This book slots neatly in to the period, time travel, stuck in hell, detective, thriller section of your bookshelf. Yes, there is a lot going on, if the reader doesn't know what is going on that is probably because the main character is struggling alongside you. However it is well worth taking a deep breath, and carrying on, slowly little glimpses of comprehension light the pages and the book delivers as a page turning thriller.

Stuart Turton has my full admiration for writing this book. The walls of his writing room must have been covered with layers and layers of post it notes and string. Even when I thought I had got a grip on the events at Blackheath the plot managed to take another twist, even in the last few pages.

A great read, probably best not read just before you fall asleep as if you can't remember everything that has gone on you will be mighty confused!

This book was a hell of a mystery and something I’ve never read before. It’s twisty and confusing and so tricky, I had to concentrate and work as hard as Aiden to find the real murderer. The writing is excellent and I have to give points to the author for coming up with such an idea. Kudos.

All in all a good book.

Was hard to follow all the characters in this book in addition to the 8 hosts that the narrator must go through.

Writing was very well done!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book!

It was a thrilling read. The title and the blurb had me hooked from the beginning. But the first chapter was pretty confusing so I didn't continue reading. I'm glad I gave it a second try. Once you know your way around the book is unputdownable. There were times when I was confused as hell, but at the end all the puzzle pieces fit together.Hats off to the author 's imagination and the way how he connects all the dots. Even though the climax has some great twists, I felt something was missing. It reminded me of Agatha Christie novels. It is recommended to read the book in one sitting so that you don't forget all the clues left by the author. Eventhough the law of crime thrillers say that the person whom you least expect will be the killer, the twists surprised me

What the actual fudge was that? I don't even know how to review this book.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is definitely one of a kind. The Hardcastles are having a sweet party to celebrate their daughter's return from France. Instead, she's murdered in a time loop repetition until someone can solve her murder. The main character, Aiden Bishop, possesses eight different people to help solve the case. The suspects are many and the secrets literally cover the walls of Blackheath.
It feels like Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day. It's different and the plot is interesting, but confusing. The mystery of Evelyn's murder is only a piece of the larger puzzle and it's big and I find it confusing with such a big reveal.
The characters never seem to feel real, like stock characters in a play.
It's an OK book, but make sure you put on your thinking cap when you read it.

I really struggled with this book for all the wrong reasons. The language/writing is period set which isn't what I normally would read. I found it hard to keep focus as it was too intricate. I've picked this up and put it back down more than a handful of times. I am sure its an amazing story, the concept alone dragged me in. But I just couldn't get into it at all. I'm classing it as a DNF but ask that my review be ignored as I feel if it were not for the language issues and writing style this would have been a 5 star read.

This was probably the most confusing book I have read in a long time. One truly needs to pay attention to understand it, and I still did not quite get it. I never liked Groundhog Day, and people getting murdered, beat up and what not, is really not my cup of tea. Never the less, I plowed through to the end. I always wonder what inspires authors to write certain books, and this was one of them. I appreciated reading the Author's notes at the end of the book. He put so much effort and thought and really great writing into this story. I really didn't like the book, but I gave the author 4 stars because it was so well thought out and so well written. Thank you to Netgalley and Raven books for the perusal of this book.

One of the most original whodunit style stories I've ever read. The protagonist wakes up with no memory of who they are, running through a forest with the name Anna on their lips. That's how we get introduced to this story. We then spend the rest of the book cycling through 8 "hosts" that the protagonist goes in and out of, who are other characters in the tale, in a desperate bid to solve a murder that may not really be a murder, before the hosts run out and the cycle starts all over again. There's a bit of a revelation at the end that sets the whole story on its head and makes me want to know more about who these characters are, how the ended up there, how the whole thing works, and that is my only complaint about the book. We simply don't get a lot of answers in that regard, but all in all in was still well worth the read. It was truly a unique spin on a murder mystery, fast paced, and fun to read!

My brain hurts. This was one hell of a complicated book. Read the synopsis and thought this was right up my alley, but there was so much more going on. Honestly, I didn’t really care for it, and it was a struggle to push through and finish. Too jumpy. Too many moving parts. I think there is possibly a really great story in here, but it gets lost in the confusion.

This has to be one of the cleverest stories I've read in years. The story is a little slow to start, but once it takes off, it's OFF! Imagine you wake up in someone else's body and discover you are trapped into living the same day over for 8 days and in 8 different bodies until you can solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. If you can't solve it in 8 days, you're doomed to live those 8 days over and over. The deft writing and imaginative, complicated plot make this a surefire hit with those who enjoy a little challenge with their mystery. Ultimately, the plot reminded me of Dante's Circles of Hell. Blackheath would be one of them.

It's scheduled for U.S. release in September 2018. Highly recommended.

Wow, this was really great. It's a really unique concept that is so well-executed. A man has to relive a day over and over again as he tries to solve a murder. This book really sucks you in, and it's so much more than your typical Agatha Christie murder mystery. Highly recommended.

Do you know how many books it’d taken me to finally use the word, unputdownable? I think I'm more thrilled to have finally said it than actually reading this book. What can I say, I'm a simple girl. The simple pleasures bring me the most joy.
But back to the task at hand because friends, let me tell you, this. Was. Unputdownable!

Hold on, let me gather my wits first, this book was very taxing on my brain.

