Stuart Turton

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Annika McClintock

We are never more ourselves than when we think people aren’t watching. 

Wealth is poisonous to the soul, and my parents have been wealthy a very long time - as have most of the guests who will be at this party. Their manners are a mask; you’d do well to remember that. 

jacqueline ortiz

“You’re a soul stripped bare, Doctor. No regrets, no wounds, none of the lies we tell ourselves so we can look in the mirror each morning. You’re… honest”

Le sette morti di Evelyn Hardcastle

Ma Br

“Non sempre la vita ci permette di scegliere l’esistenza che preferiamo” osserva in tono tetro. “E ora andiamo, siamo attesi a un assassinio”.

“Rischiamo di passare da un demonio all’altro”

“Forse” ribatte Hardcastle “ma io ho letto la mia dose di Dante, Philip. Non tutti gli infermi sono uguali.”

Die sieben Tode der Evelyn Hardcastle

Angela Zeiler

[...] und seine eingesunkenen, blutunterlaufenen, schlafhungrigen Augen halten unablässig nach Monstern Ausschau, die vor seiner Tür lauern könnten. 

Monster, die er selbst heraufbeschworen hat. 

Hinter all seinem Gepolter steht eine zu Asche zerfallene Seele. Das Feuer, das ihn früher einmal angetrieben hat, ist schon seit Langem erloschen, und vor mir sitzt nur die leere, ausgefranste Hülle eines gebrochenen Mannes, dessen Geheimnisse das Einzige sind, das ihm noch ein wenig Wärme spendet. Mittlerweile hat er selbst genauso viel Angst vor seinen Opfern wie sie vor ihm.

Wenn dieser Ort nicht die Hölle ist, so steht doch auf jeden Fall der Teufel in den Kulissen und macht sich Notizen.

Eine große Ungewissheit zieht sich wie ein Sprung durch sein Wesen und untergräbt jeglichen Versuch, eine gewisse Stabilität oder seelische Stärke aufzubauen. Dieser Mann ist in zwei Hälften zerbrochen und dann völig krumm und schief wieder zusammengefügt worden. Und wenn ich eine Vermutung anstellen müsste, wie das Loch aussieht, das in seiner Mitte klafft, dann würde ich auf die Gestalt eines kleinen Jungen tippen.

Sie sind eine seltsame Truppe. Gewiss, sie scheinen Freunde zu sein, aber das in einer geradezu verzweifelten Weise, als wären sie zusammen auf einer einsamen Insel gestrandet. Glücklicherweise bricht ihre gute Laune zusehends in sich zusammen, je weiter wir uns vom Haus entfernen. Ihr Lachen wird ihnen vom Wind und Regen aus dem Gesicht gepeitscht, und die Flasche verschwindet schon recht bald in einer warmen Hosentasche zusammen mit der kalten Hand, die sie gehalten hat.

Und wie bei allem, was Blackheath anbelangt, ist die Schönheit dieses Ortes darauf angewiesen, dass man ihn einzig und allein aus der Ferne betrachtet.

Es geht doch nichts über eine Maske, um die wahre Natur eines Menschen zu offenbaren.

Die Gräber liegen erstickt unter gewaltigen Haufen aus verrottendem Laub, und die zerbröckelnden, von zahllosen Sprüngen durchsetzten Grabsteine haben die Namen der Toten mit sich ins Vergessen gezogen.

Die Luft ist schwer und süß vom Parfüm der Damen und wird einzig durch eine kratzige, hässliche Musik ein wenig in Bewegung gebracht. Die Klänge schrauben sich in die Höhe, schweben von einer Ecke in die andere, prallen gegen die Wände und taumeln schließlich benommen zu Boden.

Die Beschreibung einer Jagdgesellschaft, die das ganze als Zeitvertreib und Sport sieht. Treffend.

So wie sie da draußen stehen - befreit von der erdrückenden Atmosphäre des Hauses und erfüllt von der erfreulichen Aussicht auf ein fröhliches Schlachten - wirken sie fast menschlich.

Doch statt wütend darüber zu werden, bemitleidet er mich. Das ist das Schlimmste. Wut ist greifbar, sie hat ein gewisses Gewicht. Man kann mit den Fäusten darauf einschlagen. Doch Mitleid ist ein Nebel, in dem man sich nur verirren kann.

