The 5 False Suicides: An Impossible-Crime Murder Mystery

by James Scott Byrnside

It's 1947 and Gretta Grahame is doing her best. She has successfully escaped her past for several years, settling in the safe, sleepy town of New Sweden, Maine. Besides working at the local library, Gretta is president of her murder-mystery book club. She knows a lot about murder mysteries. She claims there’s no plot she can’t unravel…

Except for the one she’s in.

A suicide in the family leads to the discovery of a curse running through more than 2 generations of Grahames. In fact, Gretta learns that all of her relatives have committed suicide and she will be next. Gretta enlists the help of a witch, a man who was present at the formation of the curse all those years ago.

Gretta must travel to a nearly-deserted isle to life the curse and save herself from her own hand. Her friends from the book club join her. None of them are suicidal, yet they start killing themselves inside locked rooms. What is causing all these suicides? Is it murder? How? Why? Gretta and her book club will have to solve the mystery before they all do themselves in. The Five False Suicides is a murder mystery like no other.

Genres: Mystery

220 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 19, 2021

Reviews

[Thea | (unapologetic_bibliosmia) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read three of Byrnside's novels now and I know him to be a master and enthusiast of a locked room mystery like no other.

Unfortunately this one compared with the others I have read, I felt fell a little bit flat. The others featuring Manory and Williams as two detectives solving a seemingly impossible 'locked room' mystery were more engaging and twisty. This one didn't feature these characters, and instead featured a group of murder mystery enthusiasts - the 'MASONS' who spent their free time discussing and reading said locked room mysteries instead.

When Gretta is told if a family curse which will cause all of her family including her to die at the hand of suicide, she enlists the help of her fellow MASONS group members to solve the curse and prevent her from dying. This involves a trip to an island off of Maine, where lo and behold, the members start to drop dead left right and centre in their own locked room mysteries.

The problem I found was that I just could keep up with the characters and what was going on. I was a bit permanently confused throughout on who was who and what was going on. Without being able to peice this together, I was absolutely unable to pick apart the numerous red herrings and theories or how the murders had been committed which were being thrown at me throughout. I got to the end permanently baffled.

That being said it was a fast read and I do enjoy the little nuggets of taunting that the author laces throughout the book, and I will read another one of his again if the Manory and Williams pair crop back up!

I recieved an ARC of this book through Booksirens, and leave this review voluntarily with great thanks to the author and publisher.

3 stars.

[Gigi · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Scott Byrnside is one of the few modern writers crafting clever impossible crime novels that feel like they're from the Golden Age of detective fiction. This is his best one yet.

[JDL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally I've gotten around to reading my first Byrnside, and boy oh boy was it nothing like I expected. Over the two days I read this book, I saw it switching genres from a Christianna Brand-esque closed circle mystery, to a Hake Talbot-like faux-supernatural impossible-crime story, and finally into a heart-pounding crime thriller. I've heard that Byrnside wears his literary influences on his sleeve, and I can see this in many ways here. Brand, Carr, Talbot, Christie, Fredric Brown (to whom the book is dedicated), and the noir authors are all given their due diligence. The mystery book club whose meeting begins the novel and whose members become the main characters, victims, and suspects, was one of my favorite aspects of the novel. I mean, I wish I had that many GAD enthusiasts all living in my town. All of the references they make, especially in the first chapter but again and again in all the book's chapters, were great to see. The introductory bashing of Ngaio Marsh, the debate on Oscar's no-footprints problem, and the allusion to a certain Ellery Queen novel which is unnamed but which any reader of it will immediately recognize the reference, were some of my favorites. What took the cake though was how, after the members of MASONS deride such plot devices as murders disguised as suicides, "supernatural" occurrences, curses, and "moving parts" (a term I won't elaborate on for fear of spoilers,) they find themselves in a complex mystery plot which heavily features all of those tropes. The fast-moving, multi-faceted mystery plot got crazier and crazier as it sped by me. As characters fell like flies, I became more and more confused (in a delightfully exciting way) about how everything fit together. The multiple false solutions that juxtapose the false suicides are all elegantly crafted to each fit the given clues in new and surprising ways. The characters, although they are not always given the spotlight, are all still memorable in their own unique ways. The ending... boy, it's something. I really liked it; I thought it was pretty powerful and it has what's got to be one of the most memorable closing lines/paragraphs I've... ever read. But I don't want to say anything else about that, and I recommend (although if you've gotten here you've probably already read this review and some others, so not like it matters) that you enter The 5 False Suicides blind. It will be an unforgettable experience. My first mystery of 2022 is a success! I have Barrington Hills Vampire on my shelf, and Mr. Byrnside's first two novels are in the mail for me, so I hope to enjoy his other works very soon!

