The story of Samuel Pipps and his bodyguard Arent Hayes, this is a maritime mystery full of vivid imagery and a colourful cast of characters. The addition of demonic forces and devilish intrigue just added to the atmosphere of perilous danger and doom. I loved the accuracy and intricacies of a working ship, Turton really did his research and his attention to detail made the voyage a believable adventure. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

I loved this! It was different to what I was used to seeing Turton right and though the atmosphere was gothic and similar to the seven deaths of Evelyn hardcastle, it still felt like a different book and I enjoyed it throughly. Turton knows how to suck you into a compelling story and this was no exception. I liked the characters and I loved the build up. I can’t wait to see what he has to offer in his next works!

Having read and raved to anyone who would listen about The Seven (and a half) Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle which was Stuart Turton’s debut book I had very high expectations of The Devil and The Dark Water. Firstly, the books are in no way related to each other, besides the author’s skill at creating a complex and thrilling plot. The Devil and the Dark Water is set in the 1600s as a ship sets sail with a curse aboard. We meet a thrilling cast of characters – something else which Turton seems particularly skilled at creating. There’s Sherlock Holmes-esque Samuel Pipps who is locked onboard as a prisoner, his loyal bodyguard Arent Hayes, noble-woman Sara who is ahead of her time and her brilliant daughter Lia. They are surrounded by an interesting and ruthless crew who may turn on them at a moments notice, as well as a priest and his assistant, both with mysterious pasts.

The book is very well plotted and the story clips along a good pace, although I must admit it did feel a little slow in places. It’s a great setting for a book and the claustrophobic air of the ship really works well for a murder mystery. There’s also an amount of superstition and the supernatural as well which keeps you guessing – I don’t think I’d guessed any part of the overall plot which is very unlike me! The end twist in particular really shocked me and I did not see it coming. The book also sets up a sequel which I would be interested in reading as I felt I would like to get to know some of the characters a little better. That said, it does work well as a standalone piece as well.

Overall The Devil and The Dark Water showed off more of Stuart Turton’s talents as an author and I can’t wait to read what he writes next. Thank you to NetGalley & Bloomsbury Publishing Plc – Raven Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t a particularly big fan of The Seven 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle but I really liked the sound of this so I was excited to be given the chance to read an advance copy. This is a locked room type of mystery set on a ship in 1634 sailing between Jakarta and Amsterdam. I found this book atmospheric, tense, suspenseful and a joy to read. The only criticism would be that I found it a wee bit long. Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I tend to steer clear of detective novels after reading the entire Morse collection over one summer as a teenager, which means everything I read now feels cliched. However, this novel was a great exception. Setting the plot almost entirely on a boat keeps the plot fresh and adds to the jeopardy and tension by ensuring no one can escape. I picked up on a few of the clues but the ending still held surprises, which was great - Turton's misdirection is masterly! And the feminist elements of Sara's story were very welcome in a book based in that time period. A great romp!

I loved the author’s first book and was excited to read this one. It’s not something I would normally have picked up from the description, but I was quickly drawn into the world on board ship. Would recommend to others.

I really enjoyed this swash-buckling adventure battling demons and mysterious goings on aboard a convoy of ships journeying in 1634 to Amsterdam. I marveled at Turton's previous novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and found The Devil and the Dark Water to be a shade shy of the deep intrigue planted by Seven Deaths. It also felt a wee bit contrived - the relationship between Arent and Sara most especially - but the journey was so arresting and I liked the characters so well I wasn't bothered to witness that come to its inevitable conclusion.

I loved the grand unveiling at the climax. So much detail to unravel and so well accomplished! A great read that will keep you hooked. For me, Stuart Turton is a proven talent and I will continue to read all he writes.

Thank you to Netgalley, Raven Books & Stuart Turton for my arc of The Devil & the Dark Water in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis: It's 1634 and the world's greatest detective, Sammy Pipps is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime of which nobody knows the details. Arent Hayes Pipp's bodyguard is determined to prove him innocent, but no sooner are they out to sea than that is far from anyone's minds as they battle instead with what appears to be an actual devil. A leper, already dead stalks the decks and strange symbols begin to appear as more and more heinous acts are committed. With Pipps imprisoned only Arent can solve the mystery onboard, but not without help, the governors wife who has plans of her own is keen to get to the bottom of the mystery herself.


I enjoyed this book immensely, I really loved Evelyn Hardcastle it was one of the cleverest books I've ever read, this second book did not quite live up to it but was still good in its own way. Stuart Turton is an excellent writer, skilled at creating interesting characters with lots of depth and plot lines that keep you wanting to read and most importantly keep you guessing. What I like most is that although you may have suspicions there's always a twist at the end that surprises you regardless!

Thanks so much to Bloomsbury for gifting me this ARC!

Man, I loved this - I adored The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and Turton's new book did not disappoint.

Detective duo. Murder. Demon. HELL YES. Lots of different suspects which is great as it keeps you guessing right until the end.