Lera D

"Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day...quite unlike anything I've ever read, and altogether triumphant." -- A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Shortlisted for the Costa Award One of Stylist Magazine's 20 Must-Read Books of 2018 One of Harper's Bazaar's 10 Must-Read Books of 2018 One of Guardian's Best Books of 2018 The Rules of Blackheath Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 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... *** Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop 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. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others... The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave readers guessing until the very last page.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Kaz P.

Interesting concept but left me feeling more confused than I wanted to be for a majority of the book

Emily Lucie

There were too many characters in this book and it was difficult for me to remember the relationship held between each character. Because of my lack of investment, the ending held no significance or meaning. 

Alicia Evans

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

so fun to read!!!!! gets a bit convoluted at the end but still an easy, interesting read :D

chloe

(3.75) This was a really great book. I loved all the characters and the plot was amazing as well. The thing I loved most was the writing style. I kept getting lost in the world of Blackheath and overall was mesmerized. Sometimes, I did feel as if things were moving fast and I was clueless. Still, did not expect the plot twist at the end. Overall, very nice time.

Kiran Aftab

2.5/5: I don’t think this genre is for me unfortunately. I always enjoying watching mystery movies rather than reading mystery books. It could have been shorter but the ending was wild

Abbie Duggan

Such a fun read! I felt like I was part of a game, each character an intriguing piece of the puzzle. Equal parts a light read and a challenging one. Loved it!

there are two main reasons I rated this book 5 stars -

1) it is such a unique story. it is so rare that I come across a book with a storyline unlike any other that I have ever read. 

2) it kept me guessing up until the very end. 

this read was thoroughly entertaining and gave my brain a real workout in the process!

emily learmont

wow wow WOW. 

there are two main reasons I rated this book 5 stars -

1) it is such a unique story. it is so rare that I come across a book with a storyline unlike any other that I have ever read. 

2) it kept me guessing up until the very end. 

this read was thoroughly entertaining and gave my brain a real workout in the process!

"Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day...quite unlike anything I've ever read, and altogether triumphant."--A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Woman in the Window The Rules of Blackheath Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 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... *** Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop 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. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. For fans of Claire North and Kate Atkinson, The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive novel that follows one man's race against time to find a killer-- but an astonishing time-turning twist means that nothing and no one are quite what they seem. Praise for The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle: Costa First Novel Award 2018 Winner One of Stylist Magazine's 20 Must-Read Books of 2018 One of Harper's Bazaar's 10 Must-Read Books of 2018 One of Guardian's Best Books of 2018

Target Book Club Edition

7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Target Bk Club

Elisavet Rozaki 

Helena Herruzo

it’s a really good book. the only thing missing for me was that i did not like any of the characters, they annoyed me a bit so i was just waiting to find out about the killer and that’s it, which i’m not used to doing.

Riley Bell

DNF…I really would like to know how it ends but could not get through figuring out the how of how it ends….if that makes any sense at all. Just too slow in the beginning with way too many questions and not enough answers to satisfy the continuous build of questions. I refuse to find spoilers though. Maybe one day I’ll come back to it.

Les sept morts d'Evelyn Hardcastle

Sarah

J’ai juste rompiche durant la lecture, sûrement un des pires polar que j’ai pu lire

Can you solve the mystery of Evelyn Hardcastle? WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD WINNER OF THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG NOVEL AWARD A WATERSTONES THRILLER OF THE MONTH SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPECSAVERS NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS DEBUT OF THE YEAR LONGLISTED FOR THE THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR Gosford Park meets Groundhog Day by way of Agatha Christie and Black Mirror – the most inventive story you'll read Tonight, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed ... Again It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed. But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot. The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath... SELECTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, I PAPER, FINANCIAL TIMES AND DAILY TELEGRAPH The mind-blowing new murder mystery from Stuart Turton, The Devil and the Dark Water, is OUT NOW.

The Sunday Times Bestseller and Winner of the Costa First Novel Award

Christine

and i thought i knew what was going on

April 2020: reread b/c made friend read it n he loved it n I suddenly realized I couldn't remember what happened in this book
Incredible as always, now I'm dizzy xD

Lili

Molly Bridge

Sandrin

best murder mystery i have ever read!!! Agatha Christie could never
the plot was very entertaining and it kept me in my toes the whole time

[Rating: 3 out of 5 stars] 


Jan 30, 2023 - Feb 13, 2023

Possible spoilers ahead, be warned.... 

