I can't lie, I found this insufferably dull. But, I also am not a fan of Agatha Christie and I tried to read Life After Life earlier this year and found it unbearably confusing and the writing style just... ugh. I'm not sure why I thought that I would enjoy this novel. There was a lot that I liked about it, and maybe I would have liked it if I had just powered through, but I made it almost 20% of the way in and the main character (Apparently it's supposed to be someone named Aiden, not Dr Bell, whoever that is) had not even been introduced. I do wholeheartedly agree that someone that likes Agatha Christie and Kate Atkinson would enjoy this novel (and I would recommend it to those people)... however I did not.

“If this isn’t hell, the devil is surely taking notes.”


Couldn’t have said it better myself. If, after reading the first few chapters, you find yourself feeling a bit discombobulated don’t worry. You’re in good company. Even the MC doesn’t know what the hell is going on.

Imagine you’re playing a real life game of Clue. You wake up one day as Col. Mustard & find yourself sequestered in a decaying old manor full of strangers. All you’ve been told is tonight someone will murder Miss Scarlet & your job is to identify the killer. Oh, and you have 24 hours. Because if you fail, tomorrow the whole day will play out again in exactly the same sequence. Except this time you’ll be Prof. Plum. Fail again & you’ll relive the same day as Mr. Green.

Now take this scenario & transfer it to Blackheath, home of the Hardcastles who’ve invited a throng of bickering, scheming guests for a special occasion. The plot & structure of the story is too complex to be reduced to a few sentences here. In this mash-up of Agatha Christie & Groundhog Day, the story centres around daughter Evelyn. And yes, she does die…a lot.

Our narrator & MC is Aiden Bishop although it takes a while before he (and we) know his true identity. There is a deliberate lack of the kind of information that gives a story context such as date & location that leaves you feeling uneasy & slightly uncomfortable. This bonds the reader with Aiden as we both struggle to make sense of his predicament. But eventually the reality of his situation is revealed & it’s a doozy. HIs first task each day is to figure out who he is & then continue his investigation. Luckily, he retains his memories as he jumps from one character to the next. This enables him to slowly put together the pieces as he sees the same events through different eyes. But it’s complicated by a wealth of suspects. With few exceptions, these are despicable people who have cornered the market on lying, cheating, stealing & blackmail. They don’t even seem to like each other & it’s not ’til the end that we understand why they ended up here.

This is not a lazy beach read. It’s a book that requires patience & attention to detail if you want to nail the killer. Hang in there, the payoff comes at the end when all is revealed & the true scope of the story takes shape.

It’s a clever, ambitious mind bender of a story that will test your memory skills. Hats off to the author, I truly don’t know how he managed to keep it all straight & avoid errors in continuity (I can’t help but picture him writing this in a room wallpapered with spreadsheets connected by strings). Ingenious, tense, mystical & haunting…this is a book you’ll think about long after you’ve finished.

(This full review will appear on my blog (http://bookstehthing.com) on 8/21/18. The slightly edited version posted on Goodreads today.)

I didn't even read the synopsis first when I saw this book available to request on NetGalley. The title was enough for me, so I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading. I really love the blurb now that I have read it, and it would have enticed me to read the book, but going into chapter one with no idea was quite the trip-down-the-rabbit-hole. I'm not sorry I got to experience it blindly!

This novel is unlike anything I have read before. Each time I thought I was starting to get it, it would change on me just enough to get me guessing again. The characters are each unique and vibrant individuals, no small task considering the same man was inhabiting several of them, and even without the elements of mystery, I would have been hooked. It's a story I can't say too much about without giving things away, but I can say that it was the best thing I've read in ages.

One last note - if you go looking for this book on Amazon or Goodreads, know that you will find it listed as both The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (the American title) and The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Same book. Whatever the title is where you are, pick up a copy and read it!

WOW! Where to start? A thrill of a read that crosses and intertwines a number of genres. The beginning had me hooked - a man searching through the forest... and then coming upon a (strange!) mansion. The mystery only begins here. We find out who Anna is and what the main character needs to go through to be "free". He inhabits a number of characters in his journey. They all have both helpful (and unhelpful) traits. Each "day" ends in the death of Evelyn Hardcastle. Until...

