4.5 stars out of 5.
First advise I can give about this book is not to read the synopsis at all. Luckily, I went completely blind into it, and WOW it was from surprise to surprise until I got the main plot. So, I would wish everybody to go through this exciting journey instead of the synopsis giving it to you. 
Therefore, I'm not going to write anything about the book, but only my thoughts after reading it. It's Stuart Turton's debut novel, and I definitely congratulate him for this brilliant book. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle has a very original idea behind it. The plot is extremely complex, but intelligent. Writing is nothing but beautiful, dark and atmospheric. It reminds Agatha Christie's style, but it's much more complex than hers. 
The story is taking place in a very short period of time, so it's very dynamic. It's never static, something new and shocking happens every chapter. There are so many characters, time leaps, shocks and surprises. There are stories from the past that connects to the present day. And, nothing is as it seems, so you wreck your brain to work it out, and let me tell you, success is not a guarantee! 
Whilst, I loved the style of the book, I can see that it's not everyone's cup of tea. I read from the reviews that this complexity turned some people off. Also, sometimes it may be the wrong timing for some. If you're looking for an easy mystery read, relax your brain and go through the book quickly, this is not your read. This book is when you're ready for some brain gym :) In addition, I wouldn't recommend Audio version as well, again it might be hard to follow. I remember myself going back and forth sometimes to make sure I was following it. 
All in all, I loved the book and enjoyed getting lost in this complex world trying to solve the mystery. I congratulate Stuart Turton for his first and really good novel. No doubt we'll read more from him in the future, and I certainly am looking forward to it. 
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am actually not really sure how to talk about this novel without sounding like a complete bumbling idiot. The basic premise is simple. A guy finds himself in different host bodies each day trying to solve a murder before it happens. As other's have said, a groundhog day mystery. Confusing, loads of characters, loads of aspects of the story to keep in mind. Around the middle the book lulled a bit for me and the end did not do it 100% for me, but it was certainly the most unusual mystery I ever read, so he gets bonus points for that.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, in return for an honest review

I was drawn to this book initially as it had a really interesting premise. There’s a murder but the victim won’t die just once. Aiden must solve the murder however the day repeats itself over and over again. The only way to break this cycle is to solve the crime but very day Aiden wakes, it’s as a different person. He is forever trapped in this cycle until the murder is solved but time is running out.
Described as a mash up of Agatha Christie, Groundhog Day and Quantum Leap. What’s not to like?
It’s a really clever book,intricately woven and extremely well plotted. I loved the device of the protagonist jumping from person to person. However I did struggle a great deal with the book. It is a big book over 500 pages and for me it felt like it too. It took me an age to finish. For me the book was quite confusing. The author provides so much information that it necessitates the length of time to read it but it did become a bit of a slog. I constantly had re read passages to ensure I was clear in my mind and on occasion though I should take notes! Perhaps I should have read the book in larger chunks to assist with this.
I did enjoy the jumping from character to character, a great idea for perspective however I found it became quite confusing trying to keep track of the characters (notepad needed again!) This also created characters that you really didn’t get to know.
Normally a slog means I stop reading but the author does reel you in and make you want to know ‘whodunnit!’ Without giving too much away, after a lot of time and effort invested I felt extremely cheated at the ending. Just so flat.
A clever but confusing, difficult book.
3/5

Wow. I've never read such a cleverly plotted, masterful murder mystery in which time plays a key role. This story is like a Rubix's Cube for the mind. It's fascinating that Aiden must battle with his own hosts' impulses as well as rediscovering his own to free himself from the loop. Inhabiting those people closest to the murder mystery is a blessing but sometimes a curse, as the host himself may be a barrier to investigating (Derby). This created so much tension and frustration (of a good sort) that pushed on the novel. I just didn't want this to end.

On the one hand, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a classic English country manor murder-mystery, but there's a clue in the title that there's perhaps a little more than this being a little different from the usual Agatha Christie pastiche. In as far as the murder-mystery question of who killed Evelyn Hardcastle at Blackheath manor, the usual suspects that can be found in a select group of notable society figures each with dark secrets are all in place. Explaining how Evelyn Hardcastle dies seven times however is a little more complicated.