The mystery of this plot should be objectively compelling and intriguing, and it is for the most part. The predestined events where a lot of what happened were fully interconnected to one another, one trying to prevent something from happening by intervening but that intervention itself is the very cause of that event. As if an animal chasing its tail, without a visible end. It should be keeping me on the edge of my seat from anticipation. But I can barely keep my attention. This book shorten my considerable attention span. I even started making this review even before I reached halfway through the story. 

My mind is constantly wandering while reading this, but I don't think it's because of the plot itself, but rather because of the characters. I don't connect with any of them and even less interested in following them. Especially the 'characters' Aiden used as his hosts for eight days. 



Aiden was created as someone who's determined to save Evelyn regardless of whose body he's using, and it should make him atleast likeable, especially with the strong justice he wants to uphold, but it's not so easy to like him, personally. His original personality was affected by the people he's inhabiting, people who have different levels of detestable nature, that I can't seem to root for him. He's not an idiot but he's foolish, in my opinion. He makes unwise decisions every now and then. He's a flawed character, but he's flawed to the point where he went over my tolerance threshold. Sometimes, I can't make sense of his deductions, especially the first half of the book. He would usually go for the very first conclusion that would spring to his mind. He saw Evelyn shot herself and he was like, 'it's a suicide' knowing full well that it's not that easy. He saw the murder weapon, the silver pistol, in one of the characters hands and he was like, 'he must be the murderer'. He even once think that stealing and hiding the very pistol Evelyn used to 'kill herself' would stop her death, not even considering that it's no use doing that, just like how each of his decisions affected the course of all the events happening. I was losing my mind out of frustration because of him.

And maybe because of this whole situation he's in, he has a low sense of adaptability. I think it took him his 4th or 5th host for him to take the situation seriously and really think of a way not to run away but to solve the mystery, and he wasted four or five days of his chance. He also has this annoying sense of justice he persistently wants to uphold that lasts until the very end. I commend you for that, if you're not in this kind of situation. I was like dude, maybe you're a good man in nature but you have to know when to go about your justice or when to retreat. He's also naive. He often plans to 'finish this here and now' in his different body, not even learning from his previous failure. Maybe because I'm reading another book alongside this where the main character is clear-headed, sensible, clever and cautious, it's affecting my impression on the protagonist here, and I know it's not fair for him. But I think I will still not like him regardless. 

This book mostly frustrated me. It took me exactly 2 weeks to finish this, and this is not even that big of a book. To be honest, I could have DNFed this if it wasn't for the plot. The story itself is what kept me going, the twist and turn of events is what pushed me to finish this. I'm telling you, the unveiling of truth is mind blowing, objectively. But the characters just lessen my enjoyment of this read and unfortunately, I can't rate this higher than 3 stars because of it. I rate my books depending on my enjoyment and no matter how good the plot is, if the character ruins it in an unnecessary way, then I'm sorry. 


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4.5*! This broke me out of my reading slump and I read it in one sitting but I didn't really like the ending or the time loop explanation/backstory. But the mystery and build up was really good and had a classic flavour with a spec twist which was cool

Bethany s. 

Ah. Glorious. I love every second of this intriguing, well built premise with its intricate details and fast pace. 

It holds up on a reread too. Ugh, it’s too too good!

Really good and interesting book. I hate being that guy but I don’t love some of the elements of the book’s ending. I think for a majority of the book I was captivated by how the mystery and story kept getting bigger and grander with the author masterfully weaving together all those moving parts, unfortunately it got a little too grand for me at the end. If you love things that spiral (but not out of control) you will love this book. For me it was just too much for me to chew. 

Still an excellent story and great book though.

Maxwell B

Really good and interesting book. I hate being that guy but I don’t love some of the elements of the book’s ending. I think for a majority of the book I was captivated by how the mystery and story kept getting bigger and grander with the author masterfully weaving together all those moving parts, unfortunately it got a little too grand for me at the end. If you love things that spiral (but not out of control) you will love this book. For me it was just too much for me to chew. 