It is really difficult to review without any spoilers. But a definite MUST READ!!! Great characterization, insight and awestriking twists throughout this book!!!

Many thanks to both the publisher and NetGalley for a great read!

Thank you #Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange of my honest opinion
Wow… simply WOW! I really liked this book, the mystery its pretty hard to solve and it has so many twisted roads that you will suspect every character in the book, you won’t believe in anybody, and then you will believe in them all, but as hard as you try you will never guess the plot.
This was not like any other book I read before, Stuart Turton is a genius!
If you love mystery/crime novels and you like a good surprise and a net of characters that will interact and change everyday and where you won´t know what will happen next, then I will totally recommend this one!! However, I think it will be better going into the book not knowing much besides Evelyn will die and you need to find the murderer, otherwise the spoilers may ruin the book for you.

The rules of Blackheath
Evelyn Hardcastle Will be murdered at 11 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…

In The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle we find ourselves in Blackheath, a dilapidated estate home, somewhere, in a non-descript time in the past. Blackheath is the scenario of this Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day meets Quantum Leap story.

A bit confusing at the beginning, the story begins to take shape as our main character goes on to complete his task. I must say it took me a bit to get a hang of it, but I finished 75% of the book in one sitting. I realized then, we—the readers—are also participants in the experience of discovering the story. We are meant to feel his confusion, and we are silent observers of the developments and findings. Who kills Evelyn Hardcastle? Perhaps you’ll find out before he does. I had many theories, and I almost got it right. There’s a part of the story I didn’t see coming and it took me by surprise. I kinda thought about the universe presented in Husk (a book you should check as well, really) and how this story could easily exist there. Very clever. Well done, Stuart Turton , my inner sleuth was highly pleased.

This was an exciting, unexpected, and unique plot. I don’t want to give out any spoilers to ruin the experience of it. If you like the whudonit genre, with touches of futuristic aspects, this may be the right book for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks, Inc. for the Advanced Copy!

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is unique, clever, original and a page turner! A terrific read!

Captivating characters, well-planned events and surprising twists make this book a must-read of 2018! If you don’t own a copy yet, make sure to order it right now.

What do you do when someone dies at her own welcome party? And what the day repeats itself over and over again, and you watch Evelyn Hardcastle kill herself for the thousands of times?

Aiden Bishop knows what it feels like when you are incapable of helping, watching the death approach again and again. Watching it through the eyes of 8 different hosts, 8 different people with their own habits, strengths, and weaknesses. Watching and hoping that the next day you will come closer to solving this mystery.

«My mind has gone blank. I don’t know who Anna is or why I’m calling her name. I don’t even know how I got here.»

Thrown into the mists of the unknown, we follow our main character and narrator who wakes up in the forest without any recollection of what happened. It is as if his memories were wiped blank. He is calling for Anna, but why? And who this mysterious Anna is?

Many guests were invited to Blackheath country house for a welcome gala of Hardcastle’s daughter Evelyn. But only one person knows how to escape Blackheath, and he is not willing to share his knowledge without something in return.

The Hardcastle family is hosting a party in honour of their daughter, Evelyn, to which many people are invited to attend. The only problem is that at 11:00pm that same night, Evelyn will be murdered and her murder will never be solved. How terrible! But when our narrator wakes up the next day, he is strangely reliving the same day. He's caught in a perpetual loop of the party and Evelyn's murder until he manages to solve her death. And there's another catch: he's not living in his own body, but in the bodies of 8 different men who are attending the party, a different body for each day. He must use each man's skills and experiences if he wants to break the loop, but no one and nothing is as it seems and he'll have to struggle if he wants to succeed.

This book is basically Groundhog Day meets Agatha Christie. You have a narrator who becomes annoyed that he's stuck in a loop and tries desperately to break out of it in any way he can. You have an isolated location where the murder takes place, narrowing the suspect pool down a bit (but not nearly enough). You have some eccentric characters and others who seem irrelevant but ultimately play some key role later, and most of them are hiding a treasure trove of secrets. You also have some supernatural elements beyond the Groundhog Day-like loop. And you also have a seemingly convoluted timeline with confusing actions happening beyond the narrator's control, but that all becomes logically solved.

