#Stuart Turton

[literary-illuminati]

2025 Book Review #14 – The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

I have no memory whatsoever how this charming little mystery ended up on my TBR shelf – it was on some ‘best of’ list or another I skimmed through more than likely. However it happened, I’m happy it did – this was hardly high art, but it was a fun and engaging Twilight Zone episode of a novel, and left me very interested in reading more of Turton’s other work.

The novel is set on a remote island some time after the apocalypse, the only place in the world where the last heroic efforts of preapocalyptic scientists created a barrier to hold back the plague of poisonous fog which boiled up from beneath the world and wiped out all other life. Ninety years later, the three surviving Elders and the omnipresent, mind-reading artificial intelligence Abi guide and rule over a village of a hundred-and-seven, the last remnants of all the refugees who reached the island before the end. Filled with now-irreplaceable medical technology and genetic enhancements, the Elders are fairly literally superhuman and viewed by the generations of villagers who have been born and died since the end of the world with near-religious awe. So when the eldest and most beloved of them dies – and seemingly after directly ordering Abi to wipe everyone else’s memories of the ruinous night before her brutal murder – things get very tense. And that’s before everyone realizes that the barrier holding back the fog was deactivated by a dead man’s switch tied to her heart beat. Now it’s up to the irritatingly curious and irreverent village neerdowell to to solve the mystery and satisfy the system that justice has been done so it will reactivate the barrier before the fog consumes them all.

So this is a very high concept novel. First and foremost, it’s at the moment literally the only book I can remember that more or less pulls off first-person-omniscient narration – the book is told from Abi’s perspective, and all the increasingly sinister asides and bits of context that leak through from it as its attention shifts from one character’s brain to another is a major part of the book’s charm. It is very on brand for me to say the creepy AI is the best character, but as far as compellingly nonhuman intelligence go it is right up there.

It’s also a strikingly misanthropic book – in the literal sense, the book has a very dim view of humanity and the ambiguous but happy ending involves taking the species off the board for at least the foreseeable future. Thematically it’s about getting over the past and trusting your students/children/successors to find their own way in the world without your constant guidance, but on a very literal level this is a story where humanity’s successors are strictly better off with us. And also where a project that in basically every other story I’ve ever read would be the cartoonishly evil plot of a cackling supervillain is portrayed as monstrous in execution but well-intentioned and more tragically impossible than evil in concept. It’s an interesting shift in perspective from most self-consciously humanist sci fi I’ve read.

The actual mystery is very fun and satisfying twisted and obscured by all the other dirty secrets the Elders are keeping from each other – the narrative used the memory to have multiple people come think they were the murderer and act accordingly in a very satisfying way. That said, I’m not sure the broad strokes twilight zone-ness of the setting really mixed well with the mystery plot – not that it wasn’t used for some fun twists, but it’s more than a bit unclear at points which parts of the world you should carefully interrogate for clues and hints, and which you kind of just need to shrug and take as a given for the story to work.

I admit I do just have a reflexive, contrarian aversion to stories that end up just being someone’s planning going off perfectly. Which isn’t really fair to hold against the book, but on a purely subjective level did make me enjoy the finale and epilogue less than I might have otherwise. Still, all in all this was a fun brain teaser and page-turner. Would recommend, if the synopsis at all appeals.

[nokkiart]

A friend let me borrow “The Devil and the Dark Water” recently because I loved “7 1/2 Deaths” so much, and I desperately needed something to clear my head after being laid off.

I had no idea that I’d end up coming out of this murder mystery novel with a new otp, but I absolutely love Arent and Sara! They are such a fantastic duo and are too adorable together! 💖

So once I finished the book, I immediately started doodling them 😅💕

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2024 📖 no. 068

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

“Streaking away from this moment are dozens of possible futures, each waiting to be conjured into existence by a random event, an idle phrase, a miscommunication or an overheard conversation.”

[books-and-cookies]

5 SECOND REVIEW

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

also: The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

[ct-multifandom]

If I met award-winning murder mystery author Stuart Turton (the 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, the devil and the dark water, the last murder at the end of the world) in person, I would gift him a copy of the zero escape trilogy the way Matpat gave the pope undertale

[enlitment]

Hi there, I came across your post praising The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and wanted to chat with another fan about this book. I absolutely tore through this book and loved just about every minute of it. I'm surprised, though, to see how little Tumblr seems to care for it. If you have time, I'd love to discuss some aspects of the book that are lingering in my mind. Things like what kind of hell is Blackheath in reality? Is it a recreation of a real crime that went unsolved and the Plague Doctor is the Staff Member of Purgatory who keeps resetting the stage? Or is it reality but caught in a time bubble? And what on earth was Annabelle in charge of that got her sent there? They made her sound like Hitler. I'd love to know your thoughts!

Hi, thanks for reaching out!

