The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton was selected by my Books and Beer Club for our mystery selection. It was a mystery combined with a sort of time travel and other fantasy aspects. I really expected to like it. I don't love mysteries, I'm very particular about the type of fantasy that I like, but I really love time travel. This one was okay, but I found it tedious to read. At several points, I just wanted the book to be over.

Book club is this evening and I'm curious to see what others thought about the book. I wonder if I'm in the minority.

Aiden Bishop is somehow at this creepy estate where the youngest Hardcastle son died many years ago. Lady Hardcastle decides to hold a party at the estate that had pretty much been abandoned after the son's death on the anniversary of his death. Maybe the 20th anniversary. I finished this last week and I already can't remember.

Somehow Aiden knows that Evelyn is going to be murdered that night and he needs to prevent it. But... Aiden isn't in his own body. He's in the body of one of the guests. He goes to bed at night, and the next morning (actually that morning - again - kind of like the movie "Groundhog Day") he's in the body of another one of the guests. This goes on for days. Which each transformation, Aiden's personality has to fight with the personality of the guest whose body he is in. But, Aiden now has a little bit more information than he did "the day before."

If this sounds confusing, it was. I really hoped that everything would come together by the end of the novel in some grand conclusion and that didn't happen. The mystery was solved. And I was surprised. But I felt the ending fell flat.

Maybe my opinion will change after this evening's discussion. We shall see. As of right now, I wouldn't recommend. 

The rest of the book club felt the way that I felt. We spent most of the discussion comparing the way we interpreted the story!