The fact that everything is not entirely what it seems is evident in the way that the reader is rather jarringly and unsettlingly thrown straight into a troubling and intriguing situation. Sebastian Bell finds himself inexplicably in the middle of the woods, screaming the name of a woman who appears to be being pursued by an attacker. He doesn't know how he got there, and for a while can't even remember his own name. It's a bit like being handed the controls to a video game where you don't know your character or the rules and find yourself struggling to get a grasp of a situation that is clearly beyond your control. Don't worry though, you'll have another six lives to work out who killed Evelyn Hardcastle seven times, because when Sebastian wakes up the next day he finds he is no longer Sebastian but another person entirely.

And Sebastian - or Aiden as he believes he is really called - and indeed the reader, is going to need every one of those lives and the 500-odd pages of Stuart Turton's ambitious novel, because the reason why Evelyn Hardcastle is killed is going to take a bit of figuring out. What is certain is that the gathering is a select one, that all of the guests have been assembled there for a reason, and that the ostensible reason is itself rather strange. Young Thomas Hardcastle, the son of the owners of Blackheath and brother of Evelyn, was murdered on the estate nineteen years ago in circumstances that were never entirely explained. There's more than just a commemoration going on here. And indeed there's more than just a sequence of events that will also lead to the death of Evelyn Hardcastle. Come to that, there are more deaths than just the seven that Evelyn Hardcastle is fated to suffer.

The biggest mystery is of course how Aiden comes to be in this very unusual Groundhog Day situation where he 'inhabits' a different character each day. Even then, the rules are not as straightforward as that and he doesn't inhabit characters strictly sequentially one day at a time. He is also aware of the presence of an ominous figure in an old Plague Doctor costume who is monitoring his actions and who warns him that he will continue to play out this bizarre situation on repeat until he solves the mystery of the murder. Who knows even how many times he has already been through this? It could be a game of some sort - a virtual reality game - but everything feels real enough and who can tell whether there aren't actual consequences in the 'real-world' if that is indeed even the case. With a footman out to kill each of Aiden's characters, the threat certainly feels very real and immediate.

A more obvious answer to the conundrum is that The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a literary meta-fictional exercise. It's the experience of an author who has to put aside his own voice and adopt the character and personality of each of his characters as he puts them through a murder-mystery situation. You could see this in how the characters personalities start to take on a greater life of their own as we delve deeper into the mystery and start to observe and react to the actions of other characters. Or, if you like, Aiden's experience of being placed within the personality of another character could be seen as a way of exploring how we can be prisoners of our own natures; wanting to act in one way but finding that there are deeper impulses that determine how we behave. None of these conceptual purposes however really intrude on the novel as a work of murder-mystery fiction with a bit of a twist.

There is no shortage of ways then of considering what the purpose of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is, and there are plenty of surprises, secrets, murders and conspiracies to keep you guessing, but Stuart Turton's novel can be just as infuriating as is intriguing. To say that it is convoluted is to state the obvious, and your patience will be tested trying to keep up not only with who each of Aiden's characters are and what part of each day they are occupying sequentially and simultaneously - to say nothing of the host of other cast members - but trying to work out how much influence the characters have over a repeated sequence of events is also difficult to determine.

What keeps you reading is of course the need to get to the bottom of this mystery. The mystery of who killed Evelyn Hardcastle (and her brother) does prove intriguing enough on its own, but the reason why the reader is going to stick with this through all the complications and potential confusion is a need to understand just how this peculiar game-like situation has been established, who is behind it, what its purpose is and what we are going to find at the end of it. Evidently, you'll have to read that yourself to find out, but despite the high expectations it sets, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle delivers brilliantly on its idea, with an ending that doesn't leave you feeling cheated for all the hard work you have to put into keeping up with it. It's even rather more touching, uplifting and redeeming than you suspect it might be from the other horrors it alludes to and contains.

This book intrigued me - which is why I chose it. As I started on the adventure I was immediately reminded of the film Groundhog Day where the same day is relived, in the case of Aiden Bishop he is reliving the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle every day but in a different person's body. 

