When an author creates a fantastic debut novel, it’s unfair to compare the sophomore effort to the first. Not making comparisons is hard when they are both mysteries, both historical, both unusual, and the first novel is The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
After reading Hardcastle, I instantly bought The Devil and the Dark Water, Stuart Turton’s second novel. Given its premise, I couldn’t wait for it to arrive. I’m an impossible crime aficionado, and this one promised not one but three impossible crimes. I am drawn to stories that look like a supernatural force is at work, often the case with impossibles.
Quick plot synopsis. Arent Hayes is a Dr. Watson type to Samuel (Sammy) Pipps’ great detective. Arent, unlike Watson, is a mountain of a man and more of a fighter than a criminologist. He boards with a noble family, Jan Haan and Sarah Wessel, who are traveling first class. A death occurs on boarding, and things go from strange to creepy. Dead men are seen on board and outside portholes, and strange symbols appear on sails. The confinement of a ship, the dangerous journey, and the historical setting all combine to make this a thriller mystery.
The novel moves along quickly, and the writing draws in the reader. I absorbed the lengthy Devil in days, not weeks. All was going well until the end. The climax and denouement of the novel doesn’t live up to its premise.
Perhaps the publisher found it hard to market this book. I found the back blurb particularly misleading. I kept wondering when I’d come to the descriptions on the back cover and then suddenly realized I had already read them. When the story finally outpaces what I knew would happen from the blurb, it veers off in an odd direction. At this point, near the final solution, I should’ve been glued to the narrative. Instead, the new direction of the book took the tense atmosphere away, and I found myself reading to get to the end. When the climax arrives, I couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. And worse was the final wrap-up. The last few pages felt disingenuous to the characters I had grown to love.
On later reflection, I view this book as less a mystery and more as a superhero origin story (I kid you not). In that light, Devil’s ending is slightly better, but not so much that I could recommend the novel. This one was a miss for multiple reasons. Unfortunately, I can’t detail them without giving too much away.
If you like seafaring tales like Master and Commander, you may like this book. If you enjoy plain thrillers but don’t care about solving mysteries, you may also like Devil. But fans of impossible crimes, straightforward historical fiction that don’t involve bodily fluids, or comeuppance endings should likely pass.