My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book Description:
The Rules of Blackheath
Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m.
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.
We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.
Understood? Then let's begin...
Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others...
Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m.
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.
We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.
Understood? Then let's begin...
Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others...
My musings:
To be honest, I don’t know where to even start reviewing
this one! What a head spin this book was. I found it both one of the most
fascinating and also most frustrating books I have ever read in equal measure –
meaning that in a good way, even if I felt at times that it was doing my head
in.
Do you ever wonder where authors get their ideas from? To
me, the novel had the feel of a sophisticated weekend of a murder-mystery
getaway that has gone terribly wrong, where you no longer play out the role of
your character but have to live it.
Turton may have chosen a classical 1920’s setting in an old
English mansion and started his novel like a classical locked-room whodunit
Agatha Christie style, but this is where the similarity ends. If you like your
crime novels linear and with a nice little breadcrumb trail that allows you to
solve it before the big reveal, then turn back now, because there is no hope of
ever winning with this one! Of course, the real die-hard armchair detective may
take on the challenge, but be prepared to give away your life to a sea of
sticky notes to keep track of the crazy timelines. I am sure that everyone has
heard that Turton uses a groundhog day type of scenario in his mystery, where
the MC Aiden Bishop returns to the same day eight times in the bodies of different
hosts to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. But the author is not satisfied
with that. He also surmises that Aiden inhabits all of his eight characters at
once, only ever seeing the day through his current day’s host. Yes, I know, it
didn’t make much sense to me either, and still totally flummoxes my minds, but
the story still managed to sweep me up in its dark current and trap me for
hours in the nightmarish scenario until the mystery was solved. Could I have
predicted the outcome? Never!
I will not go into the story here, and if you want the bare
bones you can easily get that from the blurb. This book was such a headspin
that I will concentrate on a few points, with the general premise that I
thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Well, listening to it, because I chose the audio
version, which I regretted at times, when trying to recall the 100 different
characters and timelines whilst commuting to and from work. One of my favourite
aspects of the book was the premise that Aiden wakes each morning in the body
of a different host, reliving the same day over and over again until he can
solve the imminent murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, the daughter of the house.
Whilst Aiden retains part of his own personality, he must also find a way to
work with his hosts’ personalities and abilities, a task that sounds easier
than it is, because not all of his characters are very nice people, or very
smart. This was such a clever aspect of the story that made the reading journey
a real adventure for me. Somehow Turton also manages to convey enough of Aiden
himself so that the reader can “bond” with him, ensuring the emotional
involvement that I find so vital for my enjoyment of a book.
I freely admit that there are some aspects of the story
which still don’t make much sense to me. My limited intellect obviously doesn’t
stretch far enough to comprehend the whole concept of time travel and being
split into various characters, so forgive me if I concede defeat on that front.
What I can say however is that this was one of the most entertaining books I
have read in a long time, and definitely one of the most original mysteries
ever to come on the market. If you are a fan of the traditional whodunit but
also like something totally outside the box, then this is definitely for you!
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