Hello, Friday Fiction Friends! I’m ready for 2023 and all the entertaining speculative books out there waiting to be read. I found this novel, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton on Prime Reading, and decided to check it out after reading the blurb:
“This book blew my mind! Utterly original and unique.”―Sophie Hannah, New York Times bestselling author
A murder mystery novel inspired by Agatha Christie with a dash of Groundhog Day and a hint of Quantum Leap and Downton Abbey.
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…
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he 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 at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others.
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive locked-room mystery that follows one man’s race against time to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist that means nothing and no one are quite what they seem.
Do you see know why I had to read this book? I mean, it’s a mystery/speculative/fantasy book that takes place in a historical setting. It did take a little while to get used to the shifts but they were clearly labeled in the scene breaks. It had all the elements of a good mystery, enough suspense to be creepy, and twists and turns that will keep you up late reading.
It reminded me of Quantum Leap in the way he kept waking in different bodies but the writer, Stuart Turton, so became each character and the descriptions and emotion and their different characteristics were spot on. I would highly recommend you read this book. I went ahead and bought his other one, a speculative pirate-type, ghost book called The Devil and the Dark Water and I’m working my way through it now. Stay tuned for more…
