Gospel of V

by H. M. Faust

Virgil Hesse has disappeared. All that remains of him is a manuscript for a a locked room murder mystery.

The Cosmigrove family reunites for the first time in years. The family's patriarch, the infamous Joseph Cosmigrove, is dying. He'd dedicated his life to his art -- and his death will prove to be nothing short of artistic.

One morning, the family awakens to find that someone has dug a hole in their garden. At its bottom lies a skeleton.

A prologue to a series of bizarre murders that will soon fall upon the family.

The skeleton begins to move through the house, as if through walls, escaping from and into locked rooms.

But the story, as the editors reading it will find, is more than just mere fiction.

Soon enough, it bleeds into the real world in the most horrifying of ways.

Genres: Mystery

167 pages, Paperback

Published December 27, 2023

About the author

H. M. Faust (also known online as DWaM) is a Croatian-born writer of murder mysteries. He primarily specializes in writing impossible crime stories (locked room murder mysteries, impossible disappearances, so-called 'no footprints' mysteries, etc.)

His main goal is to push the limits of the mystery genre, merging bizarre storylines and modern narrative techniques with the tropes of the Golden Age period of detective fiction.

Reviews

[Genma496 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been dwammed. He dwammed me so hard its not even funny

[Ozymandias · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cult, locked room murders, and a dual narrative with a crazy twist. An absolute treat of a mystery that both de and reconstructs the genre over the course of (almost) 300 pages. I really loved everything this work set out to do.
My only criticism is that there are three deduction chapters back to back to back at the very end, which gives a lot of whiplash. There are a couple stories layered on top of one another here, (or one story refracted a couple times) so the ending doesn't hit as quickly as it should since it will take most mortals time to parse what really happened when and where.

[Stephen Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is violent. Not that anything particularly violent happens on-screen, I mean it is physically violent toward you, the reader. It kicks you in the head and then laughs as you bleed out on the floor. And then somehow, your hazy vision comes into focus and you see how brilliant the secrets that have been hidden from your sight are.

If you're not already a big mystery fan, there's a chance this book might kill you, but if you are this is a memorable and fun metatextual experience. Good luck solving anything before the end, cause you'll need it.

Full review - https://stephenmpierce.wordpress.com/...