So far so good. 

Then I ran into trouble. I was getting confused with who was who, and whilst I have no aversion of reading on my kindle this was one of those times when I wish I had a 'real' copy so I flick back to the beginning and get a sense of who these people were. 

I persevered because the book is clever, the concept of seeing something happen again and again but in the guise of someone else is intriguing. The twist of being able to stop it to save yourself gives it another added layer. 

But I wonder whether this book was simply too clever for me? I think it might have been. It had all the right elements I like in novels, a cast of characters both masters and servants, a big house, set in the past, a mystery, a twist but it whilst it held my attention enough to keep me reading I was left feeling rather flat at the end. 

For me this book didn't work. If you choose it, it might work for you.

First of all: I found the book cover misleading. I expected an Agatha Christie Groundhog Day or a rather weird game of Cluedo. Instead I got a breathless, and pretty hyper whodunit with horror and fantasy elements.

There are protagonists caught in time, loops within loops, several unreliable narrators plenty of plot twists and an ever mounting body-count. The first two-thirds of the story left me confused and I would recommend to keep reading breaks to a minimum.

I still enjoyed the book, though, it is an unusual and entertaining reading experience and I applaud its highly ambitious concept.

My word - what a book. This certainly isn't a slow starter - the author throws you  straight into the action with a bang!

We enter the story in an age of lavish balls, household staff, dinner invites and dancing - which in my personal opinion is exactly the era that I want to be in for a good old murder mystery.

Our opening character is Dr Sebastian Bell - who has just escaped from the woods to Blackheath House after a terrifying ordeal. Arriving dirty, confused, and frightened, he realises that he has been here before, in fact, he is well known, and was invited here for "The Masquerade", along with numerous other guests.

I'm not one for giving out spoilers, but this story really keeps you on your toes - twists, turns, you really never know what is going to hit you next - literally... A truly gripping thriller - quite honestly - nobody is who they seem. I found myself mouth open in shock at least twice.

This book was in my wish list, and I'm so pleased I got a copy of it early. It really is a spiffing fine book! I shall be purchasing numerous copies at Christmas for the family as it's a no brainer. EVERYONE will love this book!!!!! I shall be keeping my eye on this author for his next book. I am a fan..

My thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

https://wp.me/p43cgy-5H

A mind-bending wonder somewhere between an episode of Black Mirror and a classic Poirot mystery. 4/5.

This book has a great premise and puts an original spin on the classic country house murder mystery. The layers in the story make it incredibly complex and I take my hat off to the author. I can’t imagine the diagrams necessary to keep track of where all the characters are supposed to be at various times as the narrator body-hops between different “hosts”, bumping into friends and enemies along the way. In addition to the murder mystery we have the mystery of Aiden himself: who is he and why is he being forced to relive the same day, searching desperately for Evelyn Hardcastle’s killer?

At even its most superficial level, this is an entertaining mystery which forces you to pay attention at all times, meaning it never gets dull. However, the book’s most impressive strength – its complexity – may also be something which turns readers off. I didn’t find this a “fun” read. It’s not relaxing in any way and the characters are intriguing rather than likeable. Currently I’m rather sleep-deprived and I’m not sure enough of my little grey cells are firing to get the most out of this book at the moment. If you don’t want to read for a mental work-out and think the many jumps in the narrative might lose you, I’m not sure I’d recommend this book.

It’s the sort of story you’d love to have time to go back and read again once you know the solution to the mystery and who all the people the narrator has embodied during the day are. I can only imagine an agent somewhere is already trying to get this under Christopher Nolan’s nose as he’s the only director I think could pull off a movie adaptation.

I enjoyed the murder mystery side of the story more than the moral philosophy element (attempting to answer the question of whether people can ever really change), and I thought the ending was a little too neat, but I’m still bowled over by the staggeringly impressive structure. If I think about it all too much, I think I’ll get a headache!

Overall: classic murder mystery fans who think they’ve seen it all should give The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle a try. Just don’t pick this as a relaxing read – you’ll need your wits about you to keep up.

