The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

By: Stuart Turton

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

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 that it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.

©2018 Stuart Turton (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Readers may be scratching their heads in delicious befuddlement as they work their way through this novel, but one thing will be absolutely clear: Stuart Turton is an author to remember." (Booklist starred review)

An Amazing Experience

I loved every second of this book. Excellent narration and totally engrossing story. A must listen!

Great book, well worth the time

This is one of the few books that I listened to from the library and then purchased from audible. It is fabulous. Do not listen to the naysayers, dive in. It is a fascinating mix of characters, story lines and plot twists.

Wanted very much to like this book, but nope.

The concept was intriguing, but it kept going on and on and on with only tiny bits of forward movement and then when all was revealed it I felt disappointed and angry. Way too far fetched. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I won’t be specific even though it’s tempting.

Second time was the best

Just finished this book for the second time, two years later. This time with the Audible recording. I had forgotten much of the details but knowing the general plot allowed me to focus on how well the author crafted such a complex story. I can say I enjoyed it much more the second time. Audible's narrator was terrific, which added so much to the overall experience.

great story telling

Loved the whole story. The twists and turns kept me clinging on, not wanting to stop listening.

Engaging

Kept my interest from the start. There are many twists that occur, but the production is well done and I only became as confounded as the reader is supposed to be.

Excellent!

This is the best murder mystery novel I have EVER read. Stuart Turton is an amazing author, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

great voice actor, great story

This was nothing like I was expecting, but it was truly well written and such a fun mystery.

My new “recommend to everyone!” book

I can’t remember the last time I listened to a more fascinating murder mystery. The quasi time travel aspect of observing a murder through the eyes of multiple successive witnesses is interesting enough on it’s own, but Turton manages to twist the Möbius strip of the main character’s time loop into a veritable Gordian knot of cause and effect that had me grinning in bemused befuddlement at its complexity. This is possibly the most finely crafted time travel story I’ve ever read. I highly recommend it to both murder mystery and sci-fi fans.

A twist on Agatha Christie

This is a fun book if you're a fan of Agatha Christie style mysteries. The main story is a classic mansion whodunit but with a Twilight Zone/Black Mirror twist: the narrator wakes up every day as a new character and must solve the mystery in 8 days.