Due to the sheer volume of spoilers, this work's page and its subpages contain unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!
How lost do you have to be to let the devil lead you home?
At exactly 11:00 p.m., on the grounds of her childhood home, Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered. The murder won't look like a murder and the criminal who arranged it will get off scot free.Aiden Bishop is tasked with figuring out who Evelyn's murderer is. To aid him in this task, he's been given the ability to occupy the bodies of eight different men. Thanks to this, he's able to live through the exact same day at least eight times and cover much more ground than he might have been able to otherwise. He also has a few allies willing to question the residents of Blackheath and keep his eight hosts alive.
Despite these assets, Aiden has had to watch Evelyn die more times than he can remember. The difficulty of his mission is compounded by its limitations: clues are scarce or obscured, he can't leave Blackheath, and everyone and everything aren't always what they seem. As if that wasn't enough, there's another killer at Blackheath who's determined to finish off Aiden before he can solve the mystery.
Will Aiden be able to catch the murderer and leave Blackheath? Or will Blackheath's secrets wind up eroding Aiden's sanity until he has none left?
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a 2018 novel by Stuart Turton. Published as The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in the US, the novel is a mystery that utilizes elements of the thriller genre and time travel stories.
This novel provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Evelyn poisoned Felicity's wine to ensure she died if she survived the suicide. Evelyn didn't tell Michael about this, and he ends up drinking the poisoned wine by mistake. Evelyn is heartbroken when she learns about his death.
- Amnesiac Hero: Aiden starts out the book with no idea who he is or why he's in Blackheath.
- Amnesiac Villain Joins the Heroes: Played with across various characters; Aiden only went to Blackheath to torment the woman who tortured his sister to death, a motivation he's rather disgusted by when he relearns it. Over time, he forgot his purpose there and instead allied with Anna after she underwent a very gradual Heel–Face Turn. It helped that there was a third prisoner in the mix who remained a villainous murderer.
- Bittersweet Ending: Aiden and Anna escape Blackheath, but they will have to live the rest of their lives on the run, and the Plague Doctor is in deep trouble with his superiors for bending the rules and allowing Anna to leave.
- Blank Slate: Aiden starts out without any recollection of how he came to be at Blackheath, his purpose there, or even his name. That said, he's not quite a blank slate: when beginning a new loop, he comes back with one random scrap from the previous loop that the memory erasing wasn't able to remove. The other inmates are much the same, but they get some basic knowledge of what they're meant to do in Blackheath and a vague scattershot awareness of what has happened in past loops.
- Clueless Mystery: The prisoners have only one day and one host to solve Blackheath's particularly complicated murder. As both Daniel and Anna are considered the worst of the worst, they were given an impossible mystery so no one would ever have to deal with the repercussions of them getting out. What the plauge doctors didn't account for was Aiden getting caught in the loop, receiving the special privileges needed to actually collect evidence, and retain the memory to put two and two together.
- Cue the Sun: The one and only time the sun appears is the morning of the last day, when Aiden is putting together all of the clues he's uncovered and convinces the Plague Doctor to give Anna a fair chance.
- Disc-One Final Boss:
- For a majority of the novel, the Footman is implied to be the third person stuck in the loop, but it's actually Daniel Coleridge. The Footman is just a murderer Daniel hired to act as a smoke screen.
- Aiden actually solves the murder while in his seventh host, realizing that it was Michael who killed his sister after the fake suicide. Then Michael gets poisoned from a cup Evelyn drank from earlier, and Aiden realizes that there's a second murderer to find.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- After the events with his seventh host, Aiden jumps back into Donald Davies, where Daniel Coleridge is ready and waiting to torture him into giving up the murderer. Aiden then reveals that while Daniel accounted for all of the hosts, he didn't account for their friends: cue Grace Davies, Lucy Harper, and Stanwin's bodyguard all coming through the trees to avenge their dead loved ones, creating the distraction Aiden needed to escape.