I loved this book, and my goodness it does set your mind whirring.
If this book were a song, what song would it be? Undoubtedly it would have to be Windmills of your Mind because the lyrics describe this book perfectly.
Round
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever spinning reel
This book is like a traditional Agatha Christie grand house murder mystery on acid and it is brilliant.
Aiden Bishop is our protagonist, condemned to repeat the same day over and over until he can present the solution to the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. Not only must he repeat the same day, but he does so in a time hopping fashion, moving in and out of the bodies of eight hosts, taking on their physical characteristics and knowing what they know, all the while battling to keep his own sanity and identity, though in truth, who Aiden Bishop is becomes the last mystery to be solved.
He has no idea who to trust; no concept of who to believe in (if anyone) and he has to find a way to deal with the shady characters to seem to be shaping this mystery journey.
This is a highly original and inventive book with a puzzle centre that would defy the most assiduous jigsaw player. The clues are all there in each character, but the body jumping and time hopping adds an extra layer of complexity.
Brilliantly plotted and with fantastic characterisation, this book will sweep you up and carry you along as it explores the mystery of what happens to Evelyn Hardcastle and why. Nothing is obvious; clues are dropped like breadcrumbs and just when Bishop thinks he is getting somewhere, his character will slip into another body.
Blackheath, the house where all the action takes place is a rotting, crumbling mansion where some effort has been made to restore a long since faded grandeur. All the guests are as you might expect, some shady, some disreputable, but all hiding their own secrets, as are some of the servants.
In a masterclass of plotting finesse, Turton cleverly weaves all these strands together, gradually revealing each secret until finally the breadcrumbs join together to make a summer pudding.
Though complex and layered, this is a fabulous and highly engrossing book that is so well written you delight when Bishop manages to make something significant happen and just wish you had thought of the idea.
Because the characterisation is so rich and nuanced, you never lose track of what’s happening, though I think it would be great fun to go back and do a map of the house and track all the events and characters to see just how well plotted it is on paper.( I’m pretty sure the answer is awesomely).
I thought the ending was slightly rushed, but that’s saying something for a book that takes a lot of reading.
Overall, I am full of praise for a massively creative, inventive and enjoyable novel. Just incredible that this is a debut.

This was a great, quirky novel that I really enjoyed. I liked the mystery of it and the creepiness of the characters, as well as piecing together the story at the same pace as the narrator. Some parts were a little confusing but that may have been due to my e-copy being slightly jumbled in places.

This is one of those books where it is hard to describe it without giving too much away. Evelyn Hardcastle is killed on the night of a party at her parents house, Blackheath. The murder must be solved by 11pm.

This is one of those books which is unusual & the author really does deserve plaudits for coming up with a book that is definitely well outside the box. I can't describe how unusual it is without giving too much away. Suffice to say that it is an unusual book and any lover of thrillers and mysteries should give it a go.

The book is well written and the characters are clearly defined and well constructed. They certainly have their own personalities.

There are plenty of twists in this book and you will need to keep your wits about you as you read. You may even wish to have pen and paper at the ready if you are the sort of person who likes to personally solve the mysteries before the characters. It is complicated.

There were a couple of patches where I started to get a bit bogged down. Nobody was who they seemed to be and everyone had ulterior motives. I started to loose my enthusiasm. However, I did carry on and was very glad that I had. I liked the explanation as to what was happening in Blackheath. As for the solution as to who killed Evelyn Hardcastle - one twist too many? Perhaps.

I am glad that I read this book as it certainly exercised the old brain cells. It was well written and unusual. I have, on occasion, read books which are unusual and have great ideas but the writing failed to live up to its promise. On the whole this book delivered on that & the author was able to write a book which more or less lived up to its potential.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

God, this is such a it's not you, it's me book for me & no one is more disappointed than me... Have you read the synopsis? A groundhog day kinda plot with extra paranormal elements AND a murder mystery! I was so excited for this one!!

And yet, I barely got through 1/4 of the book & not even the promise of getting some answers at the end is enough to make me finish it. The writing just killed it for me. Now, like I said, I'm sure there will be countless readers who won't find this a flaw at all. But. We get a first person point of view here and on top of that - present tense. That's a combo I can personally only deal with in the very best fics. This is not one of those. It's not even very best. It's mediocre and boring and the writing choices did nothing to help it. It's so very, very clear from like the first page, that this book is written by a guy & that the main character is a guy & its only saving grace is that the words "well, actually" aren't in the text anywhere. (Yet.)