It's basically the perfect mystery. It's a twisty, sometimes messy narrative that ultimately resolves all your burning questions (because believe me, you'll have a LOT of questions), and you'll want so badly to find out what happens next. I was really impressed by all the elements and thought put into it. I will admit I was skeptical when I first started reading because I'm not a huge fan of narrators who seem to be suffering from amnesia, but the way the novel was structured and the reason for the narrator's memory gaps were thoughtfully planned rather than a plot device.

I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a well-written and well-planned murder mystery with supernatural elements, a somewhat unreliable narrator (or at least a narrator whose facts are often inaccurate or incomplete, though through no fault of his own), and cunning and manipulative characters with their own secrets and agendas.

This was an amazing murder mystery--the twists and turns kept me reading chapter after chapter. It's like a mix of Life after Life and an Agatha Christie novel with a bit of sci-fi thrown in.

[Review will be published on Reader Voracious Blog on 8/12/18.]

Wow, 4.5 stars. What a wonderful five days I had reading this mind and genre-bending Mystery debut. This is definitely a book that you should go into as blind as possible and for that reason my review will be shorter than typical as this is near impossible to review without spoilers.
"Blackheath seems fertile ground for tragedy."
Turton managed to create an amazing and contained environment for this story to take place, and his writing is vivid in its descriptions of Blackheath and the people inhabiting it that I feel like I could walk the grounds myself. The atmospheric writing gripped from the first lines to the very last and even managed to make me feel the emotions of the main character.

While this is certainly a mind trip and not a cozy mystery read, the writing is solid and the MC's voice at times has this sarcastic humor that I just couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"I hadn't previously made the connection between [redacted for spoilers], probably because it's easier to imagine him being delivered onto this earth by a biblical plague."
The was definitely a 5-star plot for me, but in execution I have it at 4 stars. It took some time and patience to settle into the narrative style, and I think some people will struggle. Just keep in mind that this isn't a light, cozy mystery.

Blackheath is a place where everyone wears a mask and no one is who they seem. This book has the feelings of the movies Groundhog's Day and Memento mixed with an Agatha Christie novel. Paying close attention will pay dividends. While I guessed a couple of the reveals due to my pick-apart-everything nature, even I was thrown a couple of curveballs... and I love to be surprised, especially when it is done well.

I love how everything tied up nicely in the end (no loose ends that I noticed) and I think this is a book that would get better with re-reading. Turton managed an inventive, complex, and mesmerizing book for his debut and I look forward to reading his future publications. I highly recommend this book to fans of mysteries, but be prepared to be highly engaged in a web where answers come long before you think to ask the questions. I don't think this will be for everyone, but this is an absolute gem for the right people.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me an electronic advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is (so far) my favorite mystery of the year.  It's inventive, fascinating, and extremely exciting.  Part Gothic thriller, part fantasy, part whodunnit, this book kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

When I read the blurb for the book, I was a little concerned that the plot might be repetitive.  After all, Aiden Bishop keeps reliving the same day over and over.  However, there was no need to worry.  Not only does each repeat reveal new clues, the events leading up to the murder are seen in completely different ways.  The book was never boring.

Although the hero of the story, Aiden Bishop, is someone to cheer for, most of the other characters are either terrifying or loathsome.  Surprisingly, this made the book a great deal of fun to read.  Just like every spring and cog work together to make a clock, each character in the novel, as horrible as some of them were, fit perfectly into the overall structure of the plot.  At times, keeping everyone straight was confusing, but the personalities of each character were so different that I seldom ran into trouble.

Even halfway through the novel, I was recommending The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle to friends and family.  I had no doubt that the ending would be fantastic, and it was.  I hadn't predicted what would happen, yet the conclusion was a perfect fit with the rest of the book.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was an amazing book, and I can't wait to read more from this author.

