This is the novel Agatha Christie would have written if she was on mindbending drugs! It was hard to keep up with the twists and turns and remember which body I was in, but I had fun doing it

This is a very clever murder mystery where you get to live through the day of the murder through eight different characters, who each contribute some clue as to the murderer. I loved the first half or so and then, for me, it went a bit flat. I think there were too many characters and I didn't really understand the point of the footman character, that really annoyed me! I did not guess the murderer (I think my mind was too confused by that point!) and i'm not sure I liked the reasoning behind Anna's character but I did enjoy this book a lot, I just think I need to read it again!!

As a reader, you try not to judge a book by the cover. Hell, you try not to judge a book by the description. But we are so judgy. And as much as we try...we can't help it. It can snag your attention, but it's not until the first page when you realize if you're in for the long haul or it's going to sit on your nightstand for months begging for attention. And when you're fully invested you get so caught up. It's truly love. You want to savor every little moment but you also can't help rushing along to find out what's happening next. Yes I am talking about this novel. You will be fully invested and do not need my review. The work will speak for itself. just beware you will need to concentrate!

‘Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11.00pm.’

The Hardcastle family is hosting a masquerade at their home, Blackheath, and their daughter Evelyn will die. Evelyn is doomed to die every day, until Aiden Bishop can break the cycle by identifying her killer. There’s just one catch: Aiden will wake up as one of eight different guests. Some of these guests will be more helpful than others, and some of them may not survive long enough to provide Aiden with much help.

‘I forget everything between footsteps.’

It’s a clever, tightly plotted mystery with a time loop (think ‘Groundhog Day’) where Aiden Bishop needs to identify friend from foe while trying to retain knowledge as he shifts from one host to another. It’s complicated: who is murdering Evelyn Hardcastle and why? How did Aiden Bishop end up in this loop? And just what is the significance of the Plague Doctor?

Aiden Bishop is our narrator. As Aiden lives the same day in each of the eight different hosts, he obtains different perspectives of the events. But as he moves from one host to the next (and cycles through some of them more than once) he may not be the most reliable narrator. He must try to make sense of what is happening around him, to sort the clues from the red herrings, increasingly conscious of the passage of time.

‘The past has been dug up and dressed up, but to what purpose?’

Can Evelyn’s life be saved? Should Evelyn’s life be saved? Every twist in this story introduces new possibilities. It’s difficult to work out who might be on Aiden’s side and who is actively working against him. Fortunately, for my sanity, there’s an ending. You’ll have to read it for yourself.

‘If this isn’t hell, the devil is surely taking notes.’

Once I got past some of my initial confusion, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I was never entirely sure (until near the end) where the story was going to end up, but Mr Turton is such an accomplished writer that I focussed more on the journey than the destination. And yes, I’ll certainly look out for more novels by him.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Very complex storyline, well written, but not my “cup of tea” For me personally, too many characters to keep track up. If you don’t have a problem keeping track of characters, then I highly recommend!

This story is inventive, engaging and exciting. “Groundhog Day” on steroids! You see the story unfold from multiple perspectives and discover how one person’s actions affect the other characters in the story.

I have no idea how I feel about this book. If the amazing Agatha Christie mysteries had a love child with the movie Groundhog Day who was then raised by The Hunger Games (books of course) I think you would end up with the book. The mystery was just mind-blowing and spot on - one of the best mysteries I have read in a long while. The concept of how it was solved was mind-blowing and completely original. The world in which it took place was also mind-blowing and immensely thought provoking. But, as I read I found myself confused. A lot. I was also a bit bored through the middle. Then I felt a bit rushed at the end. And ultimately I was bummed that I didn't find out the conclusions or back stories for the main characters. So throughout the book I pinged back and forth through a 1 star rating all the way up to a five star rating. So where do I land? I'm just not sure. Were the flaws of this book mine? Did I miss a lot of detail and the natural rhythm of the story because I could only read it in short little bits? Maybe. Or where the flaws of the book the author's? I just don't know. I will say though - if you love a good twisty mystery with lots of red-herrings and plenty of misdirection - this is totally the book for you.

When I saw that Sophie Hannah, a favorite author, called it mind blowing, I knew I had to read it, but now I am not sure what to say. Most of the time reading it was tough, as I am a logical person and this was so not logical. I kept trying to apply logic to an illogical situation and couldn't which frustrated the hell out of me.

I love the idea, but had trouble putting aside those logical questions that kept popping up; you know, the ones that ask what the hell is going on? Yes, those questions.

I will come back to it again and see if it flow better the second time around. Thank you NetGalley.

A twisty novel if ever there was one. A man wakes up with amnesia in the woods, only remembering one thing: the name "Anna." He comes to learn that he is a doctor who is attending a lavish party, but all is not as it seems. He soon learns that a woman named Evelyn Hardcastle will die that night, and he must solve her murder to be released from an endless loop of trying to find the solution to the puzzle. Unfortunately he's not the only one on the case.

To say much more about this novel would be to give away some of the pieces that slot together so brilliantly over the course of the story's eight days. I was harmed by the cleverness of the mystery as well as the richness of the atmosphere.

I was drawn to this book because I love Agatha Christie books, I love time travel books, and this seemed as if the two were going to be combined in a groundhog day kind of way.

I would say if you absolutely have to see black and white in a book and not a million shades in between, if you need a plot to be set in the here and now with no fantasy element, then this is NOT the book for you. I struggled at times to make sense of it all, but I just blindly read on, not understanding at times a word of what I was reading.

I think I was rewarded at various points in the book with a glimpse of what was happening and this led me to read on. At times I cared little about what was happening and had no ties to any of the characters, should I just stop reading? About two thirds of the way through I actually started to want to know again what was going on.

