Stuart Turton is English. Painfully so. He lives in a village near London with his adorable daughter and clever, beautiful wife. His house is much too small, but he likes the light. He previously wrote The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, which was an international bestseller and won a number of awards, despite being absolutely nuts. Before becoming an author, he was a travel journalist, and before that, he did every other job you can possibly imagine. Goat farmer was the best. Cleaning toilets was the worst. Find him on Twitter @Stu_Turton. You can find more of my reviews of Turton's works here.
It's 1634, and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Traveling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent. Among the other guests is Sara Wessel, a noblewoman with a secret. But no sooner is their ship out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A strange symbol appears on the sail. A dead leper stalks the decks. Livestock dies in the night. And then the passengers hear a terrible voice, whispering to them in the darkness, promising three unholy miracles, followed by a slaughter. First an impossible pursuit. Second an impossible theft. And third an impossible murder. Could a demon be responsible for their misfortunes? With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent and Sara can solve a mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everyone on board. For fans of Stephen King, The Devil and the Dark Water brings a chilling new spin to the Sherlock Holmes detective duo in a thriller of supernatural horror, occult suspicion, and paranormal mystery on the high seas.
*This is a spoiler-free review!*
Stuart included a lovely note at the end of the novel that was incredibly enlightening, as far as how the book can be viewed. I loved his statement that the history is the fiction, and that we should definitely take a lot of the setting with a grain of salt—because, fiction is not fact. I also love how that note allows for differing interpretations of the ending of the story. While some people (like myself) enjoy an ending that is wrapped up neatly, with people explaining themselves, I can also understand the desire for ignoring some of those explanations in favor of leaving some things up to fantasy.
One of the big reasons this book was so enjoyable was because Turton really makes readers feel like they're on a boat in the 1600s. I mean, he does a fantastic job really immersing you into this world—the smells and the sounds and the feelings, more than just the sights, paint a wonderful (dirty? gross?) picture of what life might have been like before...really anything we know and love now. And yet, it's completely recognizable as our world, as well, in a really twisted way. And because readers feel so immersed, they're entirely engaged and invested in the mystery. There is no world outside of this shipping vessel, and yet, everything is at stake. The setting is really well crafted in order to get readers even more engaged in the mystery and in the characters trying to unfold it.
One of the reasons this novel was five stars for me was because Turton really improved in his storytelling, since The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Which is really incredible to note, and I commend him for it. I always recommend The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle with a grain of salt, because I know that not a lot of leisurely readers will enjoy the pacing of that novel. Now, I can't wait to recommend Turton's writing without that grain of salt, because the pacing of The Devil and the Dark Water is incredible. We still get multiple perspectives, and we still get to unravel a mystery that's just as twisty and surprising as the one in Turton's debut, but the pacing makes it much easier to pick up after setting it down, makes it much easier to remember where we left off and who we're suspicious of and all of that. We still have a wide spread of characters, and we still have twisty endings, which is exactly what I loved about Turton's debut, but now the pacing is exactly where I wanted it. So, bravo!
The book is marketed to fans of Stephen King and Sherlock Holmes; I personally don't like Stephen King, but I love Sherlock Holmesian mysteries, and The Devil and the Dark Water definitely delivered. I really appreciated the switched Sherlock Holmes-James Watson dynamic. It really made me root for Arent, and for Sara, as they tried to become detectives like the famed Sammy Pipps; this switch also made the ending that much twistier, and all the more rewarding. One of these days, I do hope to reread Turton's books, in order to see if I could have seen any of it coming. One of the reasons he's so successful with these twists is because people's motivations are so well veiled, and yet cleverly crafted and revealed in such a way that the reveals are believable, even when they're so surprising. Again, just another incredibly crafted novel.
If you can't tell, I am certainly going to read whatever Stuart Turton publishes next, because he's an incredible storyteller, and these mysteries are so twisty, I feel like I'd be doing myself a disservice if I didn't read them. So, until then!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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