Absolutely loved this book. Because of the fact that I was able to get it early I actually am making this October's book club pick for my local book club. The characters were extraordinarily done and even though this kind of story has been done many times before I felt like this was the first time I was reading it.

I found this story unique and I enjoyed that it was different then most thrillers I’ve read I really liked the idea behind the story too the house with all the gathered people and waking up in a new body everyday it was interesting my only complaint was it had some parts that felt very draggy and hard to get through I found my attention wandering and wanted to put it down a few times. Other then that it was a solidly good story that was definitely a fresh new idea.

A chunky story that just begs to be read. After a somewhat confusing start the story takes off and doesn't let go of the reader. You follow the main character who took on the task of solving a murder. The murder of Evelyn Hardcastle that is. He gets just a single day to solve this murder. Luckily he gets to try it multiple times and redo the day. However every single day takes place in a different body. Each with its own obstacles. To complicate matters there are more competitors.

Personally I found it a very enjoyable story with many twists and surprises. However it can be confusing at times due to the vast amount of characters. This was definitely one of the beter books I have read over the last few years. I would advice to anyone who likes a mystery or a puzzle.

Kudos to those of you who manage to totally get your head around this and fully understand what is happening all of the time. I must admit I had to go with the flow some of the time and just let it happen around me!

[book:The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle|35967101] is a very cleverly written and plotted novel, the kind where the mystery ties itself into so many knots that the reader needs a notebook on the side to try and keep track. And then just as you think you have worked things out something else happens and you have to start all over again. This is not a book to relax with.

The setting and the feel of the book is like a good [author:Agatha Christie|123715] novel. Add to this a lot of leaping around in time and waking up in different bodies and you end up with a very unusual book indeed. It is well written, clever and mostly very absorbing although it did drag a little in places.

I had hopes for a tighter and more dramatic ending but it was okay. Four stars for me.

How refreshing to read a book with an original, imaginative plot. It's a murder mystery but with the added twist of having the main character get multiple chances to solve the crime, by repeating the fateful day over and over again.
The plot is complicated, with multiple narratives of the same day running simultaneously. The reader could easily become lost if it wasn't for the excellent writing skills of the author.
A very satisfying and enjoyable read!

To begin with, I found this book a little confusing. There were so many characters and it took me a little while to get my head around who was who and what they were doing. Once I'd got a little way through, I couldn't put it down and was dying to know what was going on and where the story was going to go.

I loved the idea behind this book, a murder mystery where the main character almost holds the same role that we do. Switching viewpoints and viewing the case from different perspectives. I'm not sure if 'main character' is even the right term, as we learn very little about Aiden Bishop himself.

The mystery itself is very complicated, perhaps overly so in some ways, although I enjoyed the writing style and the idea behind the storyline good enough to let that go. I think that if it had been a straightforward murder mystery, then I would have been left scratching my head and feeling confused when it came to an end. As it was, the mystery didn't really matter.

This was a great book and I loved the idea behind it. It wasn't quite a five-star read, possibly due to the mystery side of it, but certainly solid 4-4.5 stars from me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I absolutely loved the blurb on this book, quantum leap meets a Victorian murder mystery. In reality I found it a little confusing, it made me feel like I wasn’t clever enough to understand the full story.
The main character of this novel is Aidan, a man forced to relive the same day over and over again each time in a different body, with one aim when he solves the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle he will be freed from this repetition. To help or hinder his investigations he has various allies/enemies who know what he is doing.

I enjoyed the story, it was so original and unlike anything I have read before, and the story has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. I felt as though that the story was too clever, I almost felt I should have read it and took notes at the same time so I understood the timey wimey nature of it all.

If you like original fiction, I would recommend that you give this a try.
Thanks to netgalley fr this free copy in exchange for a honest review.

I’m on vacation in Austria and I stayed up all night reading this absolutely delicious book. This of course will make today very hard. This book focuses on a “before I fall” type situation, where a person relives someone else’s murder every night until he can solve the case of who killed her at her parents’ gala.

It is, at times, a bit “expected,” however for lovers of Agatha Christie, this is a book for you.