The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

This is a “time-loop” mystery with elements of romance. The main character wakes up with total amnesia and the memory of “Anna” being murdered. No one seems overly concerned as he goes through his day, has odd encounters with odd people, including someone dressed as a “plague doctor,” and reconstructs his life as a drug-pushing doctor.

And, then, he wakes up as someone else entirely.

Gradually, it emerges that he is living the same day as eight different people. The setting is Blackheath, an elegant but decaying English manor at which an indeterminate number of guests and servants are preparing for a party in honor of the return of the daughter of the lord and the lady of the manor. It seems like the temporal setting of the story was after World War I, but that isn't made clear. Some of the characters are unfamiliar with automobiles, which seems anachronistic.

We learn that the real name of the viewpoint character is Aiden Bishop and that he has been tasked with solving the mystery of “the murder which does not seem like a murder.” We also learn that there are other players to this game, namely, the “footman” who wants to kill Bishop's “hosts” and the mysterious Anna, who may be an ally or a competitor.

We follow Bishop as he tries to figure out what the mystery is. We then see his attempts to prevent the murder. Ultimately, late in the game, Bishop keys in on solving the mystery.

The mystery element was decent. There were clues that I could have used to anticipate the solution. I found it frustrating to follow the many characters who passed in and out of the story. If I had been a dedicated mystery reader, I would have started a list of names and drawn lines between the names to note their relationship, but I didn't have that kind of interest in the mystery.

The romance angle was weak. It seemed more stipulated than actual. We do see character development as personalities change, but why did they change so quickly. We learn that the characters have been playing this game for a long time, but the change in attitudes apparently happened in this loop, which seems without proper motivation.

The science fiction element is the weakest element of the story. We learn that the entire Blackheath scenario serves a penal purpose, but we are given no explanation about how it works. Was it time travel? Was it virtual reality? Hypnotism? There is no explanation. We are given no explanation about the world of the “present” from which the characters come. We get only enough information about the characters to make us sympathetic to them, well, two of them.

All in all, it was decent but not terrific reading experience.