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    The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
    The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
    The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
    Audiobook17 hours

    The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

    Written by Stuart Turton

    Narrated by James Cameron Stewart

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.

    Editor's Note

    Costa Book Award winner…

    Winner of the UK’s prestigious Costa First Novel Award in 2018. “Unputdownable” according to the judges, who called it an “ingenious, intriguing and highly original mindbender of a murder mystery.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 18, 2018
    ISBN9781541481152
    The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
    Author

    Stuart Turton

    Stuart Turton's debut novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, won the Costa First Novel Award and the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Novel, and was shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards and the British Book Awards Debut of the Year. A Sunday Times bestseller, it has been translated into over thirty languages, and has sold over one million copies in the UK and US combined. The Devil and the Dark Water, his follow up, won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Fiction and was selected for the BBC Two Book Club, Between the Covers, and the Radio 2 Jo Whiley Book Club. Stuart lives near London with his wife and daughters.

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    Reviews for The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

    4/5

    2,005 ratings133 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Positively excellent!! The most fascinating "whodunnit" I've ever read before...

      4 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Just brilliant! I was hooked a couple of chapters in. One of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time. I listened to the audio book on my commute to and from work every day and during these days, I didn’t mind there traffic. And even when I wasn’t listening to the book, I was thinking about it. Now I want to see if the author has written anything else I can get my hands on. Great narration too.

      4 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      What a fun and wild read. It's like Clue + Downton Abbey + Doctor Who. If you enjoy murder mystery game parties, you'll appreciate this book. (4.5 stars. The only reason why I'm not giving it 5 stars is because I wanted an explanation for one aspect of the story.)

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed the book and the reader’s performance was fantastic!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I agree with the reviewer that stated this was a bit of a slog. Absolutely agree. I’m almost to the end. And when I found out where he really is and what the place really is I was so underwhelmed. Good concept great writer but execution went horribly wrong. In my opinion.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Had to stop reading it, just couldn’t keep my attention. I love a good murder mystery, the premise of it seemed so interesting but it just couldn’t hold me. I kept thinking “move along already” and “stop explaining this again”. With that said I found it hard to follow half the time as well. I really wanted to like it but it wasn’t written in a way that kept the changing story moving at a good enough pace with the right amount of explanation.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I loved the way the narrator read the novel. It kept me going through this tangle of the story. Otherwise, I would have given up. It was too weird and complex for my taste.
    • 3/5
      The main character is reborn as a different character each day. He has eight days and eight characters to live through to solve Evelyn's murder that takes place during her wedding.
    • 4/5
      I'm not quite sure how to feel about this one. It is very creative, but not all of the twists hit for me, and I feel like it cheated a little in hiding information from the audience. I might recommend reading this one instead of listening to it to make it easier to follow.

      The narrator is good at differentiating the male characters, but almost all of the female characters sound the same. Fortunately, there are only a handful of female characters and there's only one scene with more than one in conversation.
    • 5/5
      A great book! I picked up the book so i could read along and its definitely a page turner!
    • 5/5
      One of the best books I've read I couldn't give it up so I listened. :)
      The way this has a twist. I wasn't even close to the mark, but I like that in a story.
    • 4/5
      The ending makes this book. I have to admit that there were times I wanted to give up on it earlier on bit I'm glad I didn't.
    • 3/5
      Intriguing concept. Could wait to see what happens next but the ending was so disappointing that I feel like I just wasted 17 hours of my life. Not a great feeling!
    • 5/5
      “What’s use of rearranging the furniture if you’re going to burn the house doing it. “

      What a story! I can’t say that enough. The Seven and half deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton was a mind blown moment for me, and the characters in it! This book takes place on the Hardcastle Estate on the 19th anniversary of Evelyn’s brothers murder, in Masquerade theme. We are told that Evelyn will die, murdered at 11pm. 8 days and 8 witness that our main character will inhabit. The goal is to identify the killer,which will break our cycle. Each day our main character will end up in a different host. Can he do it? Break the cycle and leave this place? But is he the only one playing?

      I absolutely loved the clue mixed with groundhogs day feel, it was well done. As we start and continue we see the information come from different characters, not just our host. We watch as our main character goes from body to body, but at what cost?

      This book was will done and you stumble along with our main character trying to figure out the death, and much more.

      You learn what characters to like and root for, and what characters not, and of course who doesn’t like a good twist.

