The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

An enjoyable read, on the whole good but at some points I lost the thread & had to go back & reread bits. It was an interesting story line. Worth reading.

This is an old fashioned who-dun-it style crime story but with a fantasy twist. No year is mentioned but I feel it is set around 1900 – give or take a decade or two.Evelyn Hardcastle is murdered each evening for seven days. Aiden Bishop has the task of solving the crime from the perspective of eight guests at the celebratory party at Blackheath before he can leave the house. Each morning he wakes in the body of a different guest and re-lives the same day using the skills of the 'host' body to his advantage. Some host bodies seem, at first, to be of little use in solving the murder but each has something, even if it's only being in the right place or hearing the right conversation, to find who did it.This book is quite unique and requires a high level of concentration to remember what has already been learned and to keep up with new perspectives of repeated events. It's very well written and the author must have an amazingly well organised mind to create such a faultless and intricate plot as this one.

Three words to describe this book: Downton Abbey-esque whodunnit.Each night the protagonist wakes up in a new body allowing different POVs to solve a murder in a decrepit mansion.I normally don't enjoy this genre, but this book was magnificently written with engaging twists and turns throughout.Stuart Turton does exceptionally well in delivering a very descriptive narrative which paints beautiful imagery in your mind’s eye feeling like the events are taking place around you.Ngl it does take some brain power to keep track of all the characters and events (and a little may have gone over my head oops 😅) but stills makes an enjoyable read.For me this was a fitting read for Halloween, while I was reading this book a spider actually scurried across my living room floor - quite chilling.2.5 stars

I am a fan of country house murder mysteries but I found it tedious, incoherent, over-long and overwritten. It would have been impossible to follow the clues and guess the solution because it was all so complicated, with ideas and developments seemingly thrown in willy-nilly. I say "would have been impossible" rather than "was" because I got just under halfway through before abandoning it. I kept hoping it would get better and more coherent but it didn't. Fortunately I got it from the library so didn't have to pay for it.

This book had a very strong start but I found I liked it less and less as it progressed. Beautifully written, albeit somewhat overwritten. There were too many characters which made it difficult to get attached to anyone. Also, the stakes didn’t feel high enough and I simply didn’t care enough about what happened to the characters in the end. It was an original story but could’ve been executed better.

I was only four chapters in when I decided to look up reviews of this book. I was finding it overwritten and tedious, totally at odds with the raves on the cover. I thank those reviewers who had the commitment to finish it and thereby saved me from wasted effort.wasPS This is only the latest in a long list of lauded 'best sellers' (unintended alliteration) that is boring/derivative/badly written. How does this keep happening?

This is a truly badly written book, so the many rave reviews it has received are mystifying. I would defy anybody, except perhaps a programmed computer, to follow the plot and the characters are so lacking in individuality that I was still checking names until the end of the book. Much background description is wince-inducingly clumsy. There is a weird sci-fi device, whereby a character keeps being re-born into other characters that simply makes no sense, while the idea that this is some kind of detective story with 'Agatha Christie' style clues to follow, suggests blatant publishing misinformation. In fact, the only connection to Agatha is a banal ending that she was wont to use. The reviews told me to persevere, so I did, but what a waste of time! I can only think that the poor writing and bizarre plot produced a type of disorientation in many readers that they mistook for genuine mystery.

Good book to present to your loved ones

Great book! Challenging and it keeps you interestes until the end, the end of the book si amazing, a true surprise

Le procédé d'écriture est un peu déroutant mais l'intrigue et les personnages sont intéressants. Toutefois ce livre aurait pu être plus court.