[Suddenlyathisresidence · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Five False Suicides is a book best read blind. The plot summary provided by James Scott Byrnside is more than enough to give you an idea of what you're getting into—though nary a reader will realize the full extent of what's to come.

Fair warning, TFFS might not appeal to readers who desire real-world credulity from their mysteries. It's not meant to be serious, a neo-noir character study, or a Crofts-esque feat of mechanical engineering. It's meant to be fun, and it is. Pure, pulpish, maniacal, more than a few screws loose fun. Think "And Then There Were None" with more than a touch of Scooby-Doo.

The mystery is stellar, the atmosphere is mind-bending, and the plot is perfectly-paced. I finished TFFS in a single sitting, and when I read the final page, I found myself feeling two things. First, jovial satisfaction. Second, an uncompromising desire for more. The regrettable mindset of a GAD fanatic, I suppose.

[Gabriele Crescenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the scene of traditional detective fiction, essentially two schools of thought can be counted based upon the different approach with which the crime and the plot that revolves around it are dealt with: on one hand there are authors who lend great importance to the accurate description of the settings which work as a background to criminal events, in which the rhythm is relaxed and more static also due to the presence of detailed analysis as of the inquiries as of the characters’ personality, which frequently happens in the British mystery, especially in the so-called “country-house murder”, deeply connected with a restricted and well-outlined place, to which the central dynamics are usually associated; on the other, instead, there is a list of authors who set up their stories not on broad and decorative digressions or on all-round illustrations of the various figures, but on a rapid sequence of events, with a quick, hectic pace, full of suspense and tension, which leads to an inevitable flattenings of characters and of setting for a predominance of dialogic parts and fast-moving elements.

This last trend is evident above all in French and American crime stories, where little attention is paid to descriptive aspects and agile, slender plots are favored, composed of a continuous chain of events. As a consequence, the “armchair detectives” are banned in favor of figures who, more than study, can literally pursue crime: in this sense, we can mention the industrious André Brunel of “Six crimes sans assassin” by Boileau, a novel that travels through the urban alleys of Paris, but also the meditative M. Allou, a character conceived by Noël Vindry, who, despite solving the cases with the sole aid of his logic, is the protagonist of stories based more on action than images and psychology of the “dramatis personae”.

They are, therefore, two opposite ways to deal with a mystery novel, where on one side greater narrative distension is privileged, with a more accurate delineation of the premises as usually happens in Christie’s works, and, on the other one, the principal aim is to create tension and adrenaline through the continuous and frenetic flow of happenings, frequently followed by authors like Brown, Rogers, Pronzini and, recently, by one of the most promising contemporary crime writers on the market, James Scott Byrnside, with his fourth novel “The 5 False Suicides” (2021).

“The 5 False Suicides” is an agile, fast and frantic novel, in which the author, detaching himself from the style of his previous works, more in line with classic standards and with a distinct Brandian influence in the expressive techniques and in the vague characterization of the characters, turns on the pulp genre, with a staggering whirl of events, creating a plot with a fast-paced, hypnotic, captivating rhythm, still not going beyond the lines of the deductive mystery, represented, after all, by an interesting, labyrinthine and particularly ingenious enigma.

