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

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.

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.

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

June 22-24, 2020 I’m still tempted to say that this is one of my favorite books of all time. It combines so so many story elements that I love - murder mystery (especially in the style of Agatha Christie), time travel, old time-y British setting, and impossible-to-guess, super clever reveals. It is definitely one of the most unique books I have ever read. There are a lot of mystery books, and a lot of time travel books, and old-timey Agatha Christie type books, and there are probably a few body swapping books out there too. But to combine all of that into this book plus for it all to play out so cleverly just kinda blows my mind. I have been wanting to reread it for some time. I FREAKING LOVE THIS BOOK. I loved it just as much as the first time I read it. It is slow moving at times and you are going to be confused a good bit of the time reading it. But that’s the whole point. And I promise that EVERY question is answered and the answers are worth it. It’s so clever that the ending is basically unguessable. There are so many tiny puzzle pieces that build the ending so so so cleverly. ”Are things always like this? The explanations arriving before the questions?” That quote basically sums up this super crazy puzzle of a book. But it’s awesome. I already wrote a long review below the first time I read this so I’m gonna end it there. I just want to say that Stuart Turton is a genius and I hope he keeps writing books set in this world. There are endless possibilities here. ***** Sept 18-21, 2018 I don't remember the last time I looked forward to reading a book after reading the premise as much as this book, and let me just say that it lived up to and more than completely surpassed my expectations. In the high I'm currently feeling after finishing this book I feel like it's one of the best books I ever read and will now be up there on the list when someone asks me what my favorite book of all time is. I just had a good feeling going into this one that it was right up my alley. It has time travel, murder mystery, old timey, body swapping...it's Agatha Christie meets Quantam Leap meets Groundhog Day meets the most twisty, amazing, mind-blowing storyline and an incredible cast of characters. This book should be a classic. It's one that as soon as I finished reading I wanted to start over and read again, and I guarantee on a second or third reading it would be even better because you'd pick up small clues and details you wouldn't get from the first reading. It's a book I wanted to read slowly because I never wanted it to end and also a book I wanted to devour because I couldn't wait to find out how it ended. Just the way everything came together was absolutely incredible. I cannot imagine the amount of planning and foresight it took for all of these pieces to connect SO seamlessly. Because everything doesn't happen exactly in chronological order, sometimes we got the answer before we knew the question. And yet everything came together so perfectly. Like when something would happen you’d wonder why in the world would that happen. And then days and chapters later from another host’s perspective it would be revealed in a way that makes completely sense. Literally EVERY detail is important, that's why I really want to read this book again. And maybe even again. Some things I saw coming, and I felt very clever for having figured it out. But seriously. I had no idea or even scratched the surface of the web of secrets yet to be revealed. The mystery kept changing, as one question is answered 5 more pop up in their place. But I felt completely satisfied with the answers by the end of it. I'm still processing everything. The characters were amazing. Aiden is great, but even though he's the narrator and the main character he's not even the main one you focus on, since each one of his hosts has a little piece of themselves in him. Every chapter, every new day, Aiden felt like someone new to fall in love with. Rashton was probably my favorite host, but all of them really were so different and awesome in their own way. Anna was such a good character too. It was never clear who was trustworthy and who was not. The characters were so memorable, I know I’ll keep thinking about them for a long time. The atmosphere was great too. It was dark and creepy, and the location was so well-described I felt like I was there. It felt like a real place and at the same time had this whimsical not-quite-real feeling that just set the mood for this crazy story. I want everyone to read this book!! 5 stars doesn't truly express how much I absolutely loved it. It took some of my favorite subjects and threw in memorable and real characters, an intriguing and twisty storyline, and reveals that had me reeling, that I can't help but classify it as one of my new absolute favorites. READ IT!

There are two different stories packed into this novel, overlapping each other: one is the mystery of what happened in the house leading to Evelyn Hardcastle's death, and the other is the struggle of the protagonist to figure out what's happening to him and escape his situation. The problem is that these two stories don't really mesh well - the former is a classic, well-plotted murder mystery, and the latter is an overcomplicated, harrowing sort-of-supernatural thing. My immediate reaction, finally reaching the end, is that either story would have been better separated out and presented on its own, in particular the murder mystery. The murder mystery portion was excellent. The twist revealing the killer was surprising yet in retrospect, inevitable, which is exactly what you want from a mystery. Had the book simply been a regular mystery dealing with Evelyn's death, it would have received 5 stars from me. But it was constantly interrupted by the other story, which was confusing, somewhat scary and ultimately nonsensical. One can immediately poke a thousand holes in the explanation - it wouldn't work for its supposed purpose, and it undermines the mystery story in a variety of ways. There are a few interesting aspects of the second story, in particular the experience of living inside different characters and exploring how their personalities would affect one's interactions and choices. But it doesn't make up for the tortured, overwrought plotting and the ridiculous rationale for the situation. Like "Lost," it is one of those stories where the explanation doesn't live up to the premise. As I mentioned, the mystery portion of the novel might be worth the read. But if you want a really excellent (and much more meaningful) story about a person caught in a loop, watch "Russian Doll" on Netflix.

I enjoyed reading this book. It took me the first 3 chapters to really get into it, but the chapters are short, so it didn't take long. Some chapters are so short that I had to hit the back button on my Kindle to make sure there wasn't a glitch. If I had to do a read-over, I would have a pen and paper to take notes on, which is not something I have ever done when reading a book for pleasure. There are so many characters that become intertwined the further along you read the book, and it does become confusing. The fact that there are so many characters to keep track of is the reason for the four-star review; some parts are simply confusing. The main character is the consciousness of Aiden jumping into 8 different bodies and living out one day as each character. The storyline jumps back and forth between these different characters while slowly revealing clues to the mystery. I honestly didn't figure out where to attribute the 7 and 1/2 deaths unless it is referring to the number of characters whose days we get to see played out in the storyline. I liked the concept of the book and the way the author gave each character a completely different body to inhabit. He gave descriptions as to what it would feel like in a different body and working with a different brain. It touched on an aspect of empathy for what other people might experience living out their lives, that we will never know, since we only get to experience one body and one brain. This concept of brain/body jumping alludes to either a magical world, a fantasy world, or hell, but none of that is explained in the book. I would have liked more explanation about this strange world the reader is taken to, even if it was revealed at the end of the book. Unfortunately, the book ends a bit more abruptly and leaves the reader question about this world. As for the story, it is enjoyable, and I looked forward to every reading session I had. It was nice to be immersed in so many different aspects of the mystery from a variety of viewpoints. There are revelations and mysteries revealed throughout, leading up to the final reveal. The ending was not anything I would have guessed or gathered from putting the clues together. I was actually questioning how the character derived the conclusions and was able to solve it by the end. I got some of it, but I felt lost on a portion of it as well.

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