Intrigued by story, but for me it did seem to drag on a bit. I wanted to really enjoy it. I would probably still recommend it to friends as they might enjoy.

An amazing, unique portrayal of a gloomy, duplicitous and murderous country house weekend. I so enjoyed the mystery and interrelated action from hour-to-hour that I was almost disappointed by the conclusion; I wanted the suspense and ratcheting tension to keep going.!

Either this book is stupid and illogical or I am just not smart enough for this. I still can’t wrap my head around it, it was very entertaining and I kept reading even during working hours and then, it was so boring and repetitive that I had to put it down so many times! I kept questioning my observation skills throughout reading, I figured, only after ⅓ of the book, that I should’ve been much more careful with the clues that were spread all over the place. It was too late then, so I had to pick up the pieces and come to some conclusions using my imagination only. That was fun, I don’t think a book ever made me feel this way in a long time - confused, excited and puzzled.

I will now do my best to explain what this book is about and I am struggling even to do that, let alone give some comprehensive conclusion.

There is a party in a secluded mansion.
There are many, many people invited.
Evelyn is murdered.
Who killed her? We don’t know.
How do we find the killer? Our protagonist spends one day in eight different bodies and he collects information from each and every one.

I suppose that even this skeleton of the story required great intelligence and effort, I know I had hard time following the characters and the same events through different eyes. What I didn’t like about this is the ending, because I hate it when the villain reveals himself at the end and tells the exact truth for what feels like hours. If I take away the way this story was told, because that originality was definitely the best part, what is left is just a mediocre crime story without any surprising twists and motives.

A really good idea with some billiant phrases, descriptions and characterisation is let down by a sluggish middle to the storyline and by being overly complicated. Pity.

Thank you publisher for the ARC copy from Netgalley

HOLY MOLLY!! What a thrilling debut novel for Stuart Turton!

This is the mystery/thriller novel you don't want to missed!

Remembering all the mystery/thriller novels I've read and available in the bookstores, these was so unique and captivating. I am so tired with mystery/thriller novels about a drunk/mentally-ill/abused/adultery protagonist and characters. This book will give you a new vibe to mystery/thriller novels.

THE STORY:
Aiden Bishop wakes up everyday with same scenario, same place, same event, same people but different body. He is in the Blackheath House masquerade event organized by the Hardcastle family. and he has a one mission to solve, who killed Evelyn Hardcastle? (Okay at first, I thought this would be a cliche Agatha Christie vibe novel) Aiden was aide by a mysterious character who wears a plague masks and always reminding him to his mission to solve the case.

Secrets and betrayal surrounds Aiden and makes his mission complicated by waking up to the different bodies of the notable guest invited to the Hardcastle event. What hit him so hard is that he is not the only one who tries to solve Evelyn's murder.

This is a perfect mystery/thriller novel about family, lies, betrayal and especially forgiveness. Kudos to Stuart Turton!

But one theme of the story hit me so hard is all about FORGIVENESS. I don't want to spoil things but it is so good and uplifting.

To the author, looking forward to your following novels and please make a prequel novella about Aiden.

*for full review, see the goodreads link below

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2295194914

Wow, that was a heck of a book. Intriguing characters, complicated but well-written and fast-moving plot, this was a murder mystery with supernatural elements in the vein of Life After Life. I had a hard time putting this one down. Highly recommend.

This would be a perfect triple - episode of Doctor Who. That’s not a criticism. It would be a superior episode, possibly the best ever, one of those that really makes you think, makes you feel stunned when it finishes and makes you want to watch it all over again. David Tennant (as the doctor) would be the voice of Aiden, with Alex Kingston as Anna and David Suchet as the Plague Doctor.
Turton is an amazing writer. He keeps the story rattling along with all the threads aligned. (I imagine him planning his plot on walls full of post-it notes.) Yes, some major suspension of disbelief is needed but that’s okay by me. It did get confusing at times and there were some things that I just didn’t quite ‘get’. But that could be because, for several nights, I stayed awake so late reading that I kept falling asleep mid-paragraph! Yes, it’s that good.
Another mystery – what’s the title? The review-copy I read was called ‘7 and a half deaths…’, but I’ve also seen it as ‘7 deaths’. I’m guessing that it’s a different title for US and UK? I can think of several other examples of this sort of thing but I think it’s unnecessarily confusing in a world that’s been shrunk by technology.
Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the review copy.

