Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Holmesian Mystery-Horror Set at Sea

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

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It is 1634, and a fleet owned by the Dutch East India Company is set to depart Batavia for Amsterdam, an 8-month long journey that will face perils throughout. Aboard are Jan Haan, the Governor-General of Batavia on his way home to join the ruling body of the Dutch East India Company, accompanied by his wife Sara Wessel, daughter Leah, and mistress Creesjie. Also on board are the world’s greatest detective, Samuel Pipps, arrested for an unspecified crime, and his bodyguard, Arent Hayes. The day […]

Rashoman Mystery but better

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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After my last few books, I wanted to read a mystery. A nice amouse bouche, a pallete cleanser for my literary pallete. And boy this did not disappoint. The basic premise of this book is, we are following the MC, as they experience the day through the lens of 7 (+0.5) different people. There is no trick to it. It is, for a lack of a better word, magic. He lives the other people’s life via magic. The two twists are as follows. 1, the […]

Intriguing, but Confusing

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

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The story: A small group of villagers on an island are the last survivors on Earth after a deadly fog wiped out most of humanity. The residents of the village include regular villagers as well as three “elders,” who are scientists that work to keep the fog at bay thanks to a complex security system and lead the island. One morning the villagers awake to discover that one of the scientists has been murdered, and this murder has triggered a change in the security system. […]

What the hell is going on here?

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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My book club picked another book that I’d never heard of and most likely would not have read without their peer pressure. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) by Stuart Turton takes place on a run-down English estate, probably in the mid 1900’s. It is a unique mix of genres: there is a classic, Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery, a body switching main character who doesn’t know who he is or why he’s there, and a science-fiction-y explanation for everything. Our protagonist, whose name we later […]

Can you solve a murder by knowing what people will do instead of what they have done?

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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Can people change? If they can, will they? On its face, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton is a murder mystery. Aiden Bishop wakes up in a forest with a single name on his mind and no memory of who he is or how he got there. He learns through the day that he is tasked with finding the murderer of Evelyn Bishop and that he has eight chances to solve the case. He will relive the day of her murder eight […]

A time-bending locked room mystery

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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This book has a really fascinating concept, which was, in my opinion, fairly well executed. It takes the concept of an Agatha Christie-style locked room mystery and spins it on its head, by making our protagonist live through the same day over and over, but in the bodies of different characters, and having to solve the mystery of Evelyn Hardcastle’s death, which will have happened at the end of the evening. This is a very mild spoiler, that is revealed in the synopsis in Goodreads […]



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