Then not far from the end some semblance of normality if you can call it that was revealed to the reader, a chance to actually play along to some degree. Just like Agatha Christie you are never going to be able to solve this whodunnit, because you don't have all the cards in the playing pack and what's more you don't even know which ones are missing.

I can say now I have finished this book it is absolutely brilliant - I think it would be better as a film - as it is quite descriptive and a lot of that bogs down the reading of the plot. Reading the same story over and over again wasn't as dreary as I feared it would be as it is from a different perspective each time.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars as I think it could have been edited a little more and condensed. My thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book.

This is a book that you will likely both want and need to read a second time - just like how someone probably isn't happy after watching Inception just once. There are a lot of details, and I have a feeling that when I read the story for the second time, I'm going to catch on to much more than during my first attempt. The writing style is such that I was easily able to visualize the story. I love books that pull me in like that and make me feel as though I'm reading a screenplay to a movie. Given as a compliment, the story reminds me a little of an Agatha Christie novel. Where the characters are well defined, the story moves along, and there are plenty of unexpected turns that keep you guessing til the last pages. I received this book in response for my review through NetGalley, and it was the title alone that made me request to read it. After now having read the book, I'm glad the title caught my attention, because the read was well worth it.

When I first picked up The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I have to say I was underwhelmed. We come to as Sebastian Bell does, bereft of any memories or context, wondering who he is and what we’re all doing here. Plus, murder. It was hard to get in to, I have to admit, tagging along at Bell’s heels while he knew nothing and I as the reader knew less.

And then, Bell went to sleep and we woke up as the butler instead; the same day was begun anew.

Then, I was interested! From a slow beginning that belied the rest of the novel, 7 1/2 Deaths expanded into what I always wanted Clue to be when I was a kid playing the board game. We follow Aiden Bishop as he jumps from host to host, trying to solve the mystery of a murder before it happens, living the same day eight times. He finds friends, for however long, in Anna and Daniel, two others who share his predicament. They all are trying to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle so they can present the name of the murder to the Plague Doctor and earn their freedom, but they must unravel the lies and intrigues of a generation’s worth of secrets to win.

Also, there is a lot of incidental murder along the way, and I mean a lot. (Full disclosure: I loved every second of it!)

So anyway, if you want a massively compelling murder mystery where nothing turns out like you thought it would, please read this amazing novel by Stuart Turton.

Thank you to NetGalley and Raven Books for the (sort of) advance copy! The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton, was published on February 8th, 2018.

This book is one of the best mystery book Ive ever read !

This was too clever by half. The narrative was very convoluted. Ultimately, I’m sure all the bits lined up, but somewhere along the line, I stopped caring. The ending revealed the frame which was more infuriating than satisfying for me. Interesting idea, but not one I would recommend.

Just read the synopsis and start reading the book. You do not need to know anymore.

This is the most original book I have read in a long time. It was very intriguing. The writing and pacing were perfect. When I finished the book I was left wondering how in the world did the author come up with such an intricate storyline??? This is book is truly amazing!

I highly recommend this book.

Mysteries and thrillers are some of my favorite books to read. I've read so many that I can almost always see where they are going, even when there is a "shocking" twist. I was delighted tho be completely baffled and bamboozled for nearly the entire book. I had no idea who the villain was, no idea who the main character should trust, and no clue where things were going. This book is creative and truly new and different.
Recommended for lovers of mysteries, adventurous readers, and those who want to read original works.

LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!
I've been waiting to read this book for a while and when I finally did - I didn't want to put it down. It's a book that shouldn't be put down until you finish. I loved the story. I loved/hated the characters. I loved the mystery, the twists, the unexpectedness of it all. This is definitely going to be a big hit this year. I will be recommending it to all my book friends!!

Typically I do not like whodunit mysteries. My first reaction to this book was "Prof. Plum in the ballroom with a candlestick". As much as I recognize the talent behind Agatha Christie and the likes, I avoid this type of novel with a passion. I simply didn't expect this book to take that style. There were several times in the beginning that I thought I would not be able to finish The 7-1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. The thing that kept me going was that the writing was actually quite good. There wasn't much superfluous information. This is a huge pet peeve of mine and everything written had a purpose. There were a lot of characters to follow and as the main character kept jumping from host to host it could have been quite confusing. The author was able to balance the story so that the reader could fairly easily keep track of the characters, Probably halfway through, I actually became vested in the story enough to forget that this wasn't the style I enjoy, After all this, I have to say that I didn't like the conclusion. It won't change my rating and there isn't a way to explain without spoilers.

I am giving the book 3 stars because I did end up liking it but I must admit that I wouldn't have chosen it had I the opportunity to do so again.. I think that those readers that enjoy the style of writers such as Agatha Christie will really enjoy this novel.

What a book! This was like the movie 'Ground Hog Day', the book 'One Day', the game of 'Clue' and the TV show 'Survivor' all rolled into one. The main character keeps reliving the same day until he is able to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. All the clues and investigating is done under the fear of 'the footman' who is trying to kill the different hosts and prevent the solving of the murder.
Whoever solves the murder first is able to escape and go free. How did the characters get into this situation? Who is controlling the happenings? How many times have the eight days played out? Who does one trust?

As the story unfolds we see the same events from several different 'host' perspectives and learn how the scenario came about, who are the good-guys and who are not. The multi-layered plot kept me paying attention and engaged in reading to figure out how this was all going to end. Turton did a great job of weaving multiple characters and clues and incidents into the book bringing events back and explaining happenings that I forgot about from earlier and keeping the story lines all tightly interwoven and sewn up by the end.

A smart, engaging crime novel with a touch of mystery and magic.

This is one of the best books that I've read in 2017. It's a smart, intriguing mystery, and I could not put this book down until I finished it.