A Practical Guide to April Genevieve Tucholke's Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
If you are looking for a copy of Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea April Genevieve Tucholke, the main places to go are Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, and your local independent bookstore that does special orders. The book came out in hardcover in March 2017 and has been in paperback since 2018. It is still in print as of my last check. The ISBN for the paperback edition is 9781524743652 and the hardcover is 9780425282441. Third-hand copies on AbeBooks or ThriftBooks are usually cheap, sometimes under five dollars, but watch for condition notes on spines because this one gets read a lot. It is a historical mystery set in the 1920s featuring twin sisters, Hazel and Iris Blackwood. Hazel stays home and takes care of their sick mother while Iris runs off with the circus. The structure flips between their two perspectives. Hazel ends up working at the circus too because family obligations pull her in, and things get complicated when people start dying. Water dancing is a central motif — this is a very specific early twentieth-century performance art where dancers performed submerged or half-submerged in water tanks, and Tucholke clearly did research on it because the scenes feel grounded rather than decorative. One thing beginners to this genre miss: the book is as much a twin study as a murder mystery. The Hazel-to-Iris dynamic drives the entire narrative arc. If you come in expecting a straight whodunit and get annoyed by the family drama portions, you will be frustrated for most of the first two hundred pages. That is not a flaw. It is the point. The pacing deliberately slows down to establish the sisterly tension before the murder plot picks up speed.
I picked this up after someone recommended it on a forum thread and honestly did not have high expectations going in. I finished it in two sittings and then went back to re-read the opening chapters because I had misread the twin perspectives on the first pass. The chapter headings switch between Hazel and Iris without always making it obvious at first glance which voice you are in during the early sections. My workaround was simple: I started keeping a small notebook with character names and which sister they belonged to, which helped me track the shifting narrators without getting lost. I stopped doing that after Chapter Four when the pattern clicked, but for anyone who reads slowly or likes to process each scene, that trick saves you from constantly flipping back to remember who is who.
How the Book Actually Works On the Page
Tucholke writes in close third person, alternating between the two sisters. The prose is clean and unshowy, which suits the mystery genre. She does not waste words on elaborate descriptions of 1920s dress or architecture unless it matters to the plot. The circus setting gives her a confined cast of characters to work with, which keeps the suspect pool manageable — a common structural choice in cozy-ish mysteries but handled here with more literary ambition. The water dance sequences are the most distinctive element. There are scenes where Hazel performs underwater routines, and Tucholke captures the physical reality of that — the breath control, the muscle fatigue, the disorientation. I remember reading a passage where Hazel is underwater and the narration narrows into sensory detail: muffled sounds, the burn in her lungs, the way light fractures through the tank. It reads like someone who understands the actual mechanics of what she is describing rather than just using it for atmosphere. That level of specificity is rare in genre fiction and it elevates the whole thing. There is one structural quirk worth knowing about before you start. The timeline does not move strictly linearly. There are flashes forward and the twin perspectives sometimes overlap in ways that create dramatic irony if you do not catch it. I had a friend who put the book down after fifty pages thinking the timeline was confusing, then came back and finished it once she realized the structure was intentional rather than sloppy. If you feel lost in the first third, stick with it. The pieces land.
Who Should Read This and Who Should Skip It
Read it if you like historical mysteries with a strong female ensemble, if you enjoy stories where family relationships are the real puzzle rather than just backstory for a murder, and if you do not mind slow-burn plotting that rewards patience. It works well as a standalone but some readers say Tucholke's other books share tonal DNA. Skip it if you want a fast-paced procedural or a puzzle-heavy whodunit where clues are laid out transparently. This is character-forward. The mystery is there but it does not dominate every page. Also, if the circus setting makes you think of Ringling Bros, that is not the vibe here. This is a smaller, grittier traveling show, not the big corporate operation.
Where to Buy and Realistic Price Expectations
Amazon carries both formats and typically ships within one to three days for Prime members. Barnes and Noble has the paperback in stock most of the time. Bookshop.org supports independent stores and prices are comparable. If you are on a budget, the used market is your best bet — older paperbacks in decent condition run three to seven dollars on ThriftBooks, and the hardcover can sometimes be found for under ten if you are patient with shipping. Audio versions exist through Audible and similar platforms if that is your preference, and the narration gets mentioned positively in reader reviews though I have not listened to it personally. One practical note: if you are buying the paperback and you plan to gift it, check the edition. Some printings have different cover art and the spine text placement varies. It does not affect the reading experience but it matters if you care about aesthetics. I learned that the hard way when I accidentally ordered a edition with a cover I thought was the hardcover design. Minor inconvenience, took twenty minutes to sort out through customer service.
What the Book Does Not Do Well
Be upfront about this: the romantic subplot, which exists, is the weakest element. It feels functional rather than earned in some sections. The secondary characters outside the twin dynamic also get thin treatment — they exist mostly to serve the mystery plot rather than standing on their own. If you are looking for deep world-building or rich supporting casts, this is not that kind of book. It is focused, almost claustrophobically so, and that works for the story it wants to tell but it leaves some readers wanting more texture. The ending also divides people. Some readers find it satisfying in a genre-appropriate way. Others feel it wraps up too cleanly for the complications the book sets up. I fall somewhere in the middle — it works but it does not fully honor the messiness the first half builds toward. That is a personal take and not everyone shares it. If you finish this and want something similar, Tucholke's earlier work like The Last Month of Summer has a different tone but the same attention to character dynamics. For 1920s mysteries with strong sisters, there are broader options in the genre if you shop around. This book is a solid entry point into her bibliography but it sits alongside many others rather than standing alone as a must-read in the genre.
