Do you know how many books it’d taken me to finally use the word, unputdownable? I think I'm more thrilled to have finally said it than actually reading this book. What can I say, I'm a simple girl. The simple pleasures bring me the most joy.
But back to the task at hand because friends, let me tell you, this. Was. Unputdownable!

Hold on, let me gather my wits first, this book was very taxing on my brain.

So, you’re thinking ‘a high-concept crime fiction, how derivative,’ right? Well, you haven’t heard anything yet, have you? Yes, derivative it may indeed be, I mean, how many times have you probably heard or read, [said book] meets [said book] right? At this point, I'm not sure if I'm enticing or putting you off reading this.
But before you cast it aside, hear me out. You won't regret it.

“Every man is in a cage of his own making.”



Set in the early 1920s -although it reads like late-Victorian gothic at times, with its remote setting and disturbing atmosphere with a touch of the supernatural-, the book opens with a narrator running through a forest with no idea who or where he is, wearing someone else’s dinner jacket and, he soon realises, someone else’s body. He has no memory of how he came to be trapped inside this stranger.

Eventually, our lead learns that his name is Aiden Bishop, and he is here for a reason and oh, he also starts each day with no memories of the past. An eerie masked figure informs him that today, a murder will be committed – a murder that won’t seem like a murder and Aiden has eight chances to solve it. He is obliged to repeat the same day endlessly until he nails the murderer of the heiress of the title and thus breaks a grim cycle.
But each morning he’ll wake up in a different body, or “host” among the visitors to Blackheath House, each with their own distinct personality. He’ll remember his experiences in the previous hosts, but if he doesn’t give the masked figure the name of the killer by day eight, he’ll be returned to day one, memory wiped, and have to start all over again. As indeed he already has done, hundreds, perhaps thousands of times.

Did I forget to mention there are two other members of the party who are also hosts to foreign souls, tasked with unveiling the murderer? That’s right, and only one of the three can succeed and thereby be freed from the time loop. And, just to keep him on his toes, he is being sought by a knife-wielding psychopathic footman who targets each of the hosts in turn. In a nutshell, your run of the mill party from hell.

In all honesty, the above synopsis hardly does justice to the ingenuity of Turton’s intricate narrative and the mind-boggling complexity of the plot.
The tension kicks in on page one and barely lets up through the entire book. There is a twist on nearly every page that demands your full attention as there quite a few information to take in and people to remember. I highly recommend reading this with a few breaks in the middle as possible so as to keep every detail fresh in your head but you probably won't want to put it down anyway. Remember?Unputdownable?

Not only does Turton do a great job of transfixing the reader's attention immediately, he keeps the tension high throughout the entire book. The characters are actors in a play doing the same thing night after night and each person has a motive. Each person wears a mask and you do not know who’s who. Every little conversation has a significance, every detail or interaction is important.

Familiar tropes aside, in essence, it is a classic ‘who-done-it’, but written with a quirky originality and a fusion of genres, all mashed into one, Crime, Mystery, Psychological, Sci-fi, Adventure, Thriller, and a Detective novel, who’s no clue which way’s up or down. I also loved the writing style. So very much actually, which was sort of darkly comic and witty as the plot is dizzyingly complex.

So, why, if I loved it this much was it not 5 stars? Because my big mouth spoke too soon. Up until the last few pages I was all set to slap this baby up with the full rating, thinking, ‘This is incredible. I haven't read a book that I so easily gave 5 stars to since The Wall of Storms,’ you’ll know I’m coyly but not so cleverly trying to sway you to read that magnificent tome -you know, two birds, one stone and all-, but I see I hereby defeated that purpose by admitting so. Never mind, moving on...

Anyhow, all was rainbows and unicorns right until I reached the last 50 or so pages when I started to get a little frustrated with Aiden and some of the decisions he was making. I simply wanted to shake the saint out of him and make him see reason but that may be the cynical in me talking.

Furthermore, there’s a loss of emotional engagement, albeit on a small scale, on the reader’s part as several times, Turton likens his characters to “shadows cast upon the wall” and each morning victims are brought back to life, thereby making the act of murder here seem no more dreadful than going flicking on and off a light switch, however, if purely viewed as an intellectual thriller, the book is without faults.

