BOOK REVIEW: The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

‘Somebody’s going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won’t appear to be a murder and so the murderer won’t be caught. Rectify that injustice and I’ll show you the way out.’
It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, you 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 up in the body of a different guest. And someone’s determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath.

Publisher: Raven

Wow, this book is so different to anything I have ever read! I’ve had to take a few days to try and get my head around it all and I’m still not 100% sure that I have! This is going to be one of those annoying reviews that appears quite vague as I don’t want to include any spoilers so I apologise right now!

The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a bit like an Agatha Christie  novel crossed with Groundhog Day with a handful of steroids thrown into the mix.

We follow Aiden Bishop as he wakes up at Blackheath, a crumbling mansion in God knows where. However, he has woken up in another person’s body and will continue do so (constantly changing bodies) until he solves the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle who will be murdered at a ball that evening. The only way to escape this repeating nightmare is to provide the identity

of Evelyn’s killer. Just to make things more interesting, there is also a sinister footman picking off the guests one by one. Each guest means an extra day for Aiden to find more clues so he needs to stay a step ahead.

Stuart Turton has written a marvellous book, it is dark, creepy, clever and addictive. There were points where I felt so overwhelmed by everything going on but I could not stop reading. The characters are full bodied and fantastic and Stuart Turton is like a master puppeteer as he manoeuvres them around then stage of Blackheath.

The ending of the book took my breath away; maybe I didn’t follow the plot closely enough  but the final twist was a total surprise to me.

I highly recommend The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, it’s a fantastic read.

Many thanks to Raven books for allowing me to read this book via Netgalley.