The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle: A Modern Agatha Christie

Title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Author: Stuart Turton
Rating: 5/5

When Aiden Bishop starts waking up in bodies of people that he hardly knows, it doesn’t take him long to realise something is seriously wrong.

Trapped in a time loop, Bishop is forced to relive the day Evelyn Hardcastle is murdered in the bodies of eight different hosts till he finds her killer. But Blackheath hides more secrets under its deteriorating exterior and the stakes are higher than they seem.

As someone who grew up on Agatha Christie novels, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a beautiful modern alternative. Turton is not stingy with his clues; as Bishop gets closer and closer to unraveling the mystery, we are given insights into his thoughts, hold his hand as he works his way through what he knows. Readers who love to work their mind along the main character will find the novel a worthy opponent.

But no worries if you find yourself lost in the mystery, Turton weaves the mysteries of Blackheath so tightly each discovery Bishop makes only reveals even more questions. The amount of things that need to be answered only keeps rising with each chapter, and you might find yourself tempted to draw yourself a conspiracy map.

(You won’t be alone, Bishop ends up making one himself).

I have been hungering for a good mystery for a while now and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle certainly helped to scratch that itch. This book is a page turner and left me flipping pages as fast as my eyes would let me. I was afraid to put it down lest the clues ran away from me and I found myself reading passages again and again, hoping to glean whatever answers I could get.

Bishop could have given Poirot and Marple a run for their money. And maybe you’ll be better than me at solving Evelyn’s murder.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton is available at Kinokuniya for $18.95. For more reviews, subscribe to The Reader Who Came In from the Heat.