Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds by John Everson.

I have a friend, author M.R. MacKenzie, who is a huge fan of the cult Italian gialli films of the 70s. I've still to watch one (cos I'm a bit of a scaredy cat 😂) but I've heard a lot about them from him and it was that which led me to today's book. Welcome to my blog tour stop for Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds by John Everson. With big thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy.
 

The Blurb

Somebody is murdering the Songbirds…

A modern Giallo, Everson's homage to the stylish Italian mystery thrillers. Somebody is murdering the Songbirds. When Eve Springer arrives in Belgium to study with the world famous Prof. Ernest Von Klein at The Eyrie, an exclusive music conservatory, it’s the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. But that dream is soon to become a nightmare.

When the star of the school’s piano program is strangled with a piano wire, the only clue to the killer is a grainy picture of the victim during her final moments, mouth wide and screaming, posted on the girl’s own Facebook account, alongside a classic music video. What does it mean? Eve soon finds herself taking the girl’s place as the enclave’s star pupil, in line for a coveted scholarship and a new member of the famed jazz combo, the Songbirds.

When Eve is drugged and another Songbird murdered at a campus party, she suddenly finds herself on the list of suspects. Another picture is posted online of the victim in her final moments, and this time, Eve is sure the hands around the girl’s throat… are hers! Could she have killed the girl while under the influence of whatever someone had slipped in her drink? The police and others at the Eyrie are suspicious; the murders began when she arrived. Her new boyfriend Richard insists that she could not be the killer. But who would want the Songbirds dead? One of the other Songbirds, like Gianna, the snarky sax player who seems to hate everyone? Or Philip, the creepy building caretaker and occasional night watchman? Or could it be Prof. Von Klein himself, who seems very handy with a camera and has a secret locked room behind his office where the light always seems to be on after dark?

Whoever it is, Eve knows she needs to figure it out. Because when a dead canary is left as a bloody message on the keys of her piano, she knows her own life may be in deadly danger.

Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds was published last month by Flame Tree Press. 

My Review

Before I start, can we just give some love to this cover? Very 70s, very cool, very giallo. 

This is one of those stories where pretty much everyone is a suspect, including our protagonist Eve, who at one point becomes a very unreliable narrator. After all, the murders don't start until she arrives from the US. The Eyrie is a dream come true for Eve, especially when she's picked to play as part of jazz group The Songbirds. Jazz is her passion, as Professor Von Klein discovers at their first meeting. But on joining the group, Eve discovers she is replacing a just murdered girl. And then she opens the piano to discover a dead canary on the keys... As more Songbirds begin to die, Eve takes matters into her own hands and decides to investigate. But so many suspects...

The majority of action takes place within The Eyrie itself, with occasional visits to the local coffee house where the band regularly perform) so there is a claustrophobic feel throughout. And we meet the black clad figure roaming the corridors early on, so there is always a degree of threat. There is quite a large cast of characters but some aren’t around long enough for us to really get to know them.  Eve is terrified, but determined to get to the bottom of things, often finding herself in the wrong place at the right time as far as the police are considered. I must also mention Professor Von Klein. Outwardly upstanding and well respected, but there are definitely some shady goings on privately. He was actually one of my favourite characters, not because I particularly liked him but because he is well drawn, fully fleshed out, and I was invested as to his whole story. 

And then there are the murders. The reason I haven't watched a giallo yet is because I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to jump scares on screen. Here there weren't really jumps because of the fulsome narrative but the killings sure are creative! And related to music in some way. For female readers, there is one particularly that might make you wince. But all hugely inventive, and entertaining, if you see what I mean. 

Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds is full on. The action starts in the first few pages and doesn't let up until the exciting, and actually quite sad, denouement. There is a colourful cast of characters and I loved the nod to jazz. I would love to have listened to one of The Songbirds shows. I wonder if the audio book, if there is one, contains any pieces of music - would be really cool if it did. And, as mentioned above, there are some clever crime scenes. My only slight gripe was that was perhaps too much narrative, too much information given and not enough opportunity for the reader's imagination to really spark up. But is Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds a modern day giallo, as the author aimed for it to be? It certainly feels that way to me and it's a worthy tribute to those films of the past. 

The Author

John Everson is a former newspaper reporter, a staunch advocate for the culinary joys of the jalapeno and an unabashed fan of 1970s European horror, giallo and poliziotteschi cinema. He is also the Bram Stoker Award winning author of twelve novels, including his latest New Orleans occult thriller, Voodoo Heart and The House by The Cemetery, a novel that takes place at a real haunted cemetery Bachelor's Grove – John Everson is a former newspaper reporter, a staunch advocate for the culinary joys of the jalapeno and an unabashed fan of 1970s European horror, giallo and poliziotteschi cinema. He is also the Bram Stoker Award winning author of twelve novels, including his latest New Orleans occult thriller, Voodoo Heart and The House by The Cemetery, a novel that takes place at a real haunted cemetery Bachelor's Grove – near where he grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. His first novel, Covenant, was a winner of the prestigious Bram Stoker Award, and his sixth, NightWhere, was a finalist for the award. Both dealt with demonic and erotic horror themes.

 

His novels have been translated into Polish, German, Czech, Turkish and French. Praised by Booklist, Cemetery Dance and Helnotes;  Kirkus Reviews called his work ‘hard to put  down’, while author Edward Lee said, ‘Everson is a MASTER of the hardcore; he's the rare kind of writer who's so good  you can't proceed with your day until the book is finished.’ 

Over the past 25 years, Everson has also published four collections of horror fiction; his short stories have appeared in more than seventy-five magazines and anthologies. He has  written licensed tie-in stories for The Green Hornet and Kolchak The Night Stalker and novelettes for The Vampire Diaries and Jonathan Maberry's V-Wars universe. V-Wars was turned into a 10-episode NetFlix series in 2019 that included two  of  Everson's  characters, Danika and Mila Dubov. For more on his obsession with jalapenos and cult cinema, as well as on his fiction, art and music, visit www.johneverson.com.