THE 7 1/2 DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE

By Stuart Turton

And now, for something completely different…

When I started reading, I wondered, is this a play? A play within a play? A dream? We begin “in” the person of Dr. Sebastian Bell, who cannot remember who he is, where he is, or why he’s there.

Mystery after mystery unfolds; some solved, some not. The central event is that Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11 pm. The Hardcastle family holds a masquerade ball that night at the moldering old family place, Blackheath, giving us the theme: masks. The whole novel carries the air of a distorted version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, weird and twisted, giving the characters multiple chances to get it right. The central character doesn’t know who, if anyone, he can trust and who he can believe. He’s groping in the dark for the answers.

Here’s what’s unique about this plot. The central figure is not actually Dr. Bell, he’s someone named Adrian who is inhabiting Dr. Bell for the day. He is charged with finding out who will murder Ms. Hardcastle. Upon failing this job the first day, the next day he inhabits a different person, then another, then yet another, for eight days, gathering clues and frantically trying to not only solve the murder, but to prevent it. It’s an attempt at crime prevention so complicated, with so many players, that it can’t be accomplished in one iteration. If he solves the murder, he will be permitted to leave. He is warned not to prevent the murder, but he is desperate to do that, even if it means he might have to repeat the day forever.

A note which I hope will be helpful. There are a lot of characters whose names begin with the letter D. It will behoove the reader to keep them all straight. At the conclusion, I promise you will be rewarded with an astounding ending.