Still an excellent story and great book though.

azliana aziz

well, this is such a dude-ish book. it was obviously written by a guy and majority of the characters were men.
now calm down, i don't want to come across like a man-hater or anything.

to be fair Turton had such complex task in his hand to construct this murder mystery-body jump-thriller and to hold its steam throughout the five hundred ++ pages. it is not an easy task and i admire that tenacity. 

but what made this experience so unsatisfying was by the end i was just wondering what the hell he's trying to say here? it was fairly muddled, i don't know whether he wanted to do a bit of commentary on the effectiveness of putting this so called 'monsters' behind bars without a chance for 'redemption' or that we, (normal) human when given the 'opportunity' or pushed to the brink can turn ourselves to being monsters too. because i don't get it, the point of Aiden and Anna's relationship. is it forgiveness Turton wanted to preach about? no matter what atrocities people did to each other that there's justification for what they did and there's a path of redemption for them somewhere? honestly i'm going tangential here but i'm just trying to make sense of whatevers. 

also that revelation of Anna's past was honestly reek of deus ex machina. it was just so weak and unbelievable all around that, sorry to say, i lol-ed quite heartily.

it's a given that with almost a hundred (hyperbole) characters littered around the book that it was impossible for any character development or any understanding from readers just why they did what they did so while it was exhausting to read about vile men (and women) with exception of only one character across the pages it was still understandable, surprisingly. also shout out to Daniel Coleridge for being a fascinating character and providing the FUN. 

BUT to be able to appreciate the main character(s) journey for five hundred pages i have to at least feel this semblance of actively rooting for them to reach the final line or whatever good ending they were destined and sadly i failed to muster up the strength or whatever capacity is necessary to do just that.
with Aiden it was like i was being forced to root for him, it does not come organically. like i was told 'here is a man, probably a good man though we don't know anything about him but still he's the hero, the one! so the faster you accept this fact the easier it will be.' 
which was why i don't buy his quest to save Anna or whatever understanding they have. like i said above, Turton's decision to tied up those two characters like that was so frustrating.
so it was through minor curiosity and some of completist complex that powered me through the end. 

i won't even talk much about the titular Evelyn Hardcastle because let's just say that unrooted twist being conveniently pulled out like that, not a fan.



being ambitious and aiming for high concept is alright but just.. let's give some thoughts of what actually is the core of your story. so that it won't resemble a hefty, complex blocks of a gorgeous house that when you try to pick apart some squares it will all come crumbling down. not pretty, right?



or probably really, that's the ultimate aim *gasp*

read this book and admire the multi layered twists but just you know, don't think too much.

Barbara

eikaia

Aidan Bishop ha un unico modo di scappare da Blackheath: scoprire chi ucciderà Evelyn Hardcastle. Ha uj solo giorno a disposizione che vivrà attraverso otto persone diverse, i loro occhi e le loro mentalità. Così il tempo inizia a scorrere, la mezzanotte si avvicina e la vita di Evelyn è pronta a finire un'altra volta. 

Le sette morti di Evelyn Hardcastle è un libro vorticoso, stremante, adrenalinico. È letteralmente in grado di farti girare la testa per quanto siano conorti e accavallati gli avvenimenti del libro. Lo stile di scrittura è immersivo e coinvolgente, rapido e colmo di colpi di scena. I personaggi sono tutti tremendamente vivi anche quando agiscono come ombre.

haleigh

This book was so phenomenal that I am almost at a loss for words to review it. Just as the description states, the book is written in first-person from Aiden Bishop's perspective as he lives the same day in Blackheath Manor through the lens of his eight different hosts. I did expect the book to begin with Aiden as himself and for him to hear the rules of Blackheath before being sent into the riddle of solving Evelyn's murder but that was not the case. The first chapter kicks off immediately with Aiden in the body of his first host, which was not only a surprise to me as the reader but to Aiden as well. While this was confusing to me at first, I soon appreciated the way that the circumstances served to thicken the plot. Additionally, the story begins in a linear fashion (Day 1, Day 2, etc.) but soon begins to shoot in many different directions, with Aiden jumping back and forth between various days of his challenge. Worth mentioning is that some of the reading is a little dense either due to language or sheer volume of details. While this can cause a bit of confusion to the reader, I do believe that it is done intentionally to maintain the mystery and express the severity and sensitivity of Aiden's mission in the mansion. Overall, this story is amazing and I wish I had the mind to think of a plot like this.

Recommended For: mystery lovers, those who enjoy playing Clue

Aine Meehan

ok so I gave it 4 stars because it was so well done. a fantastic concept. but I did find it a bit of a slog at times. mind you, I couldn't put it down and I had to get to the end. I think I thought I was going to read a traditional murder mystery but it was nothing of the sort. the author deserves an award for this. It left me thinking about the book for a long time after I read it... and I think that's what good art/literature ( not the right words I know) should do.

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

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