Rating - ⭐⭐⭐1/2
"Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked-room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense."
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a standalone mystery book by Stuart Turton.
This has been on my TBR for a long time, like a really long time. I ended up reading his newest release, The Devil and the Dark Water, before I read this. I did enjoy that though, so I thought I would enjoy this as well especially considering how well-loved it is. I decided though that this would be the year I finally read this and it was moderately successful.
I surprisingly don't have much to actually talk about as I didn't end up making a lot of notes while reading. I will start by saying that I actually didn't know what this story was about aside from the groundhog day like plot. It was admittedly slightly different from what I was expecting though because I did not realize we do not in fact follow Evelyn, but another character named Aiden who relives the day Evelyn dies in order to figure out who killed her.
The story ends up being a bit more complex than that, but I found myself getting through this pretty fast despite not loving it. Not that I am saying I disliked the book, I thought it was an okay story but just one I wasn't entirely invested in. It was quick-paced with details about the murder being slowly revealed over time until its culmination. I can't say though that I was big on the reveal at the end as I found it to be a bit of an odd and unexpected twist made worse by the lack of explanation given.
Maybe I would have liked this better had this been more like Happy Death Day where Evelyn had to solve her own murder and was stuck in some kind of psychologically thrilling time loop. Nonetheless, I didn't mind this book which I consider a win.
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