Author: Stuart Turton
Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher: Raven Books (8 Feb. 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1408889560
ISBN-13: 978-1408889565
The Blurb:
‘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, the 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 in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath…
My Review:
I read about this book on another blog, Jera’s Jamboree, and I was intrigued. Having recently found a love of murder mystery thrillers, my former love was science fiction and it was mentioned that this book had an edge of sci-fi.
Starting the book it was just like you’d expect, a murder to be solved, a manor full of interesting characters, lots of clues to be solved. The main character has eight days to solve the murder, but each day is spent in a different guest. But…it’s not as simple as that as he flips from guest to guest, simply because one guest has fallen asleep, or been knocked out or even murdered.
A complete tangle is formed but the author never make you feel any more lost than the main character. As you approach the end the murder is solved and you are waiting to find out what happens next, all the time with niggling unanswered questions in your mind.
You are not left feeling baffled though, everything is explained, all questions answered, all puzzles solved. It just might not be what you were expecting.
I loved this book and find it difficult to believe it’s a debut novel as it’s so well written. Each character comes to life and is so different from any other character. Blackheath Manor is described so well you could imagine you are visiting it yourself. This book is full of emotion that will take you on a roller coaster ride of suspense, horror and tension. There may even be a love story or two but that would be telling.
I’d recommend this to anyone who loves a good read with lots of twists and turns but a satisfying conclusion.
Audible
Audible is now my most favourite way of digesting a book and I bought The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle with my monthly free credit. I always listen to a sample first to make sure I like the sound of the narrator. It’s not easy to listen to a book if the narrator irritates you. Thankfully you can listen to samples on Audible and most narrators are really great at the job.
You can buy The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle on Audible here, or just listen to an extract.
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply