Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

This book has such a fun premise, the setting is fun, and it has some great twists throughout. The author does a good job of capturing the Agatha Christie vibe very well.

However, this book has some issues. First, there are so many characters and all have small details that you need to remember. It gets very complicated and some of it feels redundant. The main character says his head feels full to bursting by the end and I agree.

Second, this book had some characters that just did not meet to be in there. I think we could have done with one or two less perspectives and had a tighter grip on the details as the reader. I often felt lost in the plot and then info dumped on.

Lastly, the big plot reveal for Aidan.

You are telling me this man gets trapped in this hellscape, doesn’t remember who he is, then he learns this woman is a friend, but she betrays him for a reason we really don’t know, gets cool with that real quick, learns she murders his sister in some horrific way and still decides, yeah, I’ll go on the run with this woman? At no point did I ever feel these two were connected that deeply so the ending felt forced. I get letting her escape but now having to run away and spend his life on the run for this woman is crazy. I get what the author was doing and that the two died to themselves but you gotta make me believe it a little bit more.

Overall, despite the issues it was a fun pool read that I will still recommend to people I know love Agatha. Not the best book I have ever read, but very fun.

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lefthandlou's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

The book is overwrought. You can hear the machinery behind the plot, the gears and cogs, ticking loudly as they jolt the action and characters along. It’s contrived, pompous, and overlong. It’s clear Turton is deeply enamored of his own prose, a style which only gets in the way of his too-complicated storyline. He doesn’t have a firm handle on his own plot. Maybe if this book were half as long it could have been okay, but as it is, it is an overindulgent, convoluted, and boring mess. None of the characters are likable, and the entire section dedicated to fatphobia was cruel, unnecessary, and awful. I suspect Turton is not a very nice person, a fact which shows through in this book. I ended up just skimming the last 2/3 just to get it over with.

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proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ett ensligt beläget gods. En dag som upprepar sig. Ett mord som måste lösas för att bryta cirkeln. Låter tillräckligt udda för att locka mig att vilja läsa den här deckaren!

Jag har mestadels lyssnat på boken (utmärkt uppläsning av Anders Jansson), men eftersom det är ett stort persongalleri så var jag tacksam att jag även hade den fysiska boken tillgänglig. De sista kapitlen, med upplösningen, struntade jag faktiskt helt i ljudboken.

Vi får lära känna en mängd mer eller mindre udda karaktärer, alla med helt egna personligheter och temperament. Däremot är det bara en berättare, Aiden Bishop, och honom får vi veta minst om, hur konstigt det än låter. Man kan säga att det är en pusseldeckare, men en väldigt originell sådan och mer komplex än t ex Agatha Christies dito (som för övrigt var en stor inspiration till den här boken, enligt författarens efterord). Den kräver fokus och koncentration, kanske lite mer än jag var villig att ge, för jag blev i alla fall överraskad av upplösningen (tack och lov - jag brukar bli besviken om jag kommer på lösningen i förtid!).

Det här är en bok som det passar att gå in ganska blind i. Jag visste egentligen bara att den var annorlunda på något sätt och det brukar räcka för mig. Det gjorde också att jag till en början inte hade någon aning om vad som försiggick och jag bjöds på flera överraskningar längs vägen. Att det var så många karaktärer inblandade gjorde mig ibland förvirrad och jag fick gå tillbaka för att se vem som var vem, men Turton gjorde verkligen ett bra jobb med att ge alla speciella egenheter. Jag är grymt imponerad av att det här är en debutroman!

Content Warnings

brittaanson's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I wanted to love this book, and the beginning really sucked me in with the mystery. The structure is ambitious and intriguing, but by the end, I was confused and unsatisfied. Partly due to the nature of the plot, there wasn’t any deep character development, and as the truth of what was going on was revealed, I disliked the story more and more. The ending has so many twists that didn’t feel completely earned, and by that point I didn’t care about any of the characters. The rules, ethics, and motivations of those driving the story remain ill-defined to me. I didn’t enjoy the violence and aggressive fat phobia in the book. However, I will concede that the cleverness of the overall concept may be enough for someone else to find more satisfaction in this read than I did.

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