I hadn’t planned on reading anything weird for a while, but that’s what I got with “The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” by Stuart Turton.
The first page shows an invitation to a masquerade ball at Blackheath House. The hosts are Lord Peter and Lady Helena Hardcastle and their children Evelyn and Michael Hardcastle.
The guest list includes the family lawyers Edward Dance, Christopher Pettigrew and Philip Sutclife; socialites Grace Davies and her brother Donald; Millicent Derby and her son Jonathon; banker Lord Cecil Ravenscourt; retired naval officer Cliffard Harrington; professional gambler Daniel Coleridge; Dr. Richard “Dickie” Acker; Dr. Sebastian Bell; police officer Jim Rashton and former gameskeeper Ted Stanwin.
There’s also a long list of supporting characters who play integral parts in the unbelievably convoluted story.
The action begins before dawn is a cold, rainy British woods. A man dressed in evening clothes is in the woods when a woman runs by screaming in fear. He then hears a shot and assumes the woman was killed. Someone accosts him, gives him a compass and whispers “east” in his ear.
The man stumbles into the crumbling mansion that was Blackheath. He insists they get the police and search for the woman or her assailant, but no one at the grand ball seems to care. He is taken to a room and told that his name is Sebastian Bell. But that’s all he knows. The only thing he seems to “know” is that he must find Anna and escape with her. No one he asks has heard of Anna.
Sebastian is startled to find a man dressed in the beaked mask of a “plague doctor” lurking in his room. The man warns him that he must solve a murder by 11 p.m. or he each time he wakes he will occupy the body a different “host” with little or no memory of the previous day. With each body, the man assumes that person’s perspective and knowledge of the Hardcastle family and their guests.
He soon learns that 19 years ago 7-year-old Thomas Hardcastle was murdered by the lake. Charlie Carver confessed and was hanged for the crime, but the family never really recovered. Now each day the servants prepare for a banquet followed by a grand ball.
Each evening, Evelyn Hardcastle walks to the edge of the reflecting pond and shoots herself in the stomach and is cared for by her brother Michael. The death looks like a suicide, but it is a murder. Somehow, Sebastian must investigate the murder without letting anyone know what he’s doing.
At times, the persons he’s occupying will push through with warnings, insights or plans. They all want to find the proof and escape Blackheath. Each day of failure causes things to loop back and form another layer of potential suspects.
As the man works every angle, he learns he and his hosts are being stalked by a man known only as the Footman who is intent on killing them one by one. No explanation of who he is or why he’s killing.
Things move swiftly when he discovers that Ted Stanwin has made a small fortune blackmailing the Hardcastles and their guests. This produces a new list of suspects and motives. Hunted and haunted, he refuses to give up.
The solution to the puzzle is confusing but interesting. If it weren’t for the “body hopping,” this would have been a good Agatha Christie storyline.
“7½ Deaths” is weird but compelling
Jan Jones column head
AT A GLANCE
Book: The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Author: Stuart Turton
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Year published: 2018
Number of pages: 480
“7½ Deaths” is weird but compelling
