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)

Great Premise but to long

I was really excited about the premise of this novel but it went on way too long. I had no problem with the narration but by the end I couldn't wait for it to be over. It was about 5 hours too long.

A true five stars.

I don’t give five stars easily, but this one deserves it. It’s hard to tell what makes it so good without giving something away, but suffice it to say that each time you peel back one layer, two more appear. It’s a deep, twisting story with intriguing characters and a satisfying conclusion. What more could you ask for?

Too long but clever

As a lover of both Agatha Christie and quantum leap, I was drawn in by the comments on this book. However, it was drawn out too long and by chapter 32 I got to a point where I wanted to be done but also needed closure so I jumped to chapter 52 (at which point there were still 3 hours left in the book), and because it recaps a lot, I don’t feel like I missed anything important.

Pros- I love the concept, though I would have preferred 3 body jumps to 8... , there were some interesting value examinations as well as the idea of starting over and second chances. Though not explicitly stated, there is the idea that of you woke up a clean slate, is that a blessing or a curse? What would you do and who would you be? Also the idea of nature vs nurture, that they keep reliving the same day, but different elements provoke characters to act certain ways and the nature of each character fighting to influence the main character. Those ideas are minor to the overall plot, but I found it thought provoking.

Cons- beyond the length, I didn’t love the fat shaming aspect of the book that seemed to go beyond descriptive to excessive. It also got a bit easy to lose track of who is who with so many moving pieces, at times becoming overly complicated. In the end, I was unsatisfied by the answer to the question, because they changed the outcome so therefore didn’t truly solve the original crime.

It seems that the story could continue, though I don’t think it could be as clever as body jumping, though I would be interested in knowing more about the greater world of the story.

Great story, so many characters!

You may need a graphic organizer to keep all of the characters straight in your mind.

Keeps you guessing until the end

I very much enjoyed this mystery and it’s easy to get lost in the story and feel like you are one of the guests at Blackheath. This book keeps you on your toes and truly will keep you guessing until the end! All of my questions were answered by the end of the novel, so that was a relief! Definitely would love to read more from this author!

Excellent!

I absolutely loved this book! The twists and turns were unexpected but enjoyable. There were a number of characters which made it difficult to keep up with at times but the narrator did a great job of allowing voice (with accent, tone and inflection) to help with distinctions.

I really enjoyed.

Unexpected

I loved this book! I'm a big fan of time travel - I'd describe this book as time travel-adjacent. One thing I strongly appreciated is that (eventually) a logical explanation is given for the events of the book. I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what the answer to the mystery was. #mystery #timetravel #mindbending #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Wow this is a great book!

This was a great book, its Steven King meets Sherlock Holmes, and the old Dark Shadows tv show all rolled into one with the type of suspense that only good old fashioned noir could provide. The creepy gothic feel and horror really kept me on the edge of my seat. It was very well written and I haven't read anything this original in a long time. I loved all of the plot twists, and as the story came together even insignificant things all tied the plot up. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. I can't wait to see what Stuart Turton comes up with next.

Good story

This was my first audible and I found it somewhat hard to follow with the changing days and characters. Really good mystery plot though. Nail bitter at the end

Idk what to even say

I’ve never read a book quite like this one. I often found myself wondering how on earth they would ever make it into a movie or even a miniseries. I am intrigued, I have questions, I would like to know how a lot of that the mechanics of that world worked. I’m glad I read it.