First, I’d like to say that I think it’s hysterical that this book had to add the “1/2” to the title to avoid confusion with Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. What a coincidence. Second, and more crucially to this review, I listened to this on audiobook, so this review should really only be considered accurate to that version. I had some major issues with the narration, and I can’t be sure they didn’t totally alter my opinion of the novel.
With those caveats out of the way, this novel is structed as a reimagining of the classic Golden Age mystery novel. There’s a remote country estate, a disparate cast of characters, long-buried family secrets, and, of course, a dead body. What’s different is the method of solving the mystery. Our protagonist, eventually revealed to be named Aiden Bishop, is stuck in a pernicious time loop. He has been tasked, for reasons he can’t remember, with solving the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, which occurs at 11pm on the day he arrives at Blackheath Manor. To do so, each morning Aiden wakes up in the body of different guest, and goes through the same day from their perspective. He only has 8 hosts to inhabit before his memory will be wiped and he starts all over again.
Though the setup seems intriguing, the problems quickly become evident. With so much of the focus on the time loop aspect, there isn’t much room for character development or plotting out the mystery. It’s also just not very interesting to relive the same day over and over, albeit with slight variations depending on Bishop’s actions.
It takes forever for the book to take shape, only for the eventual revelations to continually underdeliver. The “twists” are numerous and ludicrous, making the careful reader attempting to play along with the mystery feel foolish for making the effort.
It was a real struggle to make it through this one. I didn’t care for narrator James Cameron Stewart’s dull reading and his inane character choices. By the time I got to the end, I didn’t care who had killed Evelyn Hardcastle, or how many times she had died. This is a gimmick novel without anything else to recommend it.