80% into the book is good stuff, but not surprising in the least. What made that chapter actually bad was the pure exposition by one character to the main character & reader explaining what this time loop murder solving is about... followed by the main character remembering his former life and just doing exposition on that. The "gotcha" at the very end regarding the murder (no spoilers of course) simply does the classic mystery novel thing of "You, reader, could never have seen this coming; we pulled this out of left-field to be a surprise." The movie Murder by Death (1976) famously ends by poking fun at all the bad mystery writings which end like this. No typos and no repetitive use of a single word/phrase which is always nice in 2024. Overall, I enjoyed it and I loved the ideas! It's unlikely I'll ever read it a second time nor will I recommend it.

Beautiful writing style and a very complex story! It is a little slow to start and there are a lot of characters to try to keep straight, which adds to the complexity. That being said, I would definitely recommend this book and encourage reading to the end. The story is clever with lots of twists you could never predict! I found the ending to be quite satisfying and also enjoyed the underlying theme of you are who you choose to be. Be aware that because the story is somewhat complicated, this is not a casual read and would likely be best read in as few sittings as possible.

I enjoyed this book. Definitely something different! I enjoyed the characters, they invoked the right emotions. The scenes were well described. The storyline was great. Had some nice twists and turns. I will definitely recommend this to people.

Murder mystery meets Groundhog Day with a little dash of Quantum Leap & I'm here for it! Great for when the nights draw in & the fire is on!

This murder mystery/Groundhog Day/Quantum Leap mashup essentially tells two stories. First, there's a straight-up English murder mystery complete with a tumbledown mansion, a family with a tragic past, strange house guests, and mysterious butlers and ladies' maids flitting in and out. Then, on a completely different level, there's a protagonist/gumshoe who relives the day of the murder 8 times, each time inhabiting a different houseguest. The protagonist is doomed to re-live the murder over and over until he can solve the mystery and escape from the doomed and unpleasant mansion. In some ways, the mystery and the Groundhog Day schtick mesh well together. You get to re-live the day of the murder from several different points of view, gradually picking up more and more details, until the final reveal. On the other hand, there are so many characters -- including, if I've counted correctly, two ladies' maids of dubious background, a skulking butler and an evil footman, all of whom are uber-mysterious -- that it's hard to keep track of them and their comings and goings. I'm pretty certain that the author drew up an elaborate diagram and timeline so that he could keep track of everything himself, and if HE had to do it for HIS OWN STORY, isn't it possible that maybe the plot ended up a little too cluttered? Plus, really -- the butler did it? No, actually, the butler didn't do the headline murder itself, but the butler sure did a cartload of other weird stuff including a bunch of ancillary murders, and I have to say that whoever is in charge of HR at this creepy mansion needs to be fired. It takes forever until the reader finally finds out why the Groundhog Day business is going on. I will try as much as possible to avoid any spoilers here, but let me say that the reason for the whole repeat-the-day-until-you-solve-the-mystery stuff is nonsensical and pointless. The story has a Deus-Ex-Machina character called the Plague Doctor who flits in and out of the story, giving hints and acting mysterious and stuff. When he finally explains why our protagonist and some of the other characters are repeating the day, I found myself scratching my head. Really? I thought. The reason they did it was so nonsensical that the goal of solving an arbitrary murder mystery seemed to have no connection to the reason they were there. Does being able to solve a complicated whodunit mean that you are a virtuous person? Does it mean that you have purged yourself of your own past misdeeds? Not really. The person who has solved this murder mystery has about as much moral heft as someone who completes an unusually complicated jigsaw puzzle. And if the murder mystery essentially exists in a place divorced from ordinary space and time, what is the point of solving the mystery anyway, since no justice system will follow up on your having solved it? Back to the murder mystery. It's generally a good idea for a classic mystery to have more than one murder. The first one gets the ball rolling. The second alerts the gumshoe to the fact that the danger is still out there. The third one ramps the danger level up to 11. But this murder mystery had so many damn homicides that, at the end, I had to count them up, and I'm not sure my tally was even accurate. Was it 8? 13? Jeez, am I supposed to keep track of that, too? Overall, this was a pleasant enough read. I started it on an airplane, so it wasn't as if I had much choice in the matter once I started it and was stuck in my seat for the next 5 hours. But as a mark of how good it was, I have to admit that, after I landed, I DID finish it, so it wasn't really that bad. It was readable and kinda fun. Sure, the mystery was so overly complicated and had so many overlapping characters that keeping track of them all became pointless after a certain point. And sure, there were so many homicides that I not only couldn't keep track of them, I found myself wondering why I was supposed to care about only one of them. And yeah, the Groundhog Day stuff turned out, at the end, to be pointless and stupid. But it was a fun read. I give it three stars.

