The Devil and the Dark Water

I really enjoyed this. I sort of figured out whodunnit, but not how. It's a bit long, but moves along at a clip. It's one you want to reread to see if you can figure it all out. Turton writes really well and well done mysteries.

“So this is how men go to the devil. Cap in hand and short of hope, all their prayers gone unanswered.”

A literal ship-in-a-bottle murder mystery, set in the 1600s, with supernatural elements. Not something I knew I needed or wanted until now, yet here we are. I will be upfront at the beginning here – there are some problematic elements to this that made it hard for me to rate this book. I'm fully honest here that I probably was generous with the rating because I enjoyed the ride so much.

The Saardam, bound to Amsterdam from Batavia, is taking on passengers. A detective, Samuel Pipps, and his friend/bodyguard Arent Hayes are aboard, the former as a prisoner being transported and the latter as his escort and support on the way to trial. Also aboard is the Governor General, Jan Haan, his wife, his daughter, and his consort, as well as a small handful of other characters notable for their role in the events to come. Immediately before the ship gets underway, a mysterious leper calls out a curse on the ship and all aboard and immediately bursts into flames. Under this inauspicious event a great deal of superstition is fostered amongst the passengers and crew, superstition that is fanned even more after whispers are heard at night, a mysterious lantern is seen following them at night, animals are mysteriously slaughtered, and a great deal other supernatural events. Arent and Haan's wife Sara become neck deep in trying to solve the mystery, but with a deadline imposed on them all by Old Tom and things becoming more mysterious and not less, they aren't sure if they can in time.

I really enjoyed the setup and the mystery, just the right amounts of downtime spent trying to uncover clues and actual action and events that add layers to the whole thing. This was my first book by Stuart Turton, and I especially loved his writing style here. The actual mystery is a real head-scratcher, and I found myself making wrong guess after wrong guess at what was actually going on. I won't say much about the actual conclusion though, just that it wasn't what I was expecting. I actually felt a little let down at the big reveal at the end, but not enough to regret reading the book. Suffice it to say that there's a great deal of twists near the end, like any good mystery novel.

The elephant in the room here, and the reason for the 4 stars and not 5, is the author's handling of Sara's situation, and the situation of the female passengers near the end more generally. While, yes, it is the 1600s, and there's a certain amount of cultural baggage that comes with the era, I could have done without the on-page occurrences of spousal abuse. Additionally, (and, spoilers here for the end of the book events, but not the mystery as a whole), during the shipwreck period, why do we leap immediately to "well, we're low on food, I guess we should create a harem with the unmarried female passengers to keep crew morale up"? It felt tonally off, considering the rest of the book. Yes, mutiny, scum of the sea, thieves and villains all, I get it, but there's other ways to convey that than island sex slavery. .

All that said, I still really enjoyed the high seas murder mystery feel, and thus the 4 stars. I understand some of it may be hard to overlook though, and can understand the varying experiences listed here. I also listened to the audiobook, and thought the narrator did an excellent job at narrating this book and keeping my interest.

3.5/5. Having read Turton's “Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle”, I had an idea of what to expect going into this one. Turton excels in mystery and atmosphere, but falls a little short in characters and writing style. This one was essentially that, except that, while the mystery was serviceable and definitely more interesting than your average run-of-the-mill contemporary mysteries, it still didn't match up to the confounding brilliance of Evelyn Hardcastle. While I read Evelyn Hardcastle almost entirely in one sitting because it was such a page-turner, I took almost a whole 2 weeks to finish this one, and never felt quite as much compelled to continue except when I just wanted to get this over and done with.

Honestly, it could also just be the subject matter for me. I don't think I particularly enjoy books that are excessively to do with ships and sailors and the like. If it's a mystery on a ship, and using the ship simply as a setting to have these people isolated at sea together, that's totally fine. But in this book, the layout of the ship, its crew, its fleet and all of those technical naval terms played a somewhat larger role than I would otherwise have liked. That could have contributed to my finding it more difficult to engage with the mystery than Evelyn Hardcastle.

The characters in this one were also hard to root for. I didn't feel particularly sympathetic towards anyone in this book, and a lot of times I found characters' personalities and decisions to be unrealistic and bewildering, and their dialogue sometimes stilted and unnatural. I found that sometimes things happened almost too conveniently too. A lot of the things that happened, both in the backstories of the characters as well as within the events of the book, just felt exaggerated and contrived for the purpose of creating a colourful mystery. I found this also to be the case in Evelyn Hardcastle (I barely remember any of the characters in there now), so there's no surprise here for me.

I felt like the book could also be shorter too. Despite all the action, I felt like some parts of the book really dragged for me. Plus, I felt like the major events of the book could have been more squeezed together to create more bated-breath tension, but the lulls in between each major event felt a little too long. There were a lot of details that I also kinda missed in the book because there're so many details, and I often found myself wondering, “Wait, how did we get here?” from one chapter to the next.

The resolution of the mystery also somewhat felt a little contrived but I was satisfied with the solution of the mystery. Some parts of it I had guessed or wasn't surprised at, others were a little more interesting and unexpected. Overall it wasn't incredibly mind-blowing plot twists, but it was definitely still satisfying.

