Buy it here:
Synopsis:
The latest homage to the Italian Giallo film genre by award winning John Everson, with nods to the sensational movies of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Luciano Ercoli, Mario Bava and more.
When Allyson’s mom dies unexpectedly, she thinks her world has hit rock bottom. But that’s before she goes to live with her estranged Uncle Otto in Germany. When a child’s empty casket is unearthed in the backyard during a violent storm, suddenly people close to her uncle start turning up dead. Is there a connection? As the noose tightens and murders draw closer to Berger Mansion, Allyson and her new boyfriend Andrew discover a dark truth hidden in the attic. Soon their lives are at stake if they don’t discover why each broken body is decorated with a Bloodstained Doll.
A modern Giallo, building on Everson’s previous homage to the stylish Italian mystery thrillers, Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds.
Review:
When John Everson released Five Deaths For Seven Songbirds, I wrote in my review that it is a pitch perfect tribute to the Giallo genre. His follow up, The Bloodstained Doll, is another example of Italian Giallo films, a different twist on the genre but still under the umbrella of Giallo. While Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds takes place with a girl navigating her way through a music institute as a stranger and people getting killed around her, The Bloodstained Doll starts with Allyson’s mother dying suddenly and her moving from London to Germany to live on an estate with her uncle Otto. The house is fill with dusty rooms, empty wings, and suspicious people, and while Allyson tries to settle in, she is quickly confronted with the fact that she is inadvertently threatening all of the shady dealings of her uncle, her cousin, and everyone else in and out of the mansion. When everyone starts to die around her, with a bloody, broken porcelain doll left on the corpse, Allyson not only feels like the killer is someone inside of the mansion but that she could very possibly be the next victim. Of course she is right.
With more of a gothic setting and tone, The Bloodstained Doll is a much different representation of the Giallo genre than Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds. It is also more of a straightforward telling, not as many red herrings and not really as much of the wildness that is in the previous novel. With more of a subdued tone, Everson has a chance to spend a little more time building the plot, giving the characters some very demented personal flaws and hobbies, and in the end, this does not read as much of a mystery to solve but as a murder novel with trashy rich people doing trashy rich people things.
I have watched the top Giallo films, and expect for a few, I do not care for them very much. I would much rather read more Giallo novels by John Everson than dive deeper into the film selection. Many of the films have scenes that do not make much sense, that go off in directions that are quickly forgotten, and the real mystery by the end is what even happened. I do not find these same problems in Everson’s novels. His books are much more palatable than many of the movies, and if I am to recommend an introduction to Italian Giallo, I would add The Bloodstained Doll and Five Deaths For Seven Songbirds as great additions to the genre.
I received this as an ARC from Flame Tree Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Other Review of John Everson books:
ghostvillehero 