The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Aiden, a man named Alf Miller who works as the stable master, and Cunningham attempt to meet with Lady Helena, but she does not show up. Cunningham becomes impatient and leaves. Once they are alone, Aiden questions Miller as to what Miller and Cunningham were talking about before he arrived, and Miller admits that Cunningham was asking him about a “murdered boy.” Aiden presumes that Miller is referring to Thomas Hardcastle, but Miller clarifies that he means Keith Parker. About a week before the murder of Thomas, Keith, a fourteen-year-old stableboy, vanished. His body was never found.

Miller recounts that on the day of Thomas’s murder, Lord Peter fired Carver. Angry, Carver stole some bottles of brandy and drank them in the stables with Miller. Then, Carver told Miller to leave. Miller suspected Carver might be meeting with Lady Helena, so he hid nearby and saw Lady Helena come to the stable. However, after the murder, Lady Helena told Miller not to reveal what he saw. Miller was also afraid of being blamed for the death, since the knife found in Carver’s cabin was originally Miller’s knife and had been stolen from him a few days before the murder. Aiden begins to wonder if Lady Helena could have been with Carver during the murder and decides to question Doctor Dickie to try and find out. Finding more information about Lady Helena is urgent because “chances are, she’s planning to kill Evelyn tonight” (253).

Back at Blackheath, Aiden confronts Doctor Dickie, but the Doctor does not provide any information that could incriminate Lady Helena. Aiden goes to the drawing room and again witnesses the incident where Ted Stanwin is aggressive towards Lucy and defused by Daniel Coleridge. This time, however, he notices different things about the interaction: “When I first witnessed this moment, I’d taken note only of Lucy’s fear at being manhandled, but she isn’t merely afraid, she’s surprised” (258).

Aiden joins the hunt with many of the other male guests. As the hunters move through the woods, Daniel chats with Aiden, explaining that he is injured because of a confrontation with the Footman. Aiden also notices that Michael is carrying a revolver, and Michael explains that Evelyn gave it to him that morning. Aiden assumes the revolver is one of the two taken from Lady Helena’s room. Michael further confides that he is concerned because his mother has been acting strangely. About a year ago, after a visit to Blackheath, Lady Helena told Michael something about finding clothes, but he could never figure out what she was talking about.

Aiden wakes up back in the body of the butler, accompanied by the Plague Doctor. The Plague Doctor tells Aiden that the Footman is very close to solving the murder, and that Aiden needs to speed up his work. The Plague Doctor also notes that Aiden’s connection to his true self is becoming weaker and weaker each time he moves to a new host. The Plague Doctor observes that Aiden has changed through the times he has repeated the cycle, and he feels Aiden now stands a better chance of actually solving the murder: “I think you’re closer than you’ve ever been, but I’ve thought that before and been fooled. The truth is you’ve yet to be tested, but that’s coming” (270).

Back in Dance’s body, Aiden seizes a chance to speak with Ted Stanwin during the hunt. Aiden asks Stanwin to tell him about the day that Thomas Hardcastle was murdered. Stanwin says that he was patrolling the estate when he came across Carver and another man stabbing Thomas near the lake. He seized Carver and shot the other man, who got away, nonetheless. Aiden says that Alf Miller claims Lady Helena was with Carver only minutes before the murder, but Stanwin claims this must be a lie. Stanwin also hints that he knows a secret he could use to blackmail Dance.

Before Aiden can respond, Daniel Coleridge abruptly shoots and kills Ted Stanwin. Sutcliffe, Pettigrew, and others express their concern that their secrets will now be revealed, since Stanwin always promised to unleash their secrets if anyone harmed him. Daniel says that he now owns all of the secrets. In exchange for freeing the other men from Stanwin, he wants no one to say anything about the murder. Aiden rebukes Daniel for killing Stanwin: “You murdered a man in cold blood, and that will blot your soul for the rest of your life” (277). Daniel, however, argues that when the day repeats again, Stanwin will be back alive, so it doesn’t matter. Together, Aiden and Daniel search Stanwin’s body for any clues or information. They find both a book containing all of the secrets Stanwin has gathered (it is written in code, but Daniel already has the cipher to decode it), and a locket containing a portrait of a young girl.

Back at the house, Michael joins Daniel and Aiden and tells him he has arranged for Stanwin’s body to be discreetly taken away, and he will alert the authorities the next day, claiming to simply have found the body in the woods. Daniel is increasingly excited about solving the crime, even though Aiden wonders “And then what happens? Do you walk out of here? Do I? We can’t both escape; we’re the same man” (282). Aiden and Daniel prepare to meet in the graveyard, where they believe the Footman will be showing up in pursuit of Anna. Aiden goes back to his room, where he is surprised to find Anna. Before he can ask her any questions, Aiden realizes that the Footman is also in the room. The Footman stabs Aiden in the stomach.

Aiden wakes up in the body of the butler, and the Footman and Anna are there as well. The Footman stabs Aiden again.

Aiden wakes up in the body of Jim Rashton, a young police constable. Aiden is horrified that it seems Anna has indeed betrayed him. Then, Anna shows up. Aiden is angry with her, but Anna argues that it is her future self who will do those things, and she must have reasons for doing so: “I haven’t done any of that yet, and even when I do, it won’t be because I’m betraying you” (288). Anna explains that, unlike Aiden, she has some memories from their previous loops, and in one of them, he murdered her.

Aiden still can’t remember clearly, but he knows in his gut that Anna is right. The faint guilt he has been unable to understand stems from the previous loop, where, although he and Anna had worked together to try and solve the crime, he prioritized himself and murdered her. Aiden agrees to work with Anna and vows not to leave without her.

Anna has learned that the Footman will be coming to hunt Aiden. Aiden decides to take advantage of this information and try to sneak up on the footman. Aiden creeps up behind the Footman as the Footman is trying to break in to Rashton’s bedroom. The two of them fight, but the Footman gets away.

Aiden also has a realization: he has been trusting Daniel Coleridge because Daniel told him that he will be Aiden’s final host. However, Aiden now realizes that Daniel Coleridge can’t be one of his hosts and instead must also be a player in the game. This also means that the Plague Doctor has been deliberately misleading Aiden by covering up Daniel’s trick: “Why would he tell me there were only three people trying to escape the house, when there are four? He’s gone out of his way to conceal Daniel’s duplicity” (293). However, Daniel has been helping Aiden rather than hindering him, so it’s not clear what he is up to. Aiden decides to continue the ruse and keep this new information from Anna.

Aiden goes to Lady Helena’s room, noticing that, like before, two guns are missing. By now, Aiden knows that Evelyn has taken them; she’ll use one to threaten Jonathan Derby in the woods and give one to Michael, but Aiden still doesn’t understand why she uses a different gun (the silver pistol) to kill herself. 

Aiden finds a note from Gregory Gold urging him to acquire certain drugs. Grace Davies, the sister of Donald Davies and Jim Rashton’s lover, arrives. She is worried because she has heard that her brother drove away in the middle of the night and hasn’t been heard from since. She is worried about him and wants Rashton (Aiden) to help her look for him. Grace also reveals that Davies has been taking drugs from Sebastian Bell.

Aiden goes to confront Stanwin. Aiden reveals the secret that he has pieced together: The maid, Lucy Harper, is Stanwin’s daughter. In exchange for keeping Stanwin’s secret concealed, Aiden wants to know more about what happened when Thomas was killed.

Aiden shares his suspicion that the supposed “gifts” Stanwin has received from the Hardcastle family are actually blackmail for something about that day relating to Helena Hardcastle. Aiden tries to persuade Stanwin to help him stop Evelyn’s murder by pointing out “seems to me it’s in your interest to keep Evelyn alive so she can marry Ravencourt, and you can keep getting paid” (309). Stanwin counters that he is about to sell all of his secrets to Daniel Coleridge and get out of the blackmail business; Aiden points out that Coleridge is going to kill him and take the secrets for free (he knows this because he has already lived through watching Coleridge kill Stanwin).

Stanwin reluctantly begins to talk. On the day of Thomas’s murder, word got out that Carver had been fired due to his affair with Lady Helena. Stanwin noticed Carver lurking around and then leaving the house with a leather bag. Stanwin followed to bid goodbye to Carver and went toward the lake. At the lake, Stanwin found Lady Helena clutching the body of her son, repeating that it had been an accident, even though “she’d stabbed him through the throat” (311). Carver arrived a few minutes later without the bag and told Stanwin to pretend he had never seen anything. Carver also told Stanwin to tell everyone that he had been the killer. Stanwin reluctantly kept the secret while also blackmailing Lady Helena.