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One joy of discovering a new-to-you author that you really enjoy is when they have a new book that comes out not long after you’ve first read one of their books. With his second novel, The Devil and the Dark Water, Stuart Turton has become one of my new favorite mystery authors. He is wildly inventive in how he approaches the genre (to the point that he might bristle at being labeled a mystery author), and he is a master of prose. With The Devil and the Dark Water, Turton gives us another cross-genre tale, this one more an homage to the classic detective-centric whodunnits of Agatha Christie while steeped in historical fiction with a dash of supernatural horror.
In 1634 Arent Hayes, a man with a past and a fierce loyalty to his employer, famous detective Samuel Pipps, travels to Amsterdam from India, accompanying Pipps, who is imprisoned on the ship and awaiting trial for a crime he says he didn’t commit. Among the other passengers is Sara Wessel, the governor’s wife and a woman with a secret. Along the way, strange things start happening: a mysterious symbol appears on the sail, the ghost of a dead leper is seen about the ship, livestock drop dead unexpectedly, and the voice of the devil whispers in the night, promising both destruction and reward. With Pipps locked up, Arent and Sara must race to solve the mystery before fear sinks the ship and kills all on board.
Turton’s ability to craft richly detailed characters continue to shine in this second novel. Arent and Sara, as the story’s protagonists and would-be detectives, are complex and complicated, each with their dreams, fears, and desires. Particularly impactful are their individual doubts and uncertainty at their abilities to solve the mystery and how that informs the burgeoning relationship between the two of them. However, Turton does not skimp on the secondary or even tertiary characters. Every person on the boat has a completely fleshed out backstory, whether we as readers hear about it or not. They have lived lives, loved, lost, experienced happiness and pain, and every one of them harbors a secret. This book is populated with real people, and we, as readers, feel their fear.
While not as impressive a structural feat as The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Turton still holds pretty tight to the strands of his mystery here. With much more of a linear narrative structure, in keeping with the historical fiction influence, chapters switch back and forth between Sara and Arent’s perspectives while occasionally turning toward other characters’ perspectives as needed. The mystery itself is complex, tightly-woven, and well-crafted, and again, Turton paces out the action and clues in a way that allows us to work out the mystery along with Sara and Arent but not so much that the surprise is ruined. I correctly identified one part of the solution but knew I didn’t have the whole thing, which felt like a good balance going into the final reveal. And, as mentioned, Turton loves playing with genre, which he continues to do in The Devil and the Dark Water. In fact, I think the true breadth of his skill as a prose stylist is best seen between his two books because his intense and thorough understanding of the various genres he’s working with leads to melding these genres in different and creative ways across both books. He is intentional about when he stays true to a genre and when he diverges, and everything melds together into a completely satisfying genre soup.
My one quibble is with the end. I am hesitant to say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything for potential readers. However, the ending didn’t sit right with me. For a while it felt like, “Huh. That’s it?” Honestly, it fell flat. Then I pinpointed exactly why I didn’t like it: because the ending meant that characters made choices that were inconsistent with how they had been established previously. That’s all I’ll say about it specifically, but it speaks to my main criticism of Turton. He works so hard to get us to the finish line in spectacular fashion in both books, but he loses his grip on things and falls right before we get there. In Evelyn Hardcastle, he lost a few threads of his web, and in Dark Water, he lost sight of his characters. I’m hopeful his next book, whatever it is, gets over that hump.
Overall, though, I loved The Devil and The Dark Water. I enjoy Turton’s prose, creativity, and mystery stylings, and it was a great, slightly spooky read leading up to Halloween. (Not that you have to wait until Halloween to read it, but it’s extra fun if you do!)