"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."

I adore the Kill Bill vibes of the cover.

The thing about Giallo is that most of the genre is terrible and forgettable. And so it is with this book. The author approaches each sentence like he's bluffing his way through knowledge of the English language.

I wish this novel did more for me, but it fell quite flat. Is it a trashy murder mystery that proudly wears its giallo film influence on its sleeve? Yes, one hundred percent. It contains everything you would expect from a stereotypical giallo film: an outsider coming to a strange place, over-the-top murders, sexual violence and exploitation, and a plot that is both convoluted but also kind of paper thin. If you just want to bask in the glow of a vintage giallo murder mystery then I am sure this novel will be fun for you. The plotting moves forward at a decent pace, the kills come pretty regularly, and it has more than its share of black leather gloves.

I didn’t go into this expecting deep character study or contemplative thematic exploration; I wanted a bloody good time. But it fell flat for me because everything was just too expected. From more or less the first murder onward there was no doubt in my mind about who was doing the killing and why, and the other twists and turns were also the most obvious things possible. I kept reading expecting these to be all red herrings, that at the last minute I would be proven wrong, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Even then I am able to accept a well-worn formula, but in that case I want there to be some believability, something to hold on to, and that was totally absent here (especially considering this takes place in the present day). Our protagonist is a 17-year-old girl who had been in her last year of high school, living with her mother in London, and upon her mother’s freak death she moves in with extended family in Germany, the story taking place in June, so right after the term would have ended. But why is everyone saying now she needs to get a job and make a life for herself? What about college, or any sort of schooling? Literally over and over again she makes absolutely insane decisions that contradict what she herself recognizes as good sense. We don’t spend much time following the characters, and everyone in this melodrama has their own secrets, which are fine, that keeps things unsettled, so their decision-making at least feels plausible. But nothing about this girl’s existence her feels plausible, including the fact that everyone speaks perfectly clear American English the whole time. Early on she mentions she knows conversational German, so I assumed they all had to be speaking German, and it was just “dubbed” for the reader, but then there is one scene where a character doesn’t speak English, and she needs the information translated for her. But everyone else, from all of her family and the house staff to various administrative assistants to waitresses to random people on the street, it is just boggling. That could almost be used to excuse what felt like often clunky dialogue, except it was coming from our native English-speaker as well. And the whole thing with the dolls, which gives the novel its title? Really convoluted and non-sensical, which the killer basically admits. And then, in addition to all that, the way that the sexual violence and sexploitation elements come in feels very ham-fisted and lecherous, and not in a good, pulpy kind of way but in a lazy writing kind of way. I could go on, there are all these little things that would be fine, any given one of them, but when they just keep piling up it was monumentally distracting.

It felt like the story was more concerned with paying homage to giallo films first, and then having a good story second. That is what my experience of it was, at least, leaving it feeling uninspired and derivative, kind of a copy of a copy. I like trashy and pulpy fiction a lot, but I want there to be at least some pretense of inspiration in it, something interesting, especially in contemporary fiction, and I didn’t feel that here. The writing was well-paced, and the mystery was bloody and twisty, even if predictable. It definitely feels like the novelization of a 70’s giallo film, with all that comes from that, good and bad. That might be exactly what you’re looking for, in which case then you will definitely have fun here. If, like me, you are hoping for a contemporary murder mystery that pays homage to giallo in content and style but prioritizes substance over set-dressing then you will be a little disappointed.

(Rounded down from 2.5)

I want to thank the author, the publisher Flame Tree Press, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Hugely enjoyable and rather trashy giallo influenced novel. In homage to the Italian classics of the 70s we have violence, sex, a vulnerable young female going to a new area and falling into danger and a somewhat overblown plot (not a criticism in this context). Given the fact that practically everyone - whether from London or Germany - speaks American English you can even imagine it’s been dubbed (although one setting explicitly refers to someone speaking German which threw my dubbing theory out a little)!

Anyway, this is a really good fun novel - recommended

Review Copy

John Everson is back with another mystery based in Europe. Like his previous novel Seven Songbirds, The Bloodstained Doll is unlike all his previous work that was horror based.

Bloodstained Doll tells the story of 17 year old Allyson who moves to Germany from England after the death of her mother. She finds herself living with family in a castle near Munich.

All is not what it seems of course. And the deaths begin...

It was a good book that murder mystery fans should enjoy. Check it out!