If Wilkie Collins and David Mitchell had a baby, he would be named Stuart Turton. I do not even know how to begin to describe this book. I don’t want to give too much away and the plot is so complex it is hard to know where to start. I was interested in reading this book because it is such a twist on the usual murder mystery. Evelyn Hardcastle dies every day for eight days. Or is it 7 1/2 days? Does she really die? Aiden Bishop is trying to figure out who is murdering her with the goal of preventing the murder. All of this takes place in a crumbling manor house called Blackheath. Location and time period are unclear. Lord and Lady Hardcastle invite various guests to their home under the guise of celebrating their daughter Evelyn’s return from France. Mr. Bishop somehow ends up there but he is inhabiting the body of one of the guests. Each day he inhabits a different host from among the members of the house party. He stays in his host until the host falls asleep or dies. There is a lot of dying at Blackheath. Each host gives him a different perspective on the events of the day. As he gains new information, he comes closer to solving the murder. He is somewhat aided by a strange man in a Plague Doctor’s costume and also by a woman named Anna. His efforts are being frustrated by a man known as The Footman, who really enjoys torturing and killing anyone he can catch. Aiden eventually finds out that he is not the only person trying to solve the murder. Only the person who solves the murder will be allowed to escape Blackheath. Oh, and time does not move in a linear fashion. And that is just the tip of the iceberg of this story. Is your head spinning yet? Mr. Turton is an excellent writer with an amazing imagination. Good luck guessing who is guilty in this story. We read this book in book club and the consensus was that it was clever and well written. We all found some parts of the book confusing. It was easy to get some of the characters muddled up, so we were thankful for the list of characters at the beginning of the book. Many members thought that the book was too long. You really need to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy this book. Many aspects of the book are not explained, such as who is the Plague Doctor and who does he work for? And how does Aiden get into the host bodies? This book requires work and full concentration on the part of the reader. If you are intrigued but hesitant, one of our book club members read the first half of the book and listened to the second half on audiobooks. She found the audiobook version less confusing. I am interested to see what Mr. Turton comes up with next.

Le procédé d'écriture est un peu déroutant mais l'intrigue et les personnages sont intéressants. Toutefois ce livre aurait pu être plus court.

My friend recommended me this book. I enjoyed the reading, but the story is not for me. The story is somewhere in the middle of fiction and detective. I think I didn’t like the set per se.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is the most unusual mystery I have read. I have finished it for a first time, but shall soon go back for a second go-around to take in some of the very unusual aspects of the novel. The death referred to is viewed from the perspective of several people, each who contributes to or obfuscates the advancement of the eight days in which the plot develops. It is a fascinating and far from simple telling and will best be read by people who are willing to accept that the basic premise is certainly not at all basic as the novel develops. I am enjoying it greatly but it is not a straightforward read, and it is far more complex than an 'Agatha Christie' novel.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend to fans of Agatha Christie or Josephine Tey. It was interesting and just the kind of light read I needed for a recent holiday. The chapters were short enough you could stop and go and not get too lost when picking it back up.

Good book to present to your loved ones