Book Review: FIVE DEATHS FOR SEVEN SONGBIRDS by John Everson

FIVE DEATHS FOR SEVEN SONGBIRDS by John Everson (Amazon Kindle edition, March 2022) 320 pages. ASIN #  B098TZFKNJ 

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

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 fulfillment 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. 

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     John Everson's homage to Italian giallo films is a pure delight. This brought back memories of watching some of those films on late night television in the late 1960's and early 1970’s.

     Everson's descriptive skills are cinematic here, painting a vivid picture and creating the impression that I was watching a film. 

     There are numerous suspects, and I enjoyed making notes and ranking them as the story moved along. I did not determine the most likely character behind the murders until near the end of the book, which flew by so fast that it did not spoil my enjoyment. 

     If you are a fan of Dario Argento's (master of the thriller) giallo films (Deep Red, Suspiria, or The Bird With The Crystal Plumage) the settings, characters, and stylishly nasty murders will take you back there.