My biggest issue was here in the climax. As dazzling as the finale was, and it was indeed that, with a series of last-minute twisty WTF revelations, I still felt…. somewhat underwhelmed by it all? I still don’t know what but something was missing and I wasn’t 100% satisfied. That too may be attributed to my being overly picky but… still.

I also would have preferred the nature of Blackheath to be left more ambiguous, a mystery that’d make my head spin long after closing the book but this particular shortcoming in no way hindered my overall enjoyment.

All in all, if you’re in need of an invigoratingly original and entertaining read that’ll tie your brain in knots, The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle might just be the answer.

There are times when you come across a book that is unique and something that you have never come across before and wow this is one of them. The Seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is one of the books is such a book that I will think of, for a very long time.
Aiden Bishop has woken up in a body not his own. He is at Blackheath, in the times of socialites and business men, with their maids and valets. He is in a time loop. Where he has 8 hosts bodies and is there to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. If he doesn’t, he will live the rest of his days in this time loop, switching hosts, reliving the murder of Evelyn and anyone else that stands in their way.
I will be honest with you I didn’t read much of the burb when I requested this book on Netgalley but, I heard great things and I had to read it. I don’t usually go for mystery and whodunit books but I am glad I did. I am amazed how good this book is. As this book is not an easy read. As you have to keep up with which body Aiden is in. It’s like a really complex puzzle and also reminds me of Sherlock Holmes in a way. But that was also the beauty of it. It kept you gripped and you wanted to find out more. And its told in Aiden’s POV. So you get to feel for his character and you are on his side. This book is very cleverly written. I loved every minute of this book and if this is Stuart Turton debut novel. I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for his next book.
Thanks you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a copy of this book.

This is the novel Agatha Christie would have written if she was on mindbending drugs! It was hard to keep up with the twists and turns and remember which body I was in, but I had fun doing it

This is a very clever murder mystery where you get to live through the day of the murder through eight different characters, who each contribute some clue as to the murderer. I loved the first half or so and then, for me, it went a bit flat. I think there were too many characters and I didn't really understand the point of the footman character, that really annoyed me! I did not guess the murderer (I think my mind was too confused by that point!) and i'm not sure I liked the reasoning behind Anna's character but I did enjoy this book a lot, I just think I need to read it again!!

As a reader, you try not to judge a book by the cover. Hell, you try not to judge a book by the description. But we are so judgy. And as much as we try...we can't help it. It can snag your attention, but it's not until the first page when you realize if you're in for the long haul or it's going to sit on your nightstand for months begging for attention. And when you're fully invested you get so caught up. It's truly love. You want to savor every little moment but you also can't help rushing along to find out what's happening next. Yes I am talking about this novel. You will be fully invested and do not need my review. The work will speak for itself. just beware you will need to concentrate!

‘Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11.00pm.’

The Hardcastle family is hosting a masquerade at their home, Blackheath, and their daughter Evelyn will die. Evelyn is doomed to die every day, until Aiden Bishop can break the cycle by identifying her killer. There’s just one catch: Aiden will wake up as one of eight different guests. Some of these guests will be more helpful than others, and some of them may not survive long enough to provide Aiden with much help.

‘I forget everything between footsteps.’

It’s a clever, tightly plotted mystery with a time loop (think ‘Groundhog Day’) where Aiden Bishop needs to identify friend from foe while trying to retain knowledge as he shifts from one host to another. It’s complicated: who is murdering Evelyn Hardcastle and why? How did Aiden Bishop end up in this loop? And just what is the significance of the Plague Doctor?

Aiden Bishop is our narrator. As Aiden lives the same day in each of the eight different hosts, he obtains different perspectives of the events. But as he moves from one host to the next (and cycles through some of them more than once) he may not be the most reliable narrator. He must try to make sense of what is happening around him, to sort the clues from the red herrings, increasingly conscious of the passage of time.

‘The past has been dug up and dressed up, but to what purpose?’