- Anna learns who really killed Evelyn Hardcastle: Felicity Maddox, the girl who was hired to impersonate her and who Evelyn tried to kill to tie up loose ends.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Evelyn's murder-dressed-as-a-suicide was actually instigated by Evelyn herself: she hired a double to fake "Evelyn"'s suicide so the real Evelyn could escape an unwanted marriage to Ravencourt. Micheal just took advantage of the "suicide" to kill Evelyn in a twisted form of Mercy Kill.
- Enfante Terrible: At the age of ten, Evelyn decided to let a boy die just for the thrill of it, then planned and executed the murder of her seven-year-old brother without a hint of remorse.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Evelyn Hardcastle doesn't give a damn about human life; during childhood, she let a boy die, she later killed her kid brother, and, during the day of the gala, she kills her parents. There is at least one person she genuinely loves and cares for: her brother, Michael. The main reason she killed their father at all was so Michael could inherent his money.
- Daniel Coleridge is a ruthless schemer, liar, and killer, and God only knows what else he did in order to land himself in Blackheath. While he doesn't remember what his life was like before Blackheath, he does remember that he has a wife and son he desperately wants to reunite with.
- Even Evil Has Standards: A major theme of the book is that even the worst people have redeeming qualities.
- Faking the Dead: The real Evelyn planned to use a body double in order to fake a suicide then smuggle herself to Paris, all so she could avoid having to marry Ravencourt.
- Fighting from the Inside: In every host he inhabits, Aiden struggles with the influence of that host's personality; he sometimes acts in ways driven primarily by the host's personality and not his own (overeating as Ravencourt, feeling lust around woman as Derby, etc.).
- Friendly Enemy: Silver Tear is trying to derail the Plague Doctor's plans for releasing Aiden from Blackheath, but only because she thinks he's dangerously close to breaking the rules they operate under, and is trying to save him from their superiors' displeasure.
- Genre Mashup: Seven Deaths is a Time Travel Mind Screw thriller set against the backdrop of a country house murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie.
- Genre Savvy: Daniel is the most formidable of Aiden's foes because he understands, not only his own rules within Blackheath, but Aiden's as well. This allows him to trick Aiden into believing that he's Aiden's last host, conveying explicit trust he does not deserve. Ultimately subverted, as Silver Tear was giving Daniel information he had no way of knowing otherwise.
- God's Hands Are Tied: The Plague Doctor could easily discover the identity of the killer himself, but that's not the point of Blackheath, it's just a goal they give to the inmates so they can evaluate them based on how they go about discovering the answer.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Aiden must relive the day of Evelyn Hardcastle's murder. He can experience that day between eight different hosts, and if he fails to solve the mystery by the end of his time as his last host, he'll be stripped of his memories and forced to got through this whole ordeal until he finally succeeds.
- Heroic Bastard: Cunningham is a product of an affair between Helena Hardcastle and Charlie Carter. (Helena set it up to make it look like Cunningham was her husband's bastard in order for her to save face and play the part of the spurned wife.) Cunningham shares some his parents' shifty and secretive traits, but he's also a very loyal friend who genuinely seems to care about justice, considering the fact that he's been trying to redeem his biological father's name for nineteen years.
- He Knows Too Much: The reason why Evelyn killed Thomas was because she was worried he might've seen her leave Keith Parker to die and didn't want to risk him revealing that.
- Hidden Depths: While most of his hosts are fairly shitty people, Aiden consistently finds redeeming qualities about them that he admires and wishes he could emulate when he's in other hosts.
- I Hate Past Me: Aiden is unimpressed with his motives for coming to Blackheath once he's told them, and ends the book resolving not to ask for his memories back once he and Anna are freed.
- Loophole Abuse:
- Technically, the Plague Doctor is only allowed to let out one person for solving the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, but decides that Aiden uncovering the truth behind three other murders he and his collegues weren't even aware of during the course of unraveling the main mystery is good enough to count.
