The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – a very pleasant surprise

We have received a copy of the book “The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” from Sourcebooks Publisher to read in advance and we want to thank them for this opportunity, because this is one of the best books I’ve read this year so far.
I was hooked by it from the first page to the last paragraph and I bet my money that I won’t be the only case, so congratulations Stuart Turton for your amazing debut novel. This being said, let me give you a small introduction to the story.

How could Evelyn Hardcastle have died 7½ times

The book starts with a man waking up in a forest without knowing who he is and how he got there. The only thing he could remember was the name of “Anna”. He manages to find the house where he is a guest and finds out his name is Sebastian Bell. After a day of struggling to remember who he is and making a plan to leave, he wakes up the next day in a different body being even more confused.
Our main character meets the “game maker”, a man in a Plague Doctor suite, who explains to him that he is trapped in the Blackheath property, re-living the same day over and over again, until he manages to solve the mysterious murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, that he is not the only contestant and that only one of them can escape.

If this isn’t hell, the devil is surely taking notes.

I won’t say more so I won’t ruin the future readers the pleasure of trying to solve the mystery behind the story, because I know I would have hated to know any other details before reading it.

The Reading Badger’s thoughts

My opinion is that in “The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” you will discover a combination of styles between Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe. It is brilliantly written. The author doesn’t give you any chance of cracking the murder before the last chapter. My only problem with the book was that I started reading it during the week and I lost 2 nights in a row reading it (and I bet Stuart Turton doesn’t owe only me coffees for trying to focus at work the next days).
The book will be out to the public in September, but I see that you can already pre-order it on Amazon so I suggest you to do so, because I know I will.