Book 12 The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

 

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton fulfilled the category “Book Featuring a Party” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge.

Big surprise, I read two titles, again.

I read The Guest List by Lucy Foley. This mystery featured a wedding. I wasn’t sure if that still worked for the prompt, so I read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Like last week, I was gifted with two amazing books that fit the prompt and were thoroughly enjoyable to read.

I’m a huge Agatha Christie fan. I’ve read everything by her except those four novels. (They are big, and I’m super busy.) Both of the titles I read hint at the British cozy as penned by Christie, with a twist. I love a good twist.

The Guest List features a destination wedding with a pile of guests all on a weird little island. Like 7 1/2 Deaths, we get to view the mystery through various characters’ eyes. We get hints, partial truths, and intrigue by the score. I will absolutely not spoil the ending, but I was not expecting that! I never knew where to look. The story kept me on my toes and fed into my anglophile nature.

But the other title.

Oh. My. God.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is one of my favorite books for its twists and turns and evil, evil plot. The 7 1/2  Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle puts Gone Girl to shame. You need a seatbelt and a hard hat for this book.

The mystery begins with the main character lost in the woods, where he calls out the name “Anna” and sees a woman being chased. He’s confused, with no memory of how he got there. He stumbles from the woods, with some help from a mysterious stranger to a giant manor house called Blackheath. The man learns his name is Sebastian Bell, but nothing about himself feels right. He goes through the day, learning about himself, the house, and the guests. He also learns he must stop the murder of the host’s daughter, Evelyn.

But the next day he wakes, he’s not Bell, but the butler! Each day, our hero changes bodies and relives the same day over eight times, trying to piece together who he is, who the mysterious Anna is, and who killed Evelyn.

I never read a story with so many fantastic turns in the plot. Each day, our hero learns things but also has a different personality. Sometimes he jumps between characters and thoroughly confuses the reader. It’s wonderful. I haven’t had this much fun with a mystery since The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, which I read when I was ten. (Oh, and of course, And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express.) I cannot recommend this book high enough.

I give The Guest List by Lucy Foley Five Shots of Whiskey.

I give The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton Five Chess Pieces.