I still gave this a 3.5 though because Turton really does a sinister atmosphere really well. One could almost feel the filth and the squalor that the crew of the Sardaam were living in. Despite my complaints about the mystery, there was still enough substance to it to make me at least want to finish the book, instead of being completely apathetic as to the solution, so that's at least a bit of a win.

Fun murder mystery on a boat!

Enjoyable historical mystery that came available in Libby so i jumped on it rather than the more famous debut novel that is on my to list read The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle[b:The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle 36337550 The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Stuart Turton https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506896221l/36337550.SY75.jpg 57528323]. Turton is certainly good, but the plot seemed very convoluted and required a lot of suspension of disbelief.

The atmosphere of the ship and the strictures of women's lives made this book feel claustrophobic. It was at times hard to sit down and read because I didn't want to feel so hemmed in.
I like that we see Arent and Sara develop their detective skills. There are lots of twists and turns and multiple crimes and secret identities. I never would have figured it all out! I enjoyed the ride.
The ending was odd. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Turton really can write a crazy mystery!

Murder, mayhem and adventure on the high seas. Throw in a Sherlock / Watson type detective duo, some dubious characters and an ancient demon stalking the ship and you have, my friends, a recipe for a cracking fun, page turning who-dunnit.

I adored Evelyn Hardcastle and Turton's follow up novel does not disappoint. I just want more!

I don't know how to feel.
- I didn't guess the ending twist
- i loves the similarities and commentary on sherlock and watson
- the writing was impeccable
- i kept wanting to pick it back up and finish it
- it was so good it got me to annotate
But for some reason i didn't love it
I think it's because of the ending. I don't like how it eneded. The author was happy with it and its not a bad ending but it wasn't satisfying for me. I'm sorry but it felt slightly out of character and unrealistic for that character. It felt out of his moral compass or that he would've had to wrestle with it more before agreeing. Anywayssss I enjoyed the journey but the ending fell flat for me

Een vrij klassiek opgebouwd gesloten-kamer-mysterie, met een historisch, nautisch en paranormaal sausje.
Het mysterie is echt slim opgebouwd en de knipogen naar de Holmes/Watson-dynamiek maakten het voor mij helemaal af.
De ontknoping zag ik niet aankomen en ik ben er ook niet 100 procent tevreden mee, maar de griezelige reis ernaartoe maakt dit meer dan goed.

Ik ben echt fan van hoe Turton verhalen vertelt en dat die nooit helemaal in een vooropgesteld genre passen. Ik kijk absoluut uit naar meer van deze auteur!

Compleet ongerelateerd, maar de titel van dit boek doet me steeds denken aan “Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean” van Nightwish

TWs: Mentions of rape, animal death, gore, domestic abuse

Welcome to the journey, all aboard the Saardam..!! I really enjoyed the trip, the mystery behind this devil, and how the mystery unraveled! I'm terrible at mysteries and cannot (or more like do not like lol) figure out the culprit, but I'm pleased with the ending!

My only concern was the mention of rape after the shipwreck. I felt like it was meant to bring it to the extreme, considering the story takes place during the 1600s, but it's a little overboard (no pun intended). It could have worked without it. Aside from it, I really enjoyed the story, and the author's little letter at the end, "If you want sexy Arent, sexy Arent you shall have." LOL

For the ending, I knew Pipps was so sus, but I didn't think it would have also been Creesjie, and they were siblings!! I'm sad for Arent, considering he was like Pipps' friend, bodyguard, and someone he worshipped, but I guess I'm glad that he made such deal to burn the ship down (I hope they truly did), but I suppose that doesn't change the fact that Pipps was like any other ruler or man that Arent despised.

If you have terrible memory like me, I would suggest writing or printing the list of people at the beginning. It helps when the author brings them up as their name or title, which definitely confused me more than I can count. (a hard copy works too! I read on a kindle)

The description of life aboard a 17th century merchant vessel is rich and engrossing. Listening to the excellent audio book version took me from my land-locked mid-western location to the high seas of the Indian Ocean. A great story with engaging and clever twisty mystery.??

Turton???s debut novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, was one of my top reads of the year it came out. While there was some confusion due to a large cast and interesting timeline choices the plot was so interesting that it kept me hooked the whole way through. I will be re-reading that book for years to come. Unfortunately, the second book by Turton did not work for me in the same way.

A murder on the high seas. A detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist.

It???s 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world???s greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent.

But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A twice-dead leper stalks the decks. Strange symbols appear on the sails. Livestock is slaughtered. And then three passengers are marked for death, including Samuel.

Could a demon be responsible for their misfortunes?

With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent can solve a mystery that connects every passenger onboard. A mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board.

Cleverness is a type of strength, and they won???t accept a woman who???s stronger than they are. Their pride won???t allow it, and their pride is the thing they hold dearest.

The Devil and the Dark Water

The mystery is compelling, but grows increasingly ridiculous and the ending is just silly. Terribly disappointing after a promising promise.

Not a lot I can say without spoiling everything.

I was delighted by the mystery though troubled by the darkness of the world and some of the terrible characters. I'm still so excited by the way Turton can surprise me.

His plotting is so so good and his prose is improving with each book he writes, can't wait to see what's next.