Book Review: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Amazon Cover

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked-room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense.

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive mystery that follows one man’s race against time to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist that means nothing and no one are quite what they seem.

 

MY REVIEW

I slipped into editing mode while reading this book because I kept wanting to see if the timeline worked. I guess mystery readers do this all the time. The timeline and mystery is tight and complicated.

Very much a story about how different eyewitnesses see things from different angles and not everyone has the same motivations.

Only instead of the normal changing of points of view (POVs) for the various eyewitnesses, relating what they saw to a police officer or detective as is typical in mysteries, the “hero” is jumping between characters within the story to solve the mystery. It wouldn’t be a problem, except some of the characters are aware they are in a story too, and they have started changing the plot.

Checked out for public library. Support your library – foot traffic defines their budget.