This is a murder mystery for fans of classics and true originals in the genre. I had a bit trouble getting drawn in at first, but it was an enjoyable read. There were some very good twists and turns.

When it said on the blurb that it's an Agatha Christie style book, I was intrigued. I think no one can possibly bring the same pleasure to a mystery as she can. .But this book does match up. I loved the mind bending aspect of it. I thought it did get slow in the middle and could have been shorter. But I loved the twist at the end. I thought that was a real Christie touch. Will be looking forward to reading the next book by this author.

I really enjoyed this book, the traditional crime narrative with an entirely new twist. Throughout the story I was kept guessing not only on the identity of the killer but on so many other points as well, such as why was this happening and who was our protagonist really? The conclusion was satisfying and definitely unexpected, thoroughly recommended.

I received an eARC of this book from #NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is the type of book you really need to read in one sitting. It captivated me from the first few pages and is truly the most unique mystery I’ve ever read. I will probably be recommending this to people for years to come. It’s truly like a good Agatha Christie novel mixed with an intense game of Clue. For some reason it reminded me of the movie “Get Out” just by that creepy feeling that people aren’t as they seem and of course the inhabiting of other bodies aspect as well.

There were so many times I put down the book thinking “okay this is too confusing I need to stop”… but then I was compelled to pick it up… the intricacy of the plot and the way events unfolded was so original and clever. I was so excited for Aiden to start each day in another “host” - the way Turton wrote each character and how Aiden saw the world from their eyes and perspective was truly poetic and incredible.

This was a challenge to read and comprehend, but so worth it. I didn’t see the ending coming, which I’m sure is quite important in a well-done mystery novel, so I can’t give it much more praise than that.

My brain hurts, that was a wild ride.

This is a complicated and involved book. I was confused for the first part of it, which was the point, since the narrator was confused as well. After I understood the concept of what was happening, I did enjoy it more. I felt like there was a lot of unnecessary detail put in. I did read the interview with the author at the end and he said he used post-it notes on the wall to keep things straight and I felt like that would have helped the reader out a lot. There was some back and forth that became confusing. I might have to go back and re-read to get everything straight.

The description "high-end thriller" that has been applied to this book is probably the understatement of the year. I'm not exaggerating when saying that The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (or the alternately titled version I read, The Seven 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) is the Inception of murder mystery books, because it did not let my synapses rest for even a second. This novel is big, both regarding the word count and the amount of action taking place in it. I'm surprised that I was able to follow from beginning to end, but the author allowed me exactly that without overexplaining.

The complex time-loop concept is far beyond what I imagined at first after reading the summary; this isn't simply about a protagonist caught in a time-loop, it's an amnesic protagonist waking up in a new body every time the eponymous day of Evelyn Hardcastle's death dawns anew, and each character is more intriguing than the last. Yes, there is a mind-blowing explanation behind the loop, though, spoiler, it's a rather futuristic one, and you probably won't see it coming.

I don't usually read crime stories because they're often easy to see through, but this one contains so many plot twists, and yet I couldn't foresee a single one of them, not even deduct one answer by myself. It's full-frontal suspense without a pause. I admit it got exhausting after a while, but I couldn't put it down until everything was explained. I can't even imagine how time-consuming the putting together of a simple outline for this book must have been, what with the sheer amount of acting characters! Rarely have I ever felt so satisfied when every puzzle piece finally clicked into place, although in the end it did feel a little overdone. After that, I put the book aside, weary but happy, and took a little break from reading.

If you like crime mysteries and would like to read something more challenging, especially if you enjoyed watching Gosford Park for the costume drama atmosphere, this one's for you. I you prefer light reads, better avoid The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle at all costs.

Quantum Leap meets Agatha Christie.

'Somebody's going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won't appear to be a murder and so the murderer won't be caught. Rectify that injustice and I'll show you the way out.'

Aidan will wake as a different person every day for eight days, he will carry on doing this until he solves the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle.
I loved how quickly this story sped along and how I became familiar with the different characters and it’s twists and turns. Great.

Unputdownable.

Tried to read this in one sitting and was deeply annoyed when I had to put it down.

You loved Gosford Park? And Groundhog Day? What if the two stories had had a love child?

I really enjoyed this book.

Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed. Again. The only way to save her is to find out who murdered her before time is up. Who to trust in this original and daring whodunit where no one is what they seem, not even the narrator.