The beginning of the story takes us to August 1947, in Maine: on a hot Saturday afternoon, on the stage of the empty “Danvers Playhouse”, the members of MASONS (“Murder-mystery Appreciation Society of New Sweden “), a club of enthusiastic mystery readers are gathered for their weekly reunion. President of the association is the young Gretta Grahame, a girl with a troubled past who, however, thanks to her passion for this narrative genre, is managing to face her own demons. The group, miscellaneous both in age and in personality and literary tastes, consists of seven other members: Faye Withers, a handsome girl who, with her provocative behavior, embodies the perfect figure of the inveterate seductress; George Danvers, kindly ex-actor and owner of the theatre where the MASONS gather; Olive Tennants, a rich and scowling woman, with her husband Harry, a gaunt and dull person; Oscar Strom, a cynical hotel concierge; the loving and close-knit elderly couple made up of Alice and Tom Mower. The group, after the vote on the next mystery to be read together, begins to discuss Oscar’s idea for an impossible crime he conceived and that he’d like to include in his first novel, dismantling his whole plan with logic. Oscar, however, is not the only aspiring writer in the group: also Gretta and Olive are in fact collaborating on a novel, usually meeting at the home that the former shares with Faye to write some chapters, just as they are going to do that same evening.
Their creative session, however, will be interrupted by a strange call for Gretta: it’s her uncle Scotty, who warns her that he has come to stay in a hotel in her city to discuss a particularly urgent matter with her. Gretta, asking for more explanations, thus discovers that her family, for two generations, has been prey to a horrible curse cast by her own grandfather to his offspring, as a result of which all the Grahame are destined to commit suicide. Gretta, on the advice of her uncle, begins to record all the deaths that have occurred in the family, becoming thus aware of a creepy fact: many Grahames, her mother, her father, her uncles, have actually committed suicide over the years. The latest victim was her aunt Suzie, who died of a barbiturate overdose a few days earlier. For an impressive amount of 13 suicides. Only two survivors of the family remain: herself and her uncle. Precisely to prevent the worst hypothesis, her uncle gives her an appointment for the following Tuesday in his hotel room to attempt to break the spell cast decades earlier by a still alive wizard, the mystical Boroqe Rieszak. After the call, Gretta doesn’t know what to think: her family tragedy begins to make sense, as does her attempt, months before, to take her own life. Frightened but at the same time intrigued by the mystery that this situation promises, also urged by her friends, she decides to go to the bottom of the business. However, delaying the meeting even for just a few days, especially with an inevitable sentence on one’s head, will be literally mortal… Dialing the uncle the evening before their appointment to give him the confirmation, a foreign voice answers the phone: it’s the stolid policeman Brodsky, who announces the passing away of his uncle, who died in his room, locked from the inside, apparently for a wrong dosage of some pills. But is it really suicide? Her mind as a mystery reader leads her to think about the most intricate solutions, but she has no clue to start with but the (fake or not?) note left by her uncle, in which he urges her to save herself by contacting the mystic Rieszak.
Frightened but excited by the idea of ​​living a story that seems to have come out of the pages of her favorite writers, Gretta, together with Faye and Olive, goes to the wizard’s house. The latter, aware of the reason for their visit, tells them that the curse of the Grahame family is connected with the story of an Indian, Soctomah, who killed himself a century earlier on an island in southern Maine, Blood Island, invoking the underworld forces against those who dared to profane his land. Through a frightening ritual, the wizard makes the presents the girl’s surrogate relatives, advising them to go to the island, where the tomb of the Indian still lies, to try to put an end to her anathema. Despite the perceived malign influence and George’s subsequent attempts to stop Gretta, still unstable after the psychological treatments, the latter, determined to face once and for all her painful past and ready to discover what truth is hidden behind those numerous deaths, set off with the MASONS to Bloody Island, now turned in a luxury resort called “Heaven’s Gate”.
The island, connected to the mainland by a narrow natural strip of limestone deposits, if before it appeared a natural paradise overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, in recent times it has become an unwelcoming and terrifying place due to the countless fires that are devastating the area and to the terror aroused by an elusive serial killer, the so-called Burlington Butcher, who is killing many victims in the region, the last of whom was found on one of the beaches of Heaven’s Gate.
In a nutshell, not the best of hospitality, but consistent with the mission that Gretta and her friends have to carry out.
But the path to the salvation of Gretta will turn out to be covered with blood and death: one by one the members of the club will inexplicably begin to commit suicide, all inside locked rooms and in the presence of many witnesses. And as the flames advance to lap the island and the number of survivors gets thinner, panic spreads unstoppable and there will be little time to reflect and connect all the facts into a rational whole. Because logic falters in front of the insane mind of a particularly cunning murderer…