June 22-24, 2020I’m still tempted to say that this is one of my favorite books of all time. It combines so so many story elements that I love - murder mystery (especially in the style of Agatha Christie), time travel, old time-y British setting, and impossible-to-guess, super clever reveals. It is definitely one of the most unique books I have ever read. There are a lot of mystery books, and a lot of time travel books, and old-timey Agatha Christie type books, and there are probably a few body swapping books out there too. But to combine all of that into this book plus for it all to play out so cleverly just kinda blows my mind. I have been wanting to reread it for some time.I FREAKING LOVE THIS BOOK. I loved it just as much as the first time I read it. It is slow moving at times and you are going to be confused a good bit of the time reading it. But that’s the whole point. And I promise that EVERY question is answered and the answers are worth it. It’s so clever that the ending is basically unguessable. There are so many tiny puzzle pieces that build the ending so so so cleverly.”Are things always like this? The explanations arriving before the questions?”That quote basically sums up this super crazy puzzle of a book. But it’s awesome.I already wrote a long review below the first time I read this so I’m gonna end it there. I just want to say that Stuart Turton is a genius and I hope he keeps writing books set in this world. There are endless possibilities here.*****Sept 18-21, 2018I don't remember the last time I looked forward to reading a book after reading the premise as much as this book, and let me just say that it lived up to and more than completely surpassed my expectations. In the high I'm currently feeling after finishing this book I feel like it's one of the best books I ever read and will now be up there on the list when someone asks me what my favorite book of all time is.I just had a good feeling going into this one that it was right up my alley. It has time travel, murder mystery, old timey, body swapping...it's Agatha Christie meets Quantam Leap meets Groundhog Day meets the most twisty, amazing, mind-blowing storyline and an incredible cast of characters. This book should be a classic. It's one that as soon as I finished reading I wanted to start over and read again, and I guarantee on a second or third reading it would be even better because you'd pick up small clues and details you wouldn't get from the first reading. It's a book I wanted to read slowly because I never wanted it to end and also a book I wanted to devour because I couldn't wait to find out how it ended.Just the way everything came together was absolutely incredible. I cannot imagine the amount of planning and foresight it took for all of these pieces to connect SO seamlessly. Because everything doesn't happen exactly in chronological order, sometimes we got the answer before we knew the question. And yet everything came together so perfectly. Like when something would happen you’d wonder why in the world would that happen. And then days and chapters later from another host’s perspective it would be revealed in a way that makes completely sense. Literally EVERY detail is important, that's why I really want to read this book again. And maybe even again.Some things I saw coming, and I felt very clever for having figured it out. But seriously. I had no idea or even scratched the surface of the web of secrets yet to be revealed. The mystery kept changing, as one question is answered 5 more pop up in their place. But I felt completely satisfied with the answers by the end of it. I'm still processing everything.The characters were amazing. Aiden is great, but even though he's the narrator and the main character he's not even the main one you focus on, since each one of his hosts has a little piece of themselves in him. Every chapter, every new day, Aiden felt like someone new to fall in love with. Rashton was probably my favorite host, but all of them really were so different and awesome in their own way. Anna was such a good character too. It was never clear who was trustworthy and who was not. The characters were so memorable, I know I’ll keep thinking about them for a long time.The atmosphere was great too. It was dark and creepy, and the location was so well-described I felt like I was there. It felt like a real place and at the same time had this whimsical not-quite-real feeling that just set the mood for this crazy story.I want everyone to read this book!! 5 stars doesn't truly express how much I absolutely loved it. It took some of my favorite subjects and threw in memorable and real characters, an intriguing and twisty storyline, and reveals that had me reeling, that I can't help but classify it as one of my new absolute favorites. READ IT!

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is the most unusual mystery I have read. I have finished it for a first time, but shall soon go back for a second go-around to take in some of the very unusual aspects of the novel. The death referred to is viewed from the perspective of several people, each who contributes to or obfuscates the advancement of the eight days in which the plot develops.It is a fascinating and far from simple telling and will best be read by people who are willing to accept that the basic premise is certainly not at all basic as the novel develops. I am enjoying it greatly but it is not a straightforward read, and it is far more complex than an 'Agatha Christie' novel.