Rose Reads Novels

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton was an absolute door-stopper of a novel, absolutely huge. Luckily for me I read this while on holidays so only had to lug the book between my bedside table and sun lounge and back again.

Categorising the story was difficult as it fitted into a number of genres. The story was set in 1634 so was historical, it also included a mystery, loads of adventure, suspense, a hint of romance, and right up until the very end of the story, a potentially supernatural element which fed back into the mystery. In addition, almost the whole story was set on a sailing ship bound for Amsterdam from Batavia which was interesting in itself.

The main character was Sara Wessell. She was unhappily married to the Governor-General of Batavia, Jan Haan, a cruel man who had committed terrible atrocities to gain power. Jan expected that the mysterious cargo he was taking with him to Amsterdam, would gain him entry to a union of powerful men once he reached that city.

Travelling on the Saardam with Jan was Sara, their daughter Lia, Jan’s mistress (and Sara’s friend) Creesjie Jens and her sons, along with several members of his staff.

While waiting on the docks to board the ship the passengers were warned by a leper that the ship’s cargo was cursed and would not reach Amsterdam before he horrifically burst into flames. Sara raced to the leper’s aid* but was unable to help him as he had been so badly burnt. Sara also realised that the dying man’s tongue had been cut out which was the first mystery to arise as she knew the leper couldn’t have shouted the warning. Sara then requested another passenger, Arent, a former soldier and mercenary, kill the leper to put him out of his pain.

Arent was accompanying Sammy Pipps, a ‘thief-taker’ who had been imprisoned for a mysterious crime back to Amsterdam, where Sammy was to be tried. Sammy had a brilliant brain and was well known throughout Batavia for solving crimes and mysteries. Arent, who was something of a hero himself, worshipped Sammy.

Once the ship had sailed, the devil’s mark began to appear and the voice of ‘Old Tom’ started speaking to the crew and passengers, offering each of them their heart’s desire so long as they carried out some dreadful crime or other. The leper continued to mysteriously appear to various crew members and passengers to give them dire warnings, while animals were slaughtered, other passengers and crew were murdered and a ghost ship was spotted following the Saardam. All the while thoughts of greed, revenge and fulfilling their lusts overwhelmed most of the people who heard Old Tom’s whispers.

Sara and Arent teamed up to learn who or what was behind the terrible doings since Sammy was locked into a dark jail and was unable to solve the mystery in his usual Sherlock Holmes way, but there were a lot of twists and turns before the perpetrators were revealed.

I enjoyed this book, although I felt it was overly long and had too many characters. Luckily there was a character key which I referred to regularly to remind me who was who. The mystery kept me interested right up until the end, although the ending seemed to fizzle out rather than go with a bang. I had my suspicions about who and what and was proved right, although my ‘why’ or reasons for suspecting certain characters was incorrect.

I’m keen to read The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by this author.

*I originally wrote ‘leaped to the leper’s aid’ which I obviously had to change after I had read it back to myself, but I also thought my first attempt was too funny not to share.