How To Deliver On A Premise
Writers' Book Club: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Week 3)
Welcome to Week 3 (the final week!) of Writers’ Book Club: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Today, we’ll discuss Chapters 41-60 and whether the novel’s ending makes full use of the story’s premise.
Week 1 of this book club can be found here, along with a downloadable reading guide.
Week 2 of this book club can be found here.
Exploring Every Aspect Of A Novel’s Premise
I can see the breadcrumbs laid out ahead of me, but for all I know, they’re leading me toward a cliff edge. —Chapter 44
In Weeks 1 and 2 of this book club, we looked at Turton’s maximalist approach to storytelling. The first third of the novel introduces several supernatural elements, which are all very creative and engaging.
But a premise is only good if it can be put to full use. Turton could have written a straightforward mystery novel set in an English mansion, with clever clues and a surprising solution. To include so many other elements is to promise to bring something new to the genre. Do you think Turton made full use of his premise?
Let’s look at how he used each of the following elements in his novel:
the time loops
the multiple “hosts”
the plague doctor
the competition between Aidan and other sleuths
the double-ending
Time Loops
“Now you see them as I do,” says the Plague Doctor, in a low voice. “Actors in a play, doing the same thing night after night.” —Chapter 51
Our sleuth, Aidan, has an advantage over other literary sleuths: he can watch the day of the murder unfold over and over again. He can spend one of those days with
Peter Hardcastle, learning that he’s paying Stanwin to keep quiet about Thomas Hardcastle’s true murderer
Michael Hardcastle, who has a revolver identical to the murder weapon
Millicent Derby, learning that something strange is going on with one of the servants
Evelyn Hardcastle, learning that she’s communicating in secret with a mysterious figure called Felicity Maddox
Does Aidan need to loop through time to interview all of these witness and gather all of these clues? Couldn’t he have observed his suspects over the course of the day, or over the course of multiple days?