I had been hearing a lot about how convoluted The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (also apparently called The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in the UK) by Stuart Turton was. I love a good mystery novel, especially with that beautiful mix of gothic vibes and inter-war British trappings, so I was excited for this one. What I did not realize when I first picked Turton’s book up is that it is also a supernatural horror story, complete with reaper-esque figures, a mysterious serial killer, and scenes of slashing, bloody violence. Although I found the book a bit lacking in some developmental aspects, it is still an entertaining read if you are in the mood for a twisty mystery with an unusual spin.
Every day for eight days, Adrian wakes up in the body of a different person. Each of his hosts are guests at a dinner party at a secluded, crumbling manor called Blackheath, and each night at eleven o’clock sharp, the woman whom they are there to honor, Evelyn Hardcastle, will be murdered. Adrian will relive her death and the day leading up to it over and over again, through different eyes, until he can finally discover the perpetrator and be released from the cycle. In the process of solving Evelyn’s murder, however, he must also figure out who has trapped him in this supernatural cycle, why he has been bound up with Evelyn’s fate, and who he can trust. Or, he risks being murdered as well.
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle stands out from the crowded market of whodunnits because it is a double-layered mystery. It’s not exactly unique in this regard: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is another great example of this mystery-within-a-mystery type, also with the Agatha Christie vibe. But, Turton’s novel is different because the over-arching mystery only becomes gradually apparent. Evelyn’s death is the counterpoint of the plot, but the narrator’s nebulous role subsumes the immediate events and becomes the ultimate source of intrigue. Living through the same day in eight bodies is way more of a mystery than the sordid murder of a wealthy woman. It is this unusual, supernatural twist that makes The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle unique.
Unfortunately, the premise was probably the best part of the book for me. The idea of the Groundhog Day-on-wheels plot is complex and could be breathtaking if executed with precision, but I found Turton’s follow-through a little lacking. Incredible as it might sound to say that a book this convoluted is predictable, I found myself frequently anticipating several of the leaps Turton made. Part of the problem, I think, is that the main narrator is pretty dense. Adrian, the original man who inhabits the eight host bodies, is even at his best still a tad dense. He takes on the personality traits of his hosts, and some of them are supposed to be clever above the norm. Yet, he’s still way too gullible, going so far as to trust the very people he is supposed to be investigating for murder. I understand that he has woken up without memories and so is trying to muddle his way through the day; still, because he is slower on the uptake than most readers, it diminishes the sizzling wittiness of the plot.
Because Adrian seems to move so slowly, the pacing of the book itself can lag. If I am honest, I felt that the book was too long. Usually I like dwelling in the story an author creates, but I was ready for this one to be done. This is probably also due to the fact that most of the characters were unlikeable. The hosts Adrian inhabits are, by and large, not nice people. This unlike-ability is further compounded by the fact that Adrian himself is disgusted by some of his hosts–some rightly so, admittedly–and so he describes them in the most negative terms. Sometimes, I felt this vilification went too far. One host, a rapist, definitely deserved to be taken down; however, Adrain was also repelled by one host whose main flaw was apparently that he was fat. By the time Adrian was done describing how much he hated watching this host eat and bathe, I pretty much hated Adrian.
The ending of the book, when both mysteries were finally resolved, improved a bit, in both the development of the characters and in the pacing of the story. And, Turton did throw in a twist or two that surprised me–no spoilers, but they helped the book escape entire predictability. Still, there were still a couple of points that left me wanting more, especially with regard to the bigger-picture question of why Adrian is involved in solving Evelyn’s murder. Turton gave an explanation as to why he was trapped in the one day, with sufficiently dark supernatural trappings, but the explanation itself left me wanting explanations. I think if Turton was going to integrate a supernatural element into his whodunnit, it needed to be more thoroughly interwoven, and definitely more fully expounded.
