Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton is a British author whose genre-defying novels combine classic mystery structures with wildly inventive premises, creating some of the most original and entertaining fiction of recent years. His debut instantly established him as a writer of extraordinary imagination and ambition. Born in 1981, Turton studied English and Philosophy at university and worked as a journalist and travel writer before turning to fiction. His travels took him around the world, and his experiences inform the richly detailed, atmospheric settings of his novels. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) was his debut — a murder mystery set in a 1920s country house, but with a devastating twist: the protagonist relives the same day eight times, each time in the body of a different guest, trying to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. The novel is a dazzling combination of Agatha Christie, Groundhog Day, and Quantum Leap, praised for its fiendishly intricate plotting and its sheer inventiveness. It won the Costa First Novel Award and the Books Are My Bag Readers Award. The Devil and the Dark Water (2020) was set aboard a seventeenth-century ship sailing from Batavia to Amsterdam, combining a locked-room mystery with historical fiction and supernatural horror. The book was equally ambitious and inventive. The Last Murder at the End of the World (2024) presented yet another original premise — a mystery set on an island where the last survivors of humanity live under the protection of an all-knowing AI. Turton writes with infectious enthusiasm, intellectual playfulness, and genuine narrative skill. Each novel takes a classic genre and transforms it into something entirely new. The audiobook editions of Turton's novels are brilliant — his complex, multi-layered plots reward attentive listening. His books and audiobooks are essential for anyone who loves mysteries that shatter the mould and leave you wondering how on earth the author pulled it off.