“The 5 False Suicides” is an atypical novel by James Scott Byrnside, in which the traditional themes of the mystery are flanked by influences derived from several genres, from the pulp, which is the predominant core of the book, to the hard-boiled, to absorb suggestions also from the Francophone mystery and the Japanese shin-honkaku movement.
In such a dense, variegated, and unusual whole, however, the model to which the plot conforms most is unequivocal that constituted by the pulp, a literary current characterized by stories with a strong emotional impact, with great dynamism, where action and sensationalism are preferred to narrative depth, often achieved by resorting to a rapid pace of macabre or violent events. From this literary genre the author recalls stylistic features and narrative techniques, marking a decisive change of course compared to his previous production: if in fact in his first novels the narrative fabric betrayed more traditional influences and used, for the purposes of the enigma, an illusory game of perspectives, based on a strong albeit ambiguous psychological characterization of the characters, taking advantage of their ambivalence and duplicity as misdirection, on the heels of Christianna Brand, here the plot is built entirely on action, seen as a series of odd, dark criminal events, which follow one another rapidly, engagingly and disturbingly.
The configuration of the storyline has an almost cinematographic cut, comparable to numerous frames of a movie, in which each event immediately follows another one, with the result that the intrinsic meaning of the work lies not so much in the individual facts or enigmas, but in their totality. The beauty of the novel, its strong point, therefore lies in the rapid and charming temporal concatenation of its elements, which assume a particular grip and a precise value exclusively by reason of the speed with which they are presented.
It’s a book that captures you in the hypnotic and adrenaline-pumping whirlwind of its events, which persuades you to enter a vortex from which, once inside, it’s difficult to get out without being tossed and overturned.

The fundamental crux of this style, contaminated in some parts by hard-boiled elements, for the presentation of a corrupt society, especially in its main bodies, such as the police, and by noir, found in the painful and tormented story of Gretta, is, therefore, the use of a fast, pressing rhythm, so fast to be frenetic, destabilizing, insane. At the end of the reading, the prevailing feeling is a mixture of euphoria and disorientation, as if one had just been on some sort of narrative roller-coaster.
All this contributes to making “The 5 False Suicides” a page-turning novel, in which, due to its style, in the epilogue the reader finds himself having no theory, no hypothesis, having been dragged into a chaotic spiral that doesn’t give time to reflect.
Impression, moreover, intensified both by the enormous amount of material that constitutes the mystery part of the novel, represented by the abnormal amount of deaths, secret intrigues, chases, and red-herrings, by a minimalist characterization of the characters, which, yet well distinguishable, are reduced to fixed types without any roundness, and descriptions cut to the bone, for which the background is left to the imagination of the reader and by the sense of imminent danger that spreads both the impressive succession of false suicides and the advancing fire that blocks the characters on the island, giving the narration a sense of claustrophobia and oppression.
Even if the consistency of the enigma would require a greater narrative space, a less spasmodic rhythm to be fully developed, Byrnside manages to handle these opposing currents with great skill, while giving up the descriptive and introspective part.
In this perspective, the novel, being decidedly short for what it contains, may not meet everyone’s tastes, yet I believe that a greater length of the plot would have distorted the operation the writer wanted to carry out here: the frantic trend, the convoluted plot and the scarce depth of the figures are traits established by the author to create a crime novel that has the primary prerogative of entertaining.
“The Five False Suicides” is a work that was born as a function of pure evasion, which it fulfills in order to make the reader spend a few pleasant hours, but without renouncing a good puzzle and the tricks and the traps typical of the genre. It’s a book written with fun, as evidenced by the abyssal contrast of tone with the previous works, and if in the end, some details remain inaccurate in certain aspects, they are forgiven due to the complexity of a plot with such a sparkling and tense narrative line and to the economy of details in the abundance of events.
There is certainly no shortage of tragic scenes full of pathos, especially in the ending, but they take on lighter and more adventurous tones.
In this aspect, the author follows the trail of crime writers such as Fredric Brown, John Russell Fearn, and Theodore Roscoe, who, mixing bizarre crimes and narrative frivolousness, have drawn attention to an aspect that, although it’s often underestimated, actually constitutes the essence of literature, especially that of the mystery genre: pure escape.

The entertaining and light aspect of the book is also underlined by the presence of an interesting metaliterary, at times parodic, vein, which invests many elements of the enigma.
The author enjoys taking up some of the recurring subjects of the mystery, criticizing, deforming, sometimes exploiting them for the purpose of resolving the central plot. A game of references and citations is thus created, in which in the same literary fiction we discuss the literary fiction itself and the rules that govern it.
This playful attitude emerges from the first chapter, in which, presenting an interesting discussion on the crime fiction among the members of a club of fans, functional to the presentation of the various figures, in a similar way to what happens in the prologue of “Invisible Green” by Sladek, the various types of mystery readers are parodically represented: Gretta, with her sophisticated tastes and her great deductive ability, embodies the prototype of a demanding reader who is amazed by very few readings, being usually able to anticipate the final solution; the Mowers are the model of the reader who prefers the good characterization of the characters and environments to the solidity of the enigma, lovers therefore of the cozy-mystery in which violence and sex are strictly banned (and for this reason they are fans of Ngaio Marsh); Oscar, on the other