Aiden Bishop, a man unknown to himself, has one day to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. The twist? He will live the same day as 8 different party guests whose personalities will either help, or hinder, his investigation. 

Blackheath is a Victorian manner populated by rapists, drug peddlers, and blackmailers who have arrived in celebration; all the same guests who attended the party years earlier that was the scene of a horrific event that changed the lives of the Hardcastle family. 

So what do the guests, the past, and Evelyn's murder have to do with each other? That's for Aiden Bishop to find out. That is, if he can fight his way through his host's predilections and his own lack of memory. 

This was my first Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) that I've ever received and I can't tell you how excited I was to be in on the "ground floor". Especially as this is author, Stuart Turton's, debut novel. 

I'm an avid reader of suspense thrillers, who-dun-its, and high fantasy (weird, I know). I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I jumped into The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. After finishing the novel, I can picture this book as an episode of Black Mirror. That's the best way to describe it. 

This book kept me swiping pages the whole time. It would be easy to consider this book "un-put-downable". 

Don't go into this book expecting a suspenseful build up like your average suspense novel. This book read more Sherlock Holmes-y. I never had a real "I think this is what happened" moment because the information was fed to me as it was discovered by Aiden. 

I think this was a great debut novel by Stuart Turton and I look forward to reading what he comes up with next. 

Lastly, I would like to say that Aiden Bishop is a better person than I am.

More reviews at The Nerd Pages