Wow, someone who actually read Evelyn Hardcastle? The book I was bothering all my friends with for months?

(oh, and potential spoilers discussed below by the way, for anyone else who wants to read it themselves at some point. Which you absolutely should by the way).

I was also completely enthralled by it as I was reading it! It's been a little over a year now, so my memory is a little hazy, but from what I can remember:

I personally thought that Blackheath was a simulation of a crime that happened in real life, with the Plague Doctor pulling the strings.

I feel like it functioned both as a way of solving the crime but also as a punishment for the people trapped in it. Kind of a 'killing two birds with one stone' type of situation, though I'm not one hundred percent certain about that.

The charges against Annabelle definitely sounded pretty serious! I definitely thought she must have been either a mass murderer or a dictator, so Hitler is quite fitting. No idea about the specific nature of her crimes though, I think it was left to be quite vague.

If you have any more observations to share, feel free to send them my way!

(Btw I read Turton's second book, The Devil and the Dark Water, and while I enjoyed it it didn't quite live up to the expectations set by his first work. I know he has published a third one, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Did you? If so, I'd love to hear your thought son it as well!)

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Literature Moodboards // The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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.

[dullyn]

Now this is what I call a book Dedication. Like wowee.

Source: The Last Murder at the End of the World

[inabooknook]

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

This book had a very interesting premise. The story follows an island at the very end of the world - a fog has taken over the rest of the planet, and the island is populated with some people who have found a way to keep the fog at bay. However, a murder occurs which sets into motion the fog coming for the rest.

The book was interesting and unique, unlike most other books I've read recently. The story was engaging, the twists were unexpected, and it was hard to predict what would occur next. I liked it because it was definitely different, and given many books nowadays, that is generally hard to come by.

I would recommend this as something for anyone who enjoys a good thriller but is tired of formulaic writing, and predictable endings. At no point during this book did I have any idea what would come next. Highly recommend!

[midnights-wish]

''The sea was keeping her secrets, as usual.''

Stuart Turton, 'The Devil And The Dark Water'.

[orionisanxious]

How does one obtain a following here? I shall hash tag things I'm into/am. I'll probably try and make some art. That's popular right?

[sen-de-oku]

Yarın; korkulması gereken bir şey olmak yerine, kendime verdiğim bir söz olabilirdi. Daha cesur ya da daha nazik olmak, yanlışları düzeltmek için bir şans olabilirdi. Bugün olduğumdan daha iyi bir adam olabilirdim... Bundan sonra bana verilen her gün bir hediyeydi.

Stuart Turton (Evelyn Hardcastle'ın Yedi Ölümü)

[romilly-jay]

Something Echoing Between Art Forms

***mild spoilers***

Went to a radio audience recording earlier and finally got started on Natasha Pulley's The Mars House.

Had to pause almost immediately though because I hadn't quite absorbed that one of the MCs is called January...

Cute name - but the reason it caught my attention is that this is the second time in a month I've read a story with a MC called January.

Is there something in the water?

The other one was January Andrews, in Emily Henry's Beach Read - which I might possibly have forgotten (despite the name turning into an explicit plot point), except that the books JA is mentioned as working on turn up in bookshops in EH's later story, Book Lovers.

I'm genuinely on board when I see a move like this - and would you believe it, but NP does something similar in The Mars House, name-checking her earlier characters from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Which I haven't read yet but is looking likely to make it onto my TBR list, judging by how I've adored the first 100 pages of TMH.

I'm not the only one who has enjoyed it - very positive review in The Guardian's round up of new SF, from a couple of months ago:

And Stuart Turton was really warm about it (and NP generally) when it and she came up in conversation during his Waterstones book tour for The Last Murder at the End of the World. [Their books came out within a couple of weeks of each other, I think?]

I'm now committed. Fizzing with anticipation for the rest of the book and very slightly concerned that it can't *possibly* live up to its blazingly strong start - whilst also quietly urging it to do so!!

PS I've now read the rest of this. I loved it. LOVED it. Loved how it tackled its topics. Loved the MCs. Loved all the linguistics insights. Extra loved the use of footnotes. Even loved the ahem unexpected cameo / plot twist at around the 2/3rds mark which probably divided the audience - I'm imagining... Anyway, Will Write More About This at some point but for now moving this into Sept, out of the way of the blah blah about romcoms and action movies. Even though this book is by no means out of place with either of these subject groups <3

[melodramatic-wallflower]

who the fuck hurt stuart turton (author of the 7.5 deaths of evelyn hardcastle) to make him so wildly and vividly fatphobic. dude, have you ever had a conversation with an overweight person where you stopped gagging long enough to treat them like a human being?

this is entirely ruining an otherwise interesting mystery, and i'm absolutely going to get a refund from audible

[a-ramblinrose]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge || December 13 || Unexpected Ending:  The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton