★ 07/01/2018
Turton's first novel starts with narrator Aiden Bishop waking in the woods with no memory of how he got there or who he is. He hears a woman's yell for help and thinks he sees her shot to death. Making his way out of the forest, he comes upon Blackheath House, the country manor of the Hardcastle family. There he's identified as Dr. Sebastian Bell, and though his claims of the murder are met with some skepticism by the house party, a search does get underway. No woman is found. Aiden goes through his day confused and scared but finds no answers. The next morning, he discovers he is now in the body of someone else in the household and is reliving the same day as this new person. As he is reincarnated as different guests, he's told by a masked man that he must solve the murder (that will happen that night) of Evelyn Hardcastle, daughter of the house, before he can escape his current circumstances. VERDICT Turton's debut is skillfully done. He expertly manages the many moving parts of the plot while taking readers ever deeper into the story. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 3/26/18.]—Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI
07/09/2018
Turton’s complex debut blends mystery with Groundhog Day and Quantum Leap. Guests have been invited to the Hardcastle family manse, the dilapidated Blackheath House in the English countryside, for a masquerade ball that the Hardcastles are holding for the return of their daughter, Evelyn, from Paris. At the novel’s start, several days before the ball, an unnamed protagonist comes upon Blackheath and enlists those inside to find the body of a woman he thinks has just been murdered. He’s forgotten his identity, but people at the house think he’s Dr. Sebastian Bell, an invitee to the ball. It turns out Bell is the first of eight people—invited guests of the Hardcastles, their associates, staff, and a police officer—whom the main character will inhabit over eight days in a repeating loop. This loop revolves around two mysteries: who killed young Thomas Hardcastle 19 years ago, and who murders Evelyn, his older sister, the night of the ball? As the hero amasses clues about the past and present, a mysterious costumed “Plague Doctor” chimes in to direct the action, explaining the only escape from this loop is to expose the identity of Evelyn’s murderer. This is a complicated, twisting plot that may delight some looking for a puzzle but may leave others exasperated at the overly abstruse rules and kitchen-sink concept. (Sept.)
The Sunday Times Bestseller
Costa First Novel Award Winner
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"Pop your favorite Agatha Christie whodunnit into a blender with a scoop of Downton Abbey, a dash of Quantum Leap, and a liberal sprinkling of Groundhog's Day and you'll get this unique murder mystery. The twisting, cleverly-written debut..." — Harper’s Bazaar, 10 New Books to Add to Your Reading List in 2018
"Atmospheric and unique, this is a mystery that adds "Who am I?" to the question of whodunit, with existentially suspenseful results." — Foreword Reviews
"Turton's debut is a brainy, action-filled sendup of the classic mystery." — Kirkus Reviews
"This novel is so ingenious and original that it’s difficult to believe it’s Turton’s debut. The writing is completely immersive...there are certainly echoes of Agatha Christie here, but it’s Christie ramped up several notches, thanks to the malevolent twist on the Groundhog Day theme. 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
"This book blew my mind! Utterly original and unique." — Sophie Hannah, international bestselling author
"If Agatha Christie and Terry Pratchett had ever had LSD-fueled sex, then The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle would be their acid trip book baby. Darkly comic, mind-blowingly twisty, and with a cast of fantastically odd characters, this is a locked room mystery like no other." — Sarah Pinborough, New York Times bestselling author
"I hereby declare Stuart Turton the Mad Hatter of Crime. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is unique, energizing, and clever. So original, a brilliant read." — Ali Land, Sunday Times bestselling author Good Me Bad Me
"Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! It’s a work of sheer genius. An amazing, unique book that blew my mind." — Sarah J. Harris, author of The Color of Bee Larkham’s Murder
"A kaleidoscopic mystery that brilliantly bends the limits of the genre and the mind of the reader. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is urgent, inventive, creepy and, above all, a blast to read!" — Matthew Sullivan, author of Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
"Agatha Christie meets Downton Abbey with a splash of red wine and Twin Peaks. Dark and twisty, lush and riddled with gorgeous prose, part of me will always be trapped in Blackheath." — Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestselling author
"Gloriously inventive, playful and clever, this is a must for mystery fans. I wish I'd written it myself." — Robin Stevens, author of the Wells and Wong mystery series
"Stuart Turton’s debut novel is dazzling in its complexity, astonishing in its fiendishness, and shocking in its sheer audacity. Every page, every character, and every deliciously dark secret is an absolute treat. Turton is going places." — Anna Stephens, author of The Godblind Trilogy
"Stuart Turton’s debut novel is dazzling in its complexity, astonishing in its fiendishness, and shocking in its sheer audacity. Every page, every character, and every deliciously dark secret is an absolute treat. Turton is going places." — Anna Stephens, author of The Godblind Trilogy
"I’m green with envy; I wish I’d written this book." — Jenny Blackhurst, author of How I Lost You
"Absolute envy-making bloody murderous brilliance." — Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
"Absolute envy-making bloody murderous brilliance." — Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
"My favorite mystery so far this year, it’s Agatha Christie, Groundhog Day, and Black Mirror mashed up into the kind of tale you just can’t put down." — Canadian Living
"Bonkers but brilliant. It's an Agatha Christie manor-house mystery– with a Black Mirror twist. Kept me engrossed and guessing throughout, and I still didn't figure it out." — Kirsty Logan, author of The Gracekeepers
"Dazzling. A revolving door of suspects (and narrators); a sumptuous country-house setting; a pure-silk Möbius strip of a story. This bracingly original, fiendishly clever murder mystery—Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day—is quite unlike anything I’ve ever read, and altogether triumphant. I wish I’d written it." — A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
Narrator James Cameron Stewart portrays a large cast of characters in this elaborately plotted mystery set at a crumbling British manor. Each day, the protagonist wakes up in a new body, doomed to repeat the day until he identifies the murderer of Evelyn Hardcastle, a young heiress who dies during a ball at the end of the day. Stewart’s task is not easy: He must create eight memorable characters, all men, while maintaining some consistency for the protagonist’s interior voice. His female voices lack the ease and fluidity of the male ones and veer into a distracting falsetto. But, overall, he excels, using accents, intonation, and more to differentiate the hosts and guide the listener through the complicated plot. E.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-07-02
In this dizzying literary puzzle, the hapless protagonist is doomed to relive the same day over and over unless he can solve a murder at a masquerade ball.The narrator, Aiden Bishop, wakes up in a forest outside Blackheath House, "a sprawling Georgian manor house," not knowing who or where he is—or why he's screaming the name Anna. A man in a beaked plague-doctor mask brings him up to speed: For eight days, Aiden will wake up in the body of a different witness to the shooting of young beauty Evelyn Hardcastle. If at the end of that extended week, during which Aiden will remember all that occurs, he fails to identify the killer and break the bizarre murder cycle, he will have his memory wiped and be forced to start from the beginning. "It's like I've been asked to dig a hole with a shovel made of sparrows," Aiden moans. To be real or not to be real, that is the question for Aiden, who struggles after his own identity while being "hosted" by individuals who include the lord of the manor, a doctor, and a butler. Borrowing liberally from such cultural milestones as Groundhog Day, Quantum Leap, and Eyes Wide Shut—and, of course, the stories of Agatha Christie—the book has a built-in audience. It's a fiendishly clever and amusing novel with explosive surprises, though in the absence of genuine feeling, it tends to keep its audience at arm's length.Turton's debut is a brainy, action-filled sendup of the classic mystery, though readers may be hard-pressed to keep up with all its keenly calibrated twists and turns for more than 400 pages.