Minor spoilers ahead.

I absolutely loved this book! This book has #groundhogsday vibes, but more akin to #allyouneediskill meets #sense8 in book form. Even more so, I found this book to be reminiscent of the #zeroescape video game series, particularly #zerotimedillemma. Put all of those together, and you get this crazy and pleasantly confusing story that will have you writing notes and making maps to make sense of what's going on in Blackheath. Every new chapter brought about a new twist that I didn't see coming, and for most of the story it was literally unputdownable.

The character building is multilayered, and just when you think you've learned all about one person, more details come to life to make you rethink their motivations. However, depth may not be the strong suit of the character building, but that's something I'm happy to overlook since the story itself is so rich and deep with complexity. There's also a lot to say on the book's themes, but bringing it up would spoil some major plot points. Suffice to say, this wouldake for an excellent book club pick, although people may want to start discussing what they just read sooner rather than later.

Even though I received a digital copy of this book, I would totally buy this book next time I see it on store shelves.

From my Goodreads page ..

Without question this is one of the cleverest concepts for a book that I've every encountered; kind of like Agatha Christie tone with a groundhog day setting. Same day over and over again, lived within the bodies and minds of 8 different people all while the hero tries to solve a murder destined to repeat every day.

What worked; fast paced and intriguing story ... what didn't; a plot that you really need a scorecard to trace - jumping from day to day, person to person is freaking confusing. But I can live with a complicated plot ... what I had a hard time grasping was "why the heck this was happening. Face it, even if I suspend disbelief, this situation would never occur. The whole concept ultimately made no sense.

The plot wraps up in a very creative way but the ending did not blow me away... it felt more like "that's it? really?" The author gets kudos for the effort and I'll give him credit for packaging the story well ... and while the book succeeds because of the ending, the return on investment wasn't a fair return for the constant headache I had from the complicated and confusing (and extremely unrealistic) plot

I would love to watch this as a TV series because as a book it seems rather all over the place. Following Aiden Bishop, who seems to be appear in a new host body every day in order to solve a Gosford Park-style murder, he's also stacked against competitors desperate to flee this entrapment.

The premise is fantastic - it's Inception mixed with Agatha Christie- but I feel the author Stuart Turton may have overstretched himself because by the end it's a tangle of a mess, and finishes rather abruptly, trying to tackle loose ends. I may be in the minority, but I found myself drifting away quite a bit, actually forgetting characters. There's far too many murders and body swapping, and I don't think it reached its potential.

Absolutely superb, I actually don't think I can praise this book highly enough.

Happy to admit I didn't get the book until the second day, after that could not put the book down. Beautifully crafted, stories interwoven, never lost itself and although it must have been so complex to write, to read, it just flowed.

The story is like nothing I have ever read before, or probably will again, think it can only really be done once, but would be more than happy to be proved wrong on this point.

I am not going to give any hints as to what the book is about, because I don't want to spoil it for anyone, suffice to say I would just recommend to everyone who wants to read probably the best book that has been out for a while.

Just brilliant

The rumors are true... This book is unputdownable and it screams Agatha Christie all over it.
Is a mystery thriller novel so there is not much I can say without spoiling it, I was constantly making theories and connections and every time I though I knew, I knew nothing!
During my reading I couldn't take the idea that the future is the reaction of the present actions, so how can you change the future? How can death of a person be avoided when it takes more that one person to get to that direction?
There was such a big importance seeing through different eyes, there was no way the mystery could be solve if the main character wasn't moving from one host to another but at the same time that was hard to conceive since each host had its disadvantages, each of them was so unlikable and full of lies and masks.
The looping putted my ansiety high and my level of retaining information is low so this is not a good mix... I had to constantly be rereading the previous chapters because that little thing that I put no interest was actually very important during this other perspective, so it took me a while to finish because I needed to retain as much information as possible, I was trying (along the characters) to resolve the mystery and to understand both the host and the multiple points of view the other characters were giving depending of whom was asking the questions.
Overall is a well writing novel, I cannot imaging the time it was needed to unravel, to twist this story, I think the author made a really good job. I didn't like the ending so much but that is just personal opinion.
This is a mystery thriller novel by no means this is historical fiction, there are not even dates,there is nothing historical about it, I honestly don't understand why people catalog with such genre this novel. I wanted to put my opinion about this just in case that is why you are intended to read this book.