Can Evelyn’s life be saved? Should Evelyn’s life be saved? Every twist in this story introduces new possibilities. It’s difficult to work out who might be on Aiden’s side and who is actively working against him. Fortunately, for my sanity, there’s an ending. You’ll have to read it for yourself.

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

Once I got past some of my initial confusion, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I was never entirely sure (until near the end) where the story was going to end up, but Mr Turton is such an accomplished writer that I focussed more on the journey than the destination. And yes, I’ll certainly look out for more novels by him.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Very complex storyline, well written, but not my “cup of tea” For me personally, too many characters to keep track up. If you don’t have a problem keeping track of characters, then I highly recommend!

This story is inventive, engaging and exciting. “Groundhog Day” on steroids! You see the story unfold from multiple perspectives and discover how one person’s actions affect the other characters in the story.

I have no idea how I feel about this book. If the amazing Agatha Christie mysteries had a love child with the movie Groundhog Day who was then raised by The Hunger Games (books of course) I think you would end up with the book. The mystery was just mind-blowing and spot on - one of the best mysteries I have read in a long while. The concept of how it was solved was mind-blowing and completely original. The world in which it took place was also mind-blowing and immensely thought provoking. But, as I read I found myself confused. A lot. I was also a bit bored through the middle. Then I felt a bit rushed at the end. And ultimately I was bummed that I didn't find out the conclusions or back stories for the main characters. So throughout the book I pinged back and forth through a 1 star rating all the way up to a five star rating. So where do I land? I'm just not sure. Were the flaws of this book mine? Did I miss a lot of detail and the natural rhythm of the story because I could only read it in short little bits? Maybe. Or where the flaws of the book the author's? I just don't know. I will say though - if you love a good twisty mystery with lots of red-herrings and plenty of misdirection - this is totally the book for you.

When I saw that Sophie Hannah, a favorite author, called it mind blowing, I knew I had to read it, but now I am not sure what to say. Most of the time reading it was tough, as I am a logical person and this was so not logical. I kept trying to apply logic to an illogical situation and couldn't which frustrated the hell out of me.

I love the idea, but had trouble putting aside those logical questions that kept popping up; you know, the ones that ask what the hell is going on? Yes, those questions.

I will come back to it again and see if it flow better the second time around. Thank you NetGalley.

A twisty novel if ever there was one. A man wakes up with amnesia in the woods, only remembering one thing: the name "Anna." He comes to learn that he is a doctor who is attending a lavish party, but all is not as it seems. He soon learns that a woman named Evelyn Hardcastle will die that night, and he must solve her murder to be released from an endless loop of trying to find the solution to the puzzle. Unfortunately he's not the only one on the case.

To say much more about this novel would be to give away some of the pieces that slot together so brilliantly over the course of the story's eight days. I was harmed by the cleverness of the mystery as well as the richness of the atmosphere.

I was drawn to this book because I love Agatha Christie books, I love time travel books, and this seemed as if the two were going to be combined in a groundhog day kind of way.

I would say if you absolutely have to see black and white in a book and not a million shades in between, if you need a plot to be set in the here and now with no fantasy element, then this is NOT the book for you. I struggled at times to make sense of it all, but I just blindly read on, not understanding at times a word of what I was reading.

I think I was rewarded at various points in the book with a glimpse of what was happening and this led me to read on. At times I cared little about what was happening and had no ties to any of the characters, should I just stop reading? About two thirds of the way through I actually started to want to know again what was going on.

Then not far from the end some semblance of normality if you can call it that was revealed to the reader, a chance to actually play along to some degree. Just like Agatha Christie you are never going to be able to solve this whodunnit, because you don't have all the cards in the playing pack and what's more you don't even know which ones are missing.

I can say now I have finished this book it is absolutely brilliant - I think it would be better as a film - as it is quite descriptive and a lot of that bogs down the reading of the plot. Reading the same story over and over again wasn't as dreary as I feared it would be as it is from a different perspective each time.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars as I think it could have been edited a little more and condensed. My thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book.