- The Plague Doctor also helps engineer the circumstances that let Anna live. Without his interference, the real Evelyn wouldn't have died in that loop and Anna almost certainly would have been killed before she could provide an answer.
- The Man Behind the Man:
- The Footman isn't the third time traveler, he's just a Psycho for Hire who was in Daniel's retinue and was being used as a distraction.
- Daniel was being guided by a second plague doctor whose presence Aiden's plague doctor wasn't aware of. Daniel's plague doctor, Silver Tear, had been helping Daniel from the get go with the goal of keeping Anna from ever leaving Blackheath.
- Thanks to the time travel aspect Aiden's hosts, he serves as one for himself more than once, with both his past and future incarnations getting in on his plan(s) depending on the circumstances. This biggest instance of this is when he's inhabiting Gregory Gold, his last host. As Gold, he has almost all of the information he needs to solve the mystery and even save Evelyn's life. He writes down everything his hosts will do during that day in a sketchbook, gives said sketchbook to Anna, who in turn helps Aiden's other hosts get to where they need to be in order to insure the success of Gold's plans.
- Mental Time Travel: Whenever Aiden's current host loses consciousness or is killed, Aiden is transferred into the next host (or in some cases, a previous host), and thus experiences a different part of the day. This means if he falls asleep at 10:30 pm as one host, he could possibly wake up as a previous host at 9:00 am.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Aiden's in control of his actions, but the body he's in can and will impose its actual owner's habits of thought and influence Aiden's actions, with the effect getting more pronounced with each progressive host. This is the reason Aiden only gets eight hosts: any more and he would be overwhelmed by them all.
- Mind Prison: Blackheath is one of several thousand mind prisons run by the mysterious plague doctors, and is the worst of them by far.
- Murder by Inaction: A boy named Keith Parker fell into a hole in a cave while he was playing with Evelyn. Evelyn decided not to get help and let Keith die.
- Never Suicide: Evelyn seemingly shoots herself in the stomach at the reflecting pool at 11 p.m. Aiden is warned that this death is a murder that was so cleverly disguised as a suicide that no one guessed that it even was a murder. It's Aiden's job to unravel the truth behind Evelyn's supposed suicide and catch the criminal.
- Never Trust a Title: The Seven/7½ Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle apparently refers to the number of times Evelyn Hardcastle must die over the course of eight days before the protagonist can solve her murder and save her life on the eighth and final day. It actually refers to the six deaths caused by the true Evelyn Hardcastle (Keith Parker, Thomas, Helena, Peter, Millicent, and Michael) before she is killed herself- the seventh death-by Felicity Maddox who was the "Evelyn" Aiden was trying to save all week. Felicity is nearly killed by the same poison that takes Michael's life, and this is the "half" death referred to in the American title.
- Nobility Marries Money: Evelyn's parents arranged for her to marry Ravencourt in order to fund costly repairs on the family home and save Peter's floundering business ventures.
- Ontological Mystery: The protagonist wakes up on the grounds of a country-house called Blackheath, with no memory of who he is and how he got there, discovers that he's unable to leave, and is compelled by mysterious forces to solve a mystery in order to find his way out.
- The Power of Trust: The key to escaping Blackheath was for Aiden and Anna to trust each other. Since Aiden originally came there to torture Anna for torturing and murdering his sisters, it took decades of looping before either of them changed enough for them to genuinely work together. The novel relates the final loop, showing how they're able to stay with each other all the way rather than betraying one another and losing at the last stretch.
- Psycho for Hire: The footman is eventually revealed to not be Aiden's rival as he thought, but rather working for his actual rival Daniel Coleridge, and he takes great joy in killing and tormenting Aiden's various hosts.
- Psycho Knife Nut: The Footman is a serial killer who takes sadistic pleasure in his work and uses a knife for his murders.