I wanted to love The Seven Death of Evelyn Hardcastle so much but I just don't have the patience for it...

Oh i really struggled with this.

On one hand brilliantly inventive, high concept, ambitious, complex, ground breaking murder mystery.

And on the other just too much for me. 100 pages in and I was exhausted and it has been a real labour of love to finish.

I’ll settle for a simpler crime mystery without the added complexity of both time travel and body swapping.

Can absolutely see the appeal, just wasn’t for me.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a gripping and intense novel. It demands your full attention as there is a lot of information to take in and quite a few people to remember (there is a list of the characters at the start so you can keep track). It is not a book you can pick up, read a few pages and put down again, but it is so worth it.

It opens with a bang and then the storyline slows down as nothing much happens apart from Aiden trying to work out who he is. It takes a while for it to get into the actual plot regarding the murder of Evelyn, but once it does, this is where the story picks up tenfold, and the part where I became glued to the pages.

It is in essence an old fashioned ‘who-done-it’, but written in a modern way, whilst the plot is definitely not set in the modern day. It is a mixture of genres, all rolled into one, Crime, Sci-fi, Drama, Action, Adventure, Mystery, Psychological, Thriller, and of course a Detective novel, without a trained detective. A complete mix that works seamlessly together.

It is filled to the brim with red herrings, twist and turns, and a plot that you are never sure where Mr. Turton is going to take you. This is a puzzle that you will be eager to solve, so make yourself comfy this is going to be one hell of a journey!

I absolutely loved this book - it took a few chapters to really settle into the conceit of body switching but once it did I couldn't put it down. Some of the female characters felt a little thin, but upon reaching the end the reasons why became obvious. Although the plot was very complicated (I can only imagine what it must have been to plan) I never felt lost or totally confused (or at least, not considerably) and kept hold of the plot strings right until the end.

This is a mastercraft in historical fiction, unlike anything I've read since Agatha Christie.

Evelyn is going to be killed. Again. Every night her murder goes unsolved, the gala party where she dies restarts and Andrew is always too late to save her.

The writing is hugely atmospheric, and sets the scene perfectly. The descriptions are rich and detailed. It's almost like stepping back in time and being with these characters, living (and dying) amongst them. The plot is also quite unique in that the story is told over and over with Andrew taking the role of a different character every night with small hints and clues drip fed throughout, almost like a historical 'Groundhog Day' meets 'Cluedo'. However, the plot can never be taken at face value, as nothing is really as it seems and characters constantly surprised me.

It's not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination - there's twist and mysteries that left me completely baffled and had me desperate to understand what was going on, but that's what makes this such a compelling read. You really want to know what happens, as you try to draw conclusions before Andrew. I was especially drawn to Evelyn, and as her story unravels I felt a need to know who killed her.

That said, at times I felt a disconnection with some of the other characters as I was mainly so invested in Andrew and Evelyn, and sometimes it took a while for me to get my head round Andrew as a new person with different mannerisms every night.

Still, I thought this was like a fresh of breath air for the mystery genre. Different and exciting.

I have never read a book like this before .A mystery , murders, body swapping and time travel all thrown into the mix .I did find the story very long and confusing in places .The story is set in a country house very Agatha Christie !! with a wide range of characters that you are never sure what is real and what isn't .There are time leaps backwards and forwards and deaths galore .Nothing is as it seems .I was a little disappointed at the ending for such a clever book I found the ending a bit of a let down .

The Death of Evelyn Hardcastle is an extraordinarily clever, tense and original novel. Intelligently woven with intricate plots, I very nearly read this in one sitting. With all the tropes of a perfect golden age novel - a manor house, a ball and a number of suspect characters who may well have committed the murder - but with multi-layered time loops and a loose grip on reality,

As our hero Aidan Bishop attempts to navigate this surreal world and solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, he is displaced into eight different bodies, each with their own agendas, histories and personalities which disrupt and enhance his search.

