The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - By Stuart Turton

^08/09/2020

I'm less a reader of fiction than of popular science books, but this well-reviewed and 2018 Costa Book Awards winner caught my eye in the Haringey Libraries ebook collection.

Waking up in the morning with amnesia and only the name Anna in his mind, Dr Bell attempts to alert the household of a large stately home of her murder, which he believes that he has just witnessed.

As the story unfolds, we find that the narrator is not actually Dr Bell, but a body hopper who gets to inhabit a number of different people on this same day to solve the murder of the eponymous Evelyn Hardcastle.

It's a strange mix between classic whodunnit (the author, in an afterword, mentions how much he wanted to write a story in the vein of Agatha Christie) and more fantastical fiction.

I remain unsure about the mixing of the two - I felt that the whodunnit could have stood on its own, and the characters could have been used to unfold the story themselves without being actually inhabited by the narrating character - but ultimately it was a very well told tale and the extra layer of storyline probably did add to it, even though I found it slightly intrusive as it was the area where I felt barbed by the most contrivance.

Overall, a very satisfying read and definitely recommended for a taste of vintage crime story with great story-telling and character definition.