      I give the book a five out of five for sure! If want a good book that keeps you guessing, give this a go!
    • 4/5
      More mentally engaging than emotionally which means I didn’t feel driven to read it (the first half was a bit of a slog). Picked up in the second half, I started to really get in to it around the last third, felt a little let down by the ending (but not the mystery reveal - that was enjoyable). My biggest issue was that I didn’t really care about any of the characters. What makes Evelyn so important to Bishop? Anna? There’s a lot that is sort of hand waved into being and the reader just has to roll with it.
    • 3/5
      It took me a long time to get through it. I love the idea but, whew, it’s long & slow
    • 5/5
      Holy moly! Every time I thought that this story was getting long and a little repetitive, something would happen and I'd like "whoa, this is amazing!" This story is really well written. It's incredibly imaginative and clever. I'm in awe of the author's talent.
    • 1/5
      I don't know how this has such a high rating. The voice actor reads like a robot. There's no inflection or emotion at all. It's horrible. I feel like the publisher could have done better. I'll be reading this one to myself.
    • 4/5
      It’s long and winding story, but it’s a good one. Reminds me a lot of the way Agatha Christie’s novel made me feel. I look forward to his next books.
    • 5/5
      Surely the most complex whodunnit I've ever encountered....Clever and entertaining.
    • 5/5
      I was hooked and couldn’t put it down! Intriguing story, with many twists and turns.
    • 5/5
      FANTASTIC!! At first I thought I was going to be confused with so many different characters, however there is a wonderful flow from one character to another. The story line is well thought out and super enjoyable! I recommend this book to everyone who likes mystery, intrigue, and who done its!
      The writing style is incredible! I could see every little thing that was being written with such a vibrant description....I Love this book!!
    • 5/5
      This was truly an intriguing read. You follow your narrator as they inhabit 7 different bodies. All able to provide vital information to who killed Evelyn Hardcastle. It is your responsibility to tell the mysterious figure who you are not sure if they are friend or foe, whodunit. I must say this had some surprising twists but thorugh it all it ended as it should have. It is a great look into motivation and the changing of humanity.
    • 5/5
      thrilling book until the end...love it's twists and turns and a really clever idea.... definitely recommend!!!
    • 5/5
      Great writing - complex but very fun way to experience a murder mystery! Thank you to the author (and audiobook reader). I’ll probably pick this up in book form and give it another go.
    • 4/5
      great reader!
      the characters are trapper in some kind of a hell (for which the mechanism is never explained)
    • 5/5
      Very well written and very well read! Gripping from beginning to end!
    • 3/5
      This book was convoluted, and had a lot of characters. I failed to understand the basic premise of the story. It just wasn’t entertaining for me though I did finish it.
    • 5/5
      With a familiar premise mashed with a familiar genre, what results is a debut novel that is a breath of fresh air for both and will leave even the most seasoned mystery readers bewildered.
    • 4/5
      There is something to be said about a novel which is obviously speculative fiction but even after you finish it, you cannot determine if it is fantasy or science fiction. And it is even more fun when you realize you really do not care about the mechanics of the action - it won't change how you see the book or the enjoyment of it. Sebastian Bell wakes up in the woods with no memories of who he is or what he is doing there. Except for a single name: Anna. Before long he hears a woman screaming and then a man, who he believes is the killer of the woman who screamed earlier (who he decides must be the Anna he was remembering), gives him a compass and sends him towards a house. When he reaches the house, it turns out that he is a doctor, the house is in an isolated part of the countryside and he is there for a party.That's how the novel opens. But that is not the beginning of the story. Because when our narrator opens his eyes on the next day, he is not Sebastian Bell anymore. Neither is he any of the two men he was in those two days on the third morning. He slips between hosts - like a twisted version of Cinderella, midnight brings change but instead of having a carriage turning into a pumpkin, he ends up in a new body and wakes up as someone else, reliving the same day. But every time he wakes up, the memories from the previous day and the memories of the previous life of his host are there - together with the memories of the new host and some of the memories of the narrator. Add to that the fact that it is literally the same day so his other versions are also around and any time he falls asleep during the day he gets thrown into another life and the novel can get very confusing - a mystery on day 2 is explained on day 7 when the narrator see it happening; he often realized what he must do in order for another version of him, an earlier one to find what he did. So why does he relive the same day over and over? Well, that's complicated. So let's go back and see if we can now find the start of the story. 19 years ago Thomas Hardcastle was killed in the lake next to Blackheath, the house where the whole action takes place. A man got hanged for it, the family never really recovered. And it is the job of Aiden Bishop, the actual name of our host-hopping narrator, to find out who kills Evelyn Hardcastle on the 19th anniversary of her brother's murder. These facts are revealed very early in the narrative but they are just the start. The reader learns most of the rest of the story when Aiden does - both why he must find the killer and why he is hopping between hosts. Plus Blackheath and its current guests seem to have a lot of secrets - and we need to learn them all if the murder will ever be solved. And let's not forget the footman who is set on not allowing Aiden to find out the truth and kills his hosts one by one, any time he can find them. Or the Plague Doctor (or the man behind the mask of one) who seems to know more than he is willing to tell - but who is unwilling to help.One thing that annoyed me initially was that I could not put my finger on the time the novel is set in. It feels like early 20th but it just cannot be pinpointed (although there is a war mentioned by some of the younger men so it is possibly the 1920s). At one point, I realized that it stopped bothering me that I cannot pinpoint it - it did not matter - with all the action happening in Blackheath and the park around it, it could have been almost at any time before electricity available everywhere, internet and cell phones. The gentlemen are gentlemen (well, of a type), the women are ladies, the maids are maids and there is even a painter doing family portraits in there (which makes me wonder if we are not looking at an even earlier time but there is a car, a beast of a car but still a car, on the property). The end ties all these threads together and in the process manages to explain all the seemingly existing discrepancies. I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical on the end working out - there were too many parts that did not fit and looked like plot holes or deus ex machina moments. And yet, the last chapters manage to add enough additional story and backstory and explanations to actually explain everything - and without requiring a detective who sits everyone and tells them what happened. A lot of the clues are there and I suspect that a reread may be worth it at some point - knowing where the story leads, looking for the clues in the earlier sections may be worth exploring. There are some parts of the story that dragged a bit and the narration can get confusing at times. But on the other hand, we also saw multiple events from different perspectives (kinda) when Aiden saw the same thing in different days. The novel never felt flat and the different hosts felt different enough - even with Aiden in them, the personalities were there. And as not all of them were good men to start with, some of these differences drove the story. Why the title acquired 1/2 in its title for its US edition compared to the UK one is unclear - either title fits but the change is somewhat curious. For a debut novel, this is pretty impressive. Since then the author seems to have published one more novel and I will be curious to see what he does next.