A masterclass on perspective, Stuart Turton has created a superbly crafted and highly imaginative novel that defies categorisation, so much so that I can hardly believe it is a debut novel.

Required reading for anyone who loves to guess whodunnit (I bet you won't), I can only describe this as Agatha Christie meets Inception or, as one Twitter user put it, 'playing Cluedo after dropping acid'.

I don't think I'll quite read another novel like it, and I will certainly looking forward to seeing what the Stuart Turton.

M. Sturton is a madman and a genius. Because it was a very complex concept and he nailed it, which makes The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle my first favourite book of 2018.

I’m hard to please when it comes to murder mysteries because I need a fresh angle to be interested. That's why I read few of them, and that's why Seven Deaths, with its unique premise, intrigued me so much, and I was really looking forward to reading it.

I’m very impressed. This particular mix was highly volatile yet Stuart Turton avoids every mistake he could have made and what I first thought was a bold experiment turns out to be a masterpiece. I can't even believe this is a debut novel. So Aiden Bishop has to figure out who murdered Evelyn Hardcastle. BUT the trick is: he’s not the only one trying. Two other people are stuck in the same loop and only the first one to find out the truth will be set free. Aiden has to investigate, but also to escape a bloodthirsty rival who’s trying to secure his own victory by killing each and every one of Aiden’s hosts. Think Cluedo with a time limit, a killer after you and you get new cards at every turn. Sounds fun, right?

To escape the time loop, Aiden has eight hosts and needs to survive long enough to discover who murders Evelyn and bring the answer, with proof, to the mysterious Plague Doctor, puppeteer of this play where nothing is what it seems. So every day, Aiden wakes up as a different person, which grants him a fresh perspective thanks to his hosts’ different skills. Lucky for him (and for us because it would get old really soon), his memory loop works on an eight-day basis and doesn’t reset every morning. This is perfect for a murder mystery because “every day”, Aiden gathers more information by reliving it from a new angle and slowly pieces back together the whole story. The downside for him is the further he goes into the week, the blurrier the line between his own personality and his host’s, which can make the host a liability at times when Aiden really doesn't have the luxury to have one.

However I think some people will end up very confused. It is a bit tough to follow, I guess, because some things happening on the first day come from actions that Aiden will do later. I really enjoyed it because this is how I like my time travel. Events being explained later by future actions are something I love, because it gives me the feeling of watching a huge 3-D puzzle coming together. It’s fascinating to watch it being built but you need to know how to look at it. Don't hesitate to draw a timeline if needed.

As for the characters, we get to know them through Aiden’s different sets of eyes. I have a soft spot for Lucy, the maid, and I think Cunningham really lives up to his name. He’s resourceful and he’s got spunk, I like it. I thought it was extremely interesting to watch the characters showing different sides of themselves depending on which one of Aiden's hosts they were interacting with. I also think Aiden’s hosts are full of surprises, two in particular I thought might be useless but turned out to have their own part to play. I was surprised of how easily I could tell Aiden apart from his hosts. It’s very delicate work and I’m in awe because it was a very thin line to walk.

The eight-day time limit and the Footman’s attacks, always unexpected, add a sense of urgency. The Footman scared the hell out of me and I still feel uncomfortable at night, sometimes, picturing him lurking around in the shadows. He's a great villain, smart and spooky. As for the mystery itself, I really appreciate the fact that even if Aiden was always a few steps in front of me, I was never lost on the way. I never once thought “it’s too complicated, I don’t care anymore, I’ll just see what happens”. I got really into it, I followed each twist and turn, changing theories every time the rug was pulled under my feet (and boy did that happen a lot!) and having a real blast until the very end. This is EXACTLY what I was hoping for, and more.

It was bold, suspenseful, gripping, witty, 5 well deserved stars. Blackheath will sink its claws into you and won’t let go. Be ready for the ride of your life.

I would also like to point out that it would make a great BBC mini-series. Just sayin’.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for sending me this beauty in exchange for an honest review. And thanks to M. Turton for writing said beauty. You rock. And I’m totally buying a final copy.