There was certainly entertainment value in The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Obviously, I still liked it enough to finish the book, and the ending redeemed it a little bit just because it was not totally predictable. Still, I felt that Turton could have executed his premise better, and taken this from an intriguing but plodding mystery to something truly able to catch readers unawares. I liked that it can fall into so many genres: mystery, supernatural fiction, fantasy, gothic horror, etc–but I do not think that it is about to become a classic in any of them.
Every day for eight days, Adrian wakes up in the body of a different person. Each of his hosts are guests at a dinner party at a secluded, crumbling manor called Blackheath, and each night at eleven o’clock sharp, the woman whom they are there to honor, Evelyn Hardcastle, will be murdered. Adrian will relive her death and the day leading up to it over and over again, through different eyes, until he can finally discover the perpetrator and be released from the cycle. In the process of solving Evelyn’s murder, however, he must also figure out who has trapped him in this supernatural cycle, why he has been bound up with Evelyn’s fate, and who he can trust. Or, he risks being murdered as well.
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle stands out from the crowded market of whodunnits because it is a double-layered mystery. It’s not exactly unique in this regard: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is another great example of this mystery-within-a-mystery type, also with the Agatha Christie vibe. But, Turton’s novel is different because the over-arching mystery only becomes gradually apparent. Evelyn’s death is the counterpoint of the plot, but the narrator’s nebulous role subsumes the immediate events and becomes the ultimate source of intrigue. Living through the same day in eight bodies is way more of a mystery than the sordid murder of a wealthy woman. It is this unusual, supernatural twist that makes The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle unique.
Unfortunately, the premise was probably the best part of the book for me. The idea of the Groundhog Day-on-wheels plot is complex and could be breathtaking if executed with precision, but I found Turton’s follow-through a little lacking. Incredible as it might sound to say that a book this convoluted is predictable, I found myself frequently anticipating several of the leaps Turton made. Part of the problem, I think, is that the main narrator is pretty dense. Adrian, the original man who inhabits the eight host bodies, is even at his best still a tad dense. He takes on the personality traits of his hosts, and some of them are supposed to be clever above the norm. Yet, he’s still way too gullible, going so far as to trust the very people he is supposed to be investigating for murder. I understand that he has woken up without memories and so is trying to muddle his way through the day; still, because he is slower on the uptake than most readers, it diminishes the sizzling wittiness of the plot.
Because Adrian seems to move so slowly, the pacing of the book itself can lag. If I am honest, I felt that the book was too long. Usually I like dwelling in the story an author creates, but I was ready for this one to be done. This is probably also due to the fact that most of the characters were unlikeable. The hosts Adrian inhabits are, by and large, not nice people. This unlike-ability is further compounded by the fact that Adrian himself is disgusted by some of his hosts–some rightly so, admittedly–and so he describes them in the most negative terms. Sometimes, I felt this vilification went too far. One host, a rapist, definitely deserved to be taken down; however, Adrain was also repelled by one host whose main flaw was apparently that he was fat. By the time Adrian was done describing how much he hated watching this host eat and bathe, I pretty much hated Adrian.
The ending of the book, when both mysteries were finally resolved, improved a bit, in both the development of the characters and in the pacing of the story. And, Turton did throw in a twist or two that surprised me–no spoilers, but they helped the book escape entire predictability. Still, there were still a couple of points that left me wanting more, especially with regard to the bigger-picture question of why Adrian is involved in solving Evelyn’s murder. Turton gave an explanation as to why he was trapped in the one day, with sufficiently dark supernatural trappings, but the explanation itself left me wanting explanations. I think if Turton was going to integrate a supernatural element into his whodunnit, it needed to be more thoroughly interwoven, and definitely more fully expounded.
There was certainly entertainment value in The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Obviously, I still liked it enough to finish the book, and the ending redeemed it a little bit just because it was not totally predictable. Still, I felt that Turton could have executed his premise better, and taken this from an intriguing but plodding mystery to something truly able to catch readers unawares. I liked that it can fall into so many genres: mystery, supernatural fiction, fantasy, gothic horror, etc–but I do not think that it is about to become a classic in any of them.