This is a fantastic and highly imaginative read (honestly Turton's imagination knows no bounds), which is well plotted. I just think this is the type of book you just need to pick up if you love historical murder mystery with a twist of supernatural. So. good.

A twisty, creepy mystery based in superstition and intrigue.

After a slow start this book really got going and had me enthralled in the mystery that was taking place on the voyage between Amsterdam and Batavia. The setting provided an ample place for an exciting mystery to take place as everyone was stuck on the ship for the duration of the voyage. It was full of twists and turns the had me second guessing my deductions and a crazy twist ending that had me sat in confusion and awe after I finished it.

The characters were interesting and well developed, making the mystery even more complex that it already was. Thus, helping along the twists that Stuart Tutton dreamt up for this book. Sara is an incredible woman, who despite dangers pushed in her way continues to fight for what she believes in and that is something that I admire in a character and a writer. Making women, and other characters, strong without sacrificing the story or trying too hard to be feminist.

Overall, an exciting and intriguing mystery that had me guessing throughout.

In the follow up to his fantastic debut novel (The seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle), Turton takes us on to the high seas, and throws us into a thrilling journey of suspense, devilry, murder, secrets and much more. On board the Saardam, Turton's cast of wonderfully believable characters face an arduous eight month journey to Amsterdam, transporting precious cargo, passengers - both noble and common, and a crew of unruly sailors, along with all their superstitions. And chasing them is 'Old Tom', a figure of evil who more than one passenger is familiar with. With the threat of death following them - from a leper on the docks, to mutiny on the ship, the most unlikely relationships form in order to solve the mystery of 'Old Tom' before he destroys them all.

Dark and twisted, Stuart Turton has done it once again. This was a massively interesting book, filled with many twists and turns that I did not expect.

I loved Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and was very much looking forward to The Devil and the Dark Water. But the book is quite messy. There are a lot of confusing elements, most of all which characters believe/do not believe in the devil. The main characters swing between their beliefs which led to a lot of 'Oh but he didn't believe. Oh but what else could it be. Oh maybe it was true. Oh no it can't be true' tropes. It got a lot better towards the end. But I'd have liked a cleaner, clearer story.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded down

Turton is a gifted story teller. The world building and eerie atmosphere he creates with his words are fantastic. Lots of mystery and tension which got me deeply vested in this book. However, ultimately this book is too long with too much premise of something just on the cusp of happening, but coming to nothing. But I'm glad I stuck it out to the end, the unexpected ending (literally the very end) was worth it.

I loved Stu Turton's first novel, Seven Deaths, mind-bogglingly complex though it was. This is a simpler but no less accomplished novel, full of atmosphere, suspense, and intelligent plotting. A triumph.

Highly atmospheric and fiendishly clever, but missing something for me. 4/5 stars.

I was incredibly impressed by Turton's debut novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, if for nothing more than the sheer amount of work that must have gone into keeping all the plot lines straight. So I was really looking forward to his new book and I'm sorry to say I didn't find it quite as successful as Seven Deaths. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it at all, I just didn't find it as pleasing. I've given both books 4 stars, but I think Seven Deaths was more 4.5 rounded down and The Devil and the Deep Water is more 3.5 rounded up (I'm aware this is a bit odd and possibly unfair, but I can't review with hindsight!).

There is loads of great stuff to like in The Devil and the Deep Water. What I enjoyed most was the brilliant atmosphere. The ship is a great claustrophobic setting for mysterious shennanigans and felt really creepy and threatening at times.

I also liked the female characters who didn't sit on their backsides and wait for anyone to save them. I'm not quite sure how historically accurate women having this much agency in the early 17th century - particularly onboard a ship - would have been, but I was happy to suspend my disbelief.

Also, hats off to the author for creating a partnership of investigators who are basically Holmes and Watson and then shoving his Holmes out of the way for most of the book to let his Watson have the run of the place. I thought this was an audacious move and one that paid off.

Perhaps my enjoyment was slightly marred from the off. I found it difficult to get into the story initially because the book has such a large and varied cast it took me a while to get a firm grip on who the heck everyone was. I found myself going back a few pages to check I'd got it all straight, which took me out of the story and interrupted the narrative flow.

Also, I felt a little let down by the ending. After roughly 500 pages of complicated malarkey on the high seas, supposedly supernatural or otherwise, I was expecting a rather spectacular denouement. But when we finally got the big reveal, it seemed sadly rushed and emotionally flat.

Overall: a fiendishly complex mystery with a highly atmospheric setting, but perhaps the dazzling intricacy of the set up takes the narrative to such heights that the reveal can only be anticlimactic.

I loved Stuart Turton’s first novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, which I thought was one of the most original and unusual mystery novels I’ve ever read, so I had high hopes for his new book, The Devil and the Dark Water. However, although this is another complex and cleverly plotted novel, it has a very different structure, setting and feel, and didn’t impress me as much as the previous book did.

The Devil and the Dark Water opens in 1634 in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia), an outpost of the United East India Company. The Dutch ship Saardam is about to set sail for Amsterdam, carrying a cargo of spices, a mysterious object known as The Folly – and a prisoner, Sammy Pipps, the world’s greatest detective. Nobody knows what crime Sammy is supposed to have committed, but his friend and bodyguard, Lieutenant Arent Hayes, has vowed to protect him during the journey and to prove him innocent if possible. As the passengers and crew prepare to embark, a leper wrapped in blood-stained rags appears on the dock and has time to place a curse on the ship before his body is consumed by flames.

The curse appears to set in motion a chain of eerie, unexplained events which begin to occur as soon as the ship sails out to sea. Is the Saardam really being haunted by the devil, Old Tom, or is a human being behind these sinister occurrences? With Sammy locked in a cell, it falls to Arent to investigate…but he is not the only person on the ship who is trying to solve the mystery. Sara Wessel, wife of the Governor General, is also determined to uncover the truth, with the help of her daughter, Lia, and her husband’s mistress, Creesjie.

This is a wonderfully atmospheric book, with a real sense of evil and foreboding, beginning in the first chapter with the leper’s curse – ‘Know that my master sails aboard the Saardam. He is the lord of hidden things; all desperate and dark things…’ – and continuing to build throughout the novel, with strange symbols appearing on the sails, a lantern that shines out at sea where no lantern should be, stories of witchfinders and burning villages, and a series of ‘unholy miracles’. I found it genuinely spooky and although the plot itself seemed to move along very slowly at times (I read it on my Kindle and hadn’t really appreciated what a long book it was), the atmosphere more than made up for it. The revelations at the end of the book also took me by surprise; I’d had my suspicions about one of the characters, but I certainly didn’t guess everything correctly!

There were things I liked, then, but the main problem I had with the book was that I never at any point felt fully immersed in the seventeenth century. There’s no real attempt to use language appropriate to the period, Sara and Lia are both modern women with modern attitudes, and the depiction of Sammy Pipps as a sort of Sherlock Holmes character whose cases had been written about (by Arent) for all the world to read seemed completely implausible. To be fair, Stuart Turton acknowledges in an author’s note at the end of the book that he ‘did his research, then threw away the bits that hindered the story’, but I personally prefer a story set in the past to actually feel historical – otherwise, why bother setting it in the past at all? If you’re not too bothered about historical accuracy and are just looking for a dark and atmospheric mystery novel, I’m sure you’ll find a lot to enjoy here, but I don’t think I was the right reader for this book.

What an adventure!

I loved Stuart Turton's first novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and I have been eager to read more of Turton's work ever since. While this novel has a different feel to his first, Turton once again delivers the same expert talent for mystery.

The Devil and the Dark Water is set on a merchant ship in 1634 which is due to set sail from Amsterdam. A charming ensemble of characters feature, each bound by the social norms and values of the class system in the 17th century. A leper (who it is later revealed had his tongue cut out) appears as the characters are boarding the ship; he utters a fearsome curse to the passengers and then catches fire, burning to death. The curse on board appears to take the form of a devil called Old Tom, and a series of tragedies soon follow once the ship sets sail, all seemingly connected to the devil himself.

Turton's novels remind me a lot of Agatha Christie. In this case, the mystery takes place onboard a ship (almost akin to a 'locked-room mystery') and contains an impressive number of characters, some who may not be what they appear to be. The atmosphere created in the book is palpable; I could almost feel myself standing alongside the characters, wading through the bilge water trying to make sense of what Old Tom would do next to take hold of the ship. My only issue with the novel is that I felt the pacing was slow in the first 150 pages or so. However, the pace does pick up towards the middle and contains a satisfying array of twists and turns.

I would recommend The Devil and the Dark Water to any fans of historical or mystery fiction. This is a gripping story that makes for perfect autumnal/Halloween reading!

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book that I have read by this Author. I will be reading others by him in due course.

I gave this a 4 stars or 8/10.

This was an atmospheric tale of life at sea on a voyage to another land. As the journey progresses, it becomes apparent to the people on board that life at sea not only holds danger from the water, but also from the other people on board. At the heart of this story is a mystery and the passengers on board are all connected in some way, so it would seem. Can the mystery be solved and will they survive the journey?

I found this a claustrophobic read at times, as everyone had nowhere to go during the journey they were stuck on a ship that was at the mercy of the sea and it's inhabitants. It was a well written story that kept me guessing and took me on a journey of discovery.

I absolutely loved 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle' - it blew me away and it remains one of the best mystery novels ever, to my mind. So I was expecting big things with Stuart Turton's follow-up and he did not disappoint. It's very different from 'Seven Deaths' but it's just as twisty with a wonderful sense of dread and adventure and an interesting new take on the classical sleuth/side-kick dynamic.