- Redemption Quest: The mind prisons are intended to act as elaborate rehabilitation centers for the prisoners who're sent there. By solving mysteries within a strict set of rules, its possible for a prisoner to prove to the Plague Doctors that they've changed. Blackheath, however, is not this: its intentionally designed to be an Ironic Hell for its inmates, and its mystery is so complicated that solving it within the usual set of restrictions is basically impossible, meaning whoever is sent there is permanently trapped.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Plague Doctor may be obtuse in his instructions, but he ultimately does want to help Aiden. He even accepts that Anna has indeed been rehabilitated, and bends the rules in order to let both her and Aiden leave Blackheath.
- Retroactive Preparation: Since all of Aiden's hosts co-exist simultaneously throughout the day, he's able to use this trope to his advantage by having his future hosts carry out his plans; as his fourth host Ravencourt, Aiden tries to blackmail Ravencourt's manservant into doing his bidding. He asks the manservant to open an envelope hidden under a chair which contains a secret the manservant is desperate to conceal. In later hosts, Aiden discovers the secret and places that same envelope under that same chair in time for his fourth host to be able to exploit its presence.
- Rewatch Bonus: The plot is much easier to keep track of on a second read through, with many plot threads being telegraphed surprisingly early on.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: The Plague Doctors and whoever runs the mind prisons in general are nominally supposed to be in charge of their prisoners' rehabilitation within strict rules. Both Oliver and Josephine run roughshod over them, the former to ensure Aiden can escape, the latter to ensure Anna can never leave. Once Anna solves the mystery and therefore earns her freedom, Oliver notes that even though Aiden and Anna passed the test, he'll likely be punished for breaking the rules.
- Secret Test of Character: The mind prisons are set up to show the true nature of the prisoners, with the severity of the crime determining what situation the criminals are confined to. Blackheath is reserved for truly heinous criminals, and its particular brand of mystery usually brings out the worst in people who were already horrible to begin with.
- Self-Made Orphan: In the span of one day, Evelyn kills her mother, Helena, and her adoptive father, Peter. (Her biological father, Charlie Carver, has been dead for years.) Helena she killed since she knew the truth behind Thomas's murder. Peter's death would result in Michael gaining control of the family finances, hence why she killed Peter.
- That Man Is Dead: Aiden and Anna end the book deciding that the people they were before coming to Blackheath don't interest them; they'll go on without having their memories restored. The Plague Doctor replies that that is a common decision for people who have gone through the rehabilitation process.
- Twist Ending: The person everyone thinks is Evelyn Hardcastle is actually an imposter named Felicity Maddox, who was hired explicity for this purpose. The real Evelyn is posing as the fake Evelyn's maid. Not even the Plague Doctors were aware of the switch.
- The Unreveal: Daniel isn't Aiden's last host like he'd originally stated: he's actually the host for another criminal but we never learn what that criminal's real name is or what he was imprisoned for. Also, the book ends before Aiden and Anna return to their real lives so we do not get to see what they really look like or learn much about the world outside of Blackheath.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Despite being the point-of-view character, Aiden manages to relate to Cunningham but not the reader about his plan of assembling an army to take down the Footman in the graveyard. The plan itself was a success, giving Aiden the advantage of numbers and guns instead of knives. The outcome of the showdown itself was something he couldn't plan around.
- Walking Spoiler: In a novel riddled with twists and turns, Felicity Maddox stands above the rest. Talking about her in any depth is impossible without bringing up the biggest twist of the book: that she pretended to be Evelyn Hardcastle while the real Evelyn pretended to be Felicity's lady-in-waiting, Madeline, all to fake "Evelyn"'s suicide so the real Evelyn could escape an unwanted marriage to Ravencourt.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The book ends with Aiden and Anna escaping Blackheath but we are not told what becomes of the supporting characters.
- What You Are in the Dark: Finding out the identity of the murderer is just a goal the prisoners are given so the Plague Doctor can evaluate how they accomplish the task.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Evelyn poisoned Felicity before the fake suicide to make sure she actually died and couldn’t blow their secret.
