I happened to be wandering in the mystery section one day when this book caught my eye. The premise of this book is what first compelled me to buy it. Several weeks later, I could confidently say that this was the most unique mystery book I have ever read. 

“How lost do you have to be to let the devil lead you home?” 

Premise of the book:

Aiden Bishop finds himself at the Blackheath House in the body of a guest. Without any prior memories of who he is or why he is there, Aiden quickly figures out that he isn’t here by mistake. He was chosen to get to the bottom of a murder that has yet to happen: the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. He is stuck in a loop of reliving the same day over and over again, with Evelyn always dying at the very end of it. Whenever the day is reset, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. However, he’s not the only one stuck in the loop. There is another person like Aiden who is trying to figure out Evelyn’s death. Each night, Evelyn will die.

By the end of the eight days, Aiden must be the first to solve who killed Evelyn, but in a place where he can trust seemingly no one, will he be able to? 

“We are never more ourselves than when we think people aren’t watching.” 

Pros/positives:

*Setting*

The setting created a rich, but claustrophobic, atmosphere around the book. The manor was big enough that I never got bored with it, and I liked the aspect that Aiden couldn’t leave the property throughout the story. There was also a sort of decay feeling to the house, with there being many moments where the house is described as breaking down. We see this for the first time when we are walking through the house, with Aiden mentioning the “mismatched stains” on the floor, the rugs placed on the floor to “muffle creaking joints”, or the chairs used to “hide the cracks in the walls” (9). 

The map given to the reader at the beginning of the book is a helpful tool in knowing where everything is in relation to the actual house itself. It also gave me a sense of just how big this property is.

*Plot*

This book’s plot was very well thought out, with it being one of the most intricate murder mystery stories I’ve read in a while.  I’m impressed with its complexity. There were many points in the book that felt random, but it all somehow connected by the end. 

When I tell you I locked in at the end of this book, I’m not kidding. Everything was pulled together in such a satisfying way. Some of the plot twists revealed were mediocre, but a few of them were very jarring and unexpected.

At one point in time, I realized that I needed to see where the plot was going. It was a book I just had to complete, leading me to read almost half of it in one day. There were even a few times I felt like I was a detective with a board full of red string, trying to connect every piece of evidence. 

*Characters*

The main character in this novel was more unique than most, as you weren’t just following around a man, but the soul of a person who was being switched from body to body.

The most intriguing part was how, with each switch, Aiden lost a little more of himself. This led to each body having a unique thought process, alongside their own strengths and weaknesses. Like how Lord Cecil Ravencourt, one of the bodies Aiden possessed, has a sharp mind and great observation skills, but his being overweight caused him to not be very mobile. Meanwhile, Jim Rashton was great at criminal investigation and finding evidence, yet his anger issues caused him to lash out more than once. Even though Aiden was in the body of eight hosts, he never knew anything about the lives of the bodies he was hosting, so it was always an adventure to gain new information on the very life of a person Aiden is pretending to be. 

The side characters were their own kind of treat. Each had their own motives and secrets that they held tightly to. I was constantly guessing what the other guests’ rationales were, or if they were hiding a violent secret. One of the characters I was speculating about the most was Anna. Many times, Aiden was told not to trust her, but Anna never showed any signs that she would betray Aiden. For practically the whole novel, I was trying to understand Anna’s motives, yet I refused to completely believe any character’s words, causing me to be suspicious of everyone.

I appreciated the invitation at the front of the book that has the names and professions of important characters. That invite was my closest ally throughout this read, as it helped me keep track of each person. 

“Yet instead of being angry, he pities me. That’s the worst part. Anger’s solid, it has weight. You can beat your fists against it. Pity’s a fog to become lost in.” 

Cons/negatives: 

*Pacing*

While the end of the book was riveting, there was a slow start, as many of the important events didn’t feel impactful the moment they happened, and were only used later on to help piece the puzzle together. It caused some scenes to feel as though they dragged, even though they were needed for the ending.

*Some confusion*

I’ll admit that this negative was kind of my fault. When I started this book, it was winter vacation in December, but I didn’t finish it before the vacation ended. This led to me not continuing to read this story until about two months later, during February break. By the time I got back to reading, I was very confused and needed almost an hour to understand what was happening and who was who.

Even if I didn’t have a break in between my reading, I do think that there were a lot of characters, enough that it was hard to keep track of them all. The book depicted many different relationships among the characters. The many dynamics between each character made me confused about who was working with whom. It didn’t help that some people shared similar names with others, which made me pause and have to figure out who was being talked about. Many of the characters had names that started with the same letter. Like, the names that started with D were: Daniel, Dickie, and Donald. There were also a lot of names starting with C (Carter, Carver, Charles, and Coleridge). Since I tend to break up characters by the first letter of their names, this was highly disorienting.

“So many memories and secrets, so many burdens. Every life has such weight. I don’t know how anybody carries even one.” 

Conclusion: 

Pros – Setting, plot, characters

Cons – Pacing, some confusion

Overall – 4.25 out of 5

“The future isn’t a warning my friend, it’s a promise, and it won’t be broken by us. That’s the nature of the trap we’re caught in.”