“The Devil And The Dark Water” by Stuart Turton (2020)

“Arent Hayes howled in pain as a rock slammed into his massive back.”

When I read The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I said it was probably the best book I’d read all decade. Whatever Stuart Turton was going to produce next was forever going to be in its shadow, and he’d have to be something of a genius to produce something that even came close to it. Turns out, however, he’s a genius.

It’s 1634, and a fleet of seven ships are leaving the Dutch East Indies and bound for Amsterdam. On board o...