This is a book that you will likely both want and need to read a second time - just like how someone probably isn't happy after watching Inception just once. There are a lot of details, and I have a feeling that when I read the story for the second time, I'm going to catch on to much more than during my first attempt. The writing style is such that I was easily able to visualize the story. I love books that pull me in like that and make me feel as though I'm reading a screenplay to a movie. Given as a compliment, the story reminds me a little of an Agatha Christie novel. Where the characters are well defined, the story moves along, and there are plenty of unexpected turns that keep you guessing til the last pages. I received this book in response for my review through NetGalley, and it was the title alone that made me request to read it. After now having read the book, I'm glad the title caught my attention, because the read was well worth it.

When I first picked up The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I have to say I was underwhelmed. We come to as Sebastian Bell does, bereft of any memories or context, wondering who he is and what we’re all doing here. Plus, murder. It was hard to get in to, I have to admit, tagging along at Bell’s heels while he knew nothing and I as the reader knew less.

And then, Bell went to sleep and we woke up as the butler instead; the same day was begun anew.

Then, I was interested! From a slow beginning that belied the rest of the novel, 7 1/2 Deaths expanded into what I always wanted Clue to be when I was a kid playing the board game. We follow Aiden Bishop as he jumps from host to host, trying to solve the mystery of a murder before it happens, living the same day eight times. He finds friends, for however long, in Anna and Daniel, two others who share his predicament. They all are trying to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle so they can present the name of the murder to the Plague Doctor and earn their freedom, but they must unravel the lies and intrigues of a generation’s worth of secrets to win.

Also, there is a lot of incidental murder along the way, and I mean a lot. (Full disclosure: I loved every second of it!)

So anyway, if you want a massively compelling murder mystery where nothing turns out like you thought it would, please read this amazing novel by Stuart Turton.

Thank you to NetGalley and Raven Books for the (sort of) advance copy! The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton, was published on February 8th, 2018.

This book is one of the best mystery book Ive ever read !

This was too clever by half. The narrative was very convoluted. Ultimately, I’m sure all the bits lined up, but somewhere along the line, I stopped caring. The ending revealed the frame which was more infuriating than satisfying for me. Interesting idea, but not one I would recommend.

Just read the synopsis and start reading the book. You do not need to know anymore.

This is the most original book I have read in a long time. It was very intriguing. The writing and pacing were perfect. When I finished the book I was left wondering how in the world did the author come up with such an intricate storyline??? This is book is truly amazing!

I highly recommend this book.

Mysteries and thrillers are some of my favorite books to read. I've read so many that I can almost always see where they are going, even when there is a "shocking" twist. I was delighted tho be completely baffled and bamboozled for nearly the entire book. I had no idea who the villain was, no idea who the main character should trust, and no clue where things were going. This book is creative and truly new and different.
Recommended for lovers of mysteries, adventurous readers, and those who want to read original works.

LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!
I've been waiting to read this book for a while and when I finally did - I didn't want to put it down. It's a book that shouldn't be put down until you finish. I loved the story. I loved/hated the characters. I loved the mystery, the twists, the unexpectedness of it all. This is definitely going to be a big hit this year. I will be recommending it to all my book friends!!

Typically I do not like whodunit mysteries. My first reaction to this book was "Prof. Plum in the ballroom with a candlestick". As much as I recognize the talent behind Agatha Christie and the likes, I avoid this type of novel with a passion. I simply didn't expect this book to take that style. There were several times in the beginning that I thought I would not be able to finish The 7-1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. The thing that kept me going was that the writing was actually quite good. There wasn't much superfluous information. This is a huge pet peeve of mine and everything written had a purpose. There were a lot of characters to follow and as the main character kept jumping from host to host it could have been quite confusing. The author was able to balance the story so that the reader could fairly easily keep track of the characters, Probably halfway through, I actually became vested in the story enough to forget that this wasn't the style I enjoy, After all this, I have to say that I didn't like the conclusion. It won't change my rating and there isn't a way to explain without spoilers.

I am giving the book 3 stars because I did end up liking it but I must admit that I wouldn't have chosen it had I the opportunity to do so again.. I think that those readers that enjoy the style of writers such as Agatha Christie will really enjoy this novel.