So, you’re thinking ‘a high-concept crime fiction, how derivative,’ right? Well, you haven’t heard anything yet, have you? Yes, derivative it may indeed be, I mean, how many times have you probably heard or read, [said book] meets [said book] right? At this point, I'm not sure if I'm enticing or putting you off reading this.
But before you cast it aside, hear me out. You won't regret it.

“Every man is in a cage of his own making.”



Set in the early 1920s -although it reads like late-Victorian gothic at times, with its remote setting and disturbing atmosphere with a touch of the supernatural-, the book opens with a narrator running through a forest with no idea who or where he is, wearing someone else’s dinner jacket and, he soon realises, someone else’s body. He has no memory of how he came to be trapped inside this stranger.

Eventually, our lead learns that his name is Aiden Bishop, and he is here for a reason and oh, he also starts each day with no memories of the past. An eerie masked figure informs him that today, a murder will be committed – a murder that won’t seem like a murder and Aiden has eight chances to solve it. He is obliged to repeat the same day endlessly until he nails the murderer of the heiress of the title and thus breaks a grim cycle.
But each morning he’ll wake up in a different body, or “host” among the visitors to Blackheath House, each with their own distinct personality. He’ll remember his experiences in the previous hosts, but if he doesn’t give the masked figure the name of the killer by day eight, he’ll be returned to day one, memory wiped, and have to start all over again. As indeed he already has done, hundreds, perhaps thousands of times.

Did I forget to mention there are two other members of the party who are also hosts to foreign souls, tasked with unveiling the murderer? That’s right, and only one of the three can succeed and thereby be freed from the time loop. And, just to keep him on his toes, he is being sought by a knife-wielding psychopathic footman who targets each of the hosts in turn. In a nutshell, your run of the mill party from hell.

In all honesty, the above synopsis hardly does justice to the ingenuity of Turton’s intricate narrative and the mind-boggling complexity of the plot.
The tension kicks in on page one and barely lets up through the entire book. There is a twist on nearly every page that demands your full attention as there quite a few information to take in and people to remember. I highly recommend reading this with a few breaks in the middle as possible so as to keep every detail fresh in your head but you probably won't want to put it down anyway. Remember?Unputdownable?

Not only does Turton do a great job of transfixing the reader's attention immediately, he keeps the tension high throughout the entire book. The characters are actors in a play doing the same thing night after night and each person has a motive. Each person wears a mask and you do not know who’s who. Every little conversation has a significance, every detail or interaction is important.

Familiar tropes aside, in essence, it is a classic ‘who-done-it’, but written with a quirky originality and a fusion of genres, all mashed into one, Crime, Mystery, Psychological, Sci-fi, Adventure, Thriller, and a Detective novel, who’s no clue which way’s up or down. I also loved the writing style. So very much actually, which was sort of darkly comic and witty as the plot is dizzyingly complex.

So, why, if I loved it this much was it not 5 stars? Because my big mouth spoke too soon. Up until the last few pages I was all set to slap this baby up with the full rating, thinking, ‘This is incredible. I haven't read a book that I so easily gave 5 stars to since The Wall of Storms,’ you’ll know I’m coyly but not so cleverly trying to sway you to read that magnificent tome -you know, two birds, one stone and all-, but I see I hereby defeated that purpose by admitting so. Never mind, moving on...

Anyhow, all was rainbows and unicorns right until I reached the last 50 or so pages when I started to get a little frustrated with Aiden and some of the decisions he was making. I simply wanted to shake the saint out of him and make him see reason but that may be the cynical in me talking.

Furthermore, there’s a loss of emotional engagement, albeit on a small scale, on the reader’s part as several times, Turton likens his characters to “shadows cast upon the wall” and each morning victims are brought back to life, thereby making the act of murder here seem no more dreadful than going flicking on and off a light switch, however, if purely viewed as an intellectual thriller, the book is without faults.

My biggest issue was here in the climax. As dazzling as the finale was, and it was indeed that, with a series of last-minute twisty WTF revelations, I still felt…. somewhat underwhelmed by it all? I still don’t know what but something was missing and I wasn’t 100% satisfied. That too may be attributed to my being overly picky but… still.

I also would have preferred the nature of Blackheath to be left more ambiguous, a mystery that’d make my head spin long after closing the book but this particular shortcoming in no way hindered my overall enjoyment.

All in all, if you’re in need of an invigoratingly original and entertaining read that’ll tie your brain in knots, The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle might just be the answer.

There are times when you come across a book that is unique and something that you have never come across before and wow this is one of them. The Seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is one of the books is such a book that I will think of, for a very long time.
Aiden Bishop has woken up in a body not his own. He is at Blackheath, in the times of socialites and business men, with their maids and valets. He is in a time loop. Where he has 8 hosts bodies and is there to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. If he doesn’t, he will live the rest of his days in this time loop, switching hosts, reliving the murder of Evelyn and anyone else that stands in their way.
I will be honest with you I didn’t read much of the burb when I requested this book on Netgalley but, I heard great things and I had to read it. I don’t usually go for mystery and whodunit books but I am glad I did. I am amazed how good this book is. As this book is not an easy read. As you have to keep up with which body Aiden is in. It’s like a really complex puzzle and also reminds me of Sherlock Holmes in a way. But that was also the beauty of it. It kept you gripped and you wanted to find out more. And its told in Aiden’s POV. So you get to feel for his character and you are on his side. This book is very cleverly written. I loved every minute of this book and if this is Stuart Turton debut novel. I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for his next book.
Thanks you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a copy of this book.

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.