The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
1634 — Our story begins with a mixed bag of passengers, and crew, preparing to board the Saardam on a voyage from Batavia to Amsterdam.
On the docks, a leper appears high atop a pile of crates and issues a warning that the voyage will end in merciless ruin.
He subsequently bursts into flames and dies a painful death. The observers, although chilled by his damning proclamation, shrug it off as the ramblings of a madman.
It’s harder to ignore the devil’s mark that suddenly appears on the sails, however. The incident, understandably, casts a sense of foreboding over all.
Samuel Pipps, a detective of some note, happens to be aboard, but as a prisoner.
Due to that status, he is locked in a grimy, claustrophobic cell, without even enough room to stand up.
Luckily, his faithful bodyguard, Lieutenant Arent Hayes, is aboard and he happens to have a close connection to the Governor General, Jan Haan.
Through Arent’s suggestion, Samuel earns the right to be taken out of his cell every night to get his exercise and fresh air upon the decks.
As mysterious happenings continue to plague the ship, paired with reoccurrences of the devil’s mark, Arent teams up with Jan Haan’s lovely wife, Sara Wessel, to try to get to the bottom of it.
An important piece of Arent’s past, the lore of a demon named Old Tom, plays a large role in this story. Some say Old Tom is aboard this ship; he’s the cause of all the problems.
There’s a ghost ship stalking them, their food source is threatened, a storm like no other threatens to sink them, people die, things disappear and throughout it all, Old Tom is trying to sway all aboard to his side.
This book has such a vibe. I don’t quite have words for it, but I love it!
As with The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, The Devil and the Dark Water is such a complex, suspenseful mystery.
The tone of this novel, the is it supernatural, is it not-feel of it all was masterfully done. Additionally, the use of Arent and Sara as an amateur sleuthing team was incredibly executed.
Together they are trying to work out who among them has been possessed by Old Tom. Their investigation has a lot of twists and turns, casting doubts on numerous passengers and crew.
All of the characters were so interesting. Anyone could have been the baddie. I had no clue who to suspect!
The entire story was completely original. I have never read anything quite like it. Turton’s imagination knows no bounds.
Apparently, 17th-Century Supernatural Mysteries are now my jam, because I am OBSESSED with this!
Thank you so much to the publisher, SourceBooks Landmark, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. This was by far, one of my most anticipated reads of the year, so I certainly appreciate it.
I am such of fan of Turton’s writing and look forward to seeing what he comes up with next!
