I can't remember buying this book, and it isn't a title the man is interested in. But it was quietly sitting on the shelf, demanding to be read. 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle' (2018) by Stuart Turton. (Reviews here, here and here.)
The story began as a sort of 'whodunit', and the paradox of time warp and repetition of events. Events of the day repeat and repeat like Groundhog Day, eight times until a murder is solved. The first quarter of the book left me as confused as the protagonist/narrator who apparently wakes up with memory loss. For 100 pages, I was like, where is this going?!
The protagonist doesn't know who he is and wakes up every other day in the body (host) of different people. These people are guests at the Hardcastles' country mansion of Blackheath House. Said protagonist is unable to leave the mansion until he solves the murder of the young lady of Blackheath House, Evelyn Hardcastle. She is the daughter of Lord and Lady Michael and Helena Hardcastle. I wasn't able to finish this book in one sitting because I kept getting interrupted. The book doesn't endear itself to me either because while it has a good plot, the narrative style meanders too much till it's annoying. I was like, fine, if it's supposed to be confusing, let's go along with it.
Finally we learnt that the protagonist is really Aiden Bishop who voluntarily came to Blackheath. He has allies and enemies who wants to slit his throat, in this elaborate game. The Plague Doctor is the puppet master who seems to be the one designing the game, and shifting rules of the protagonist jumping into hosts at different timings. Although that doesn't tell us very much even at the halfway point. It moved really slowly.
The last 100 pages told me everything. I groaned. The storyline is good. Blackheath House is like an alternative reality where it's a prison for the worst criminals, and somehow, memories are lost and prisoners might be rehabilitated. Aiden Bishop wanted vengeance and exact further punishment on a vile murderer, Annabelle Caulker who tortured and murdered his sister Juliette. Aiden followed Annabelle into Blackheath where she became Anna, and he forgets who she is and who he is. Without their old memories, Anna and Aiden became allies and finally escaped Blackheath together when they solved the mystery of who killed Evelyn Hardcastle. The ending was redemption for both. ARRRRGGGGH. wtf.
And what of Aiden Bishop? What do I owe him? The man who trapped me here so he could torture Annabelle Caulker. I won't give him his memories back, I'm certain of that. Tomorrow, I'll see his face in the mirror and, somehow, I'll have to make it mine. To do that, I need to start again, free of the past, free of him and the mistakes he mad.
Free of his voice.
'Thank you,' I say under my breath, feeling him finally drift away.
It seems like a dream, too much to hope for. Tomorrow, there'll be no footman to overcome. No Evelyn Hardcastle to save, or Daniel Coleridge to outwit. No ticking clock hanging over a puzzle-box house. Instead of the impossible, I'll need only concern myself with the ordinary. The luxury of waking up in the same bed two days in a row, or being able to reach the next village should I choose. The luxury of sunshine. The luxury of honesty. The luxury of living a life without a murder at the end of it.
Tomorrow can be whatever I want it to be, which means for the first time in decades, I can look forward to it. Instead of being something to fear, it can be a promise I make myself. A chance to be braver or kinder, to make what was wrong right. To be better than I am today.
Every day after this one is a gift.
I just have to keep walking until I get there.
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