The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

By: Stuart Turton

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 that it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.

©2018 Stuart Turton (P)2018 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"Readers may be scratching their heads in delicious befuddlement as they work their way through this novel, but one thing will be absolutely clear: Stuart Turton is an author to remember." (Booklist starred review)

Disappointed

I was intrigued by this novel's description, and I WANTED to like it, but I was seriously disappointed. We're dropped into the middle of things, and I didn't get any sense of the narrator as a person. Couldn't even finish listening to it, which is rare for me.
The narrator is okay, but the story itself felt very nebulous rather than mysterious/suspenseful/intriguing -- any of which can be enjoyable.

Almost Brilliant

A fascinating concept, fantastic mystery, fabulous gothic setting and atmosphere, and some truly gorgeous writing. As often happens when you dabble with time, a few things just didn’t quite work, and the story was so convoluted that it got a bit clunky in places. It also fully embraced the less appealing aspect of the mystery genre by loading up the end with long explanations, most by the villain in order to give our hero a chance to escape/outwit his opponent. And a lot of the “outwitting” depended on things the hero had done “offscreen”, only—unless I missed something—we were with him every minute weren’t we?—from waking in one host to waking in the next? Some streamlining and restructuring would have done it a world of good, and, personally (this will be vague so as not to give spoilers), I think a bit of clarity about the underlying physical structure and rules of Blackheath would have also helped. I expected it to be more of an ”unplugging” persay—due to the nature of the host system, the very end didn’t really make sense. The real gem of the story was the redemption of 2 characters and how their redemption impacts each other. All nitpicking aside, I did really enjoy the mystery, loved loved loved the house, and I have to go watch Gosford Park now.

It’s like clue and Groundhog Day rolled into one.

Okay so I really wanted to like this book . There is a lot of love for it everywhere . So this just might be me . It fell flat. The story took way to many turns the ending just fell flat . I would def read another book by author if he does more. He can write . The story just got away from him.

A Great Book and Performance

I really enjoyed this book and the performance by the reader. The plot has a kind of Agatha Christie murder mystery feel to it and the mystery is set up very well. It's fun jumping from character to character, each time receiving a clue and then trying to figure out where it fits in to the story. It reminded me of the movie Memento directed by Christopher Nolan. If you like that type of story setup then I recommend this book.

A unique idea, but badly executed

I was really excited about this book because it seemed exactly like something I would like. While the idea was really unique, the writing was just terrible. What should have been a taught thriller was written with such inconsistency that it made it frustrating. People and rules would just drop in and/or change whenever the author felt like it. Some characters were described in excruciatingly repetitive detail, and others hardly at all. It seemed almost like something that someone would write in school. It's really a shame because I've read a lot of time-loop thrillers and it seemed like this one would be different. It is too bad that the author wasn't able to execute the idea well.

The Groundhog did it

This one hurt. It sparked enough curiosity to keep reading, but never enough to satisfy. It just kept going, and every new discovery was just more of the same. The ending was on a par with the rest of the book - an ending but not a conclusion. I am so glad this is over. At the end I think back on a bunch of hateful, uninteresting characters that filled me with no empathy. Bleech!

An Amazing Experience

I loved every second of this book. Excellent narration and totally engrossing story. A must listen!

Pay attention

Wow, there is a lot to keep track of in this convoluted mystery-fantasy-horror hybrid. Multiple characters, repeating timelines, a sprawling decrepit estate with many locations. Other reviewers have likened it to Clue meets Groundhog Day, and that is a good comparison, but there is much more complexity. While I admired the concept and the author's intention, I think it's a little too confusing at times and definetely too long. Credit to the narrator for giving all of the multiple hosts unique vocal qualities, which helped enormously in keeping track of the characters.

Read at 1.25x - Comes together 15 hours in...

I loved the title of this book and love a good mystery but it took 15 hours to finally reveal what was going on.

If this book had just let the reader know that upfront, I think the story would’ve been more enjoyable. Otherwise it was a confusing mess with zero character development.

The narrator was terrible. Spoke very slowly. I sped up the audio 1.25-1.5x ... hardly any voice inflections...

Story was semi interesting but should’ve been an 8-10 hour book.

I’d save your credit.

Absolutely fantastic

When the book opened, I expected a dry murder mystery, with straightforward plot twists and turns. Even when the mechanic of multiple hosts was explained, I had no idea to what lengths the story would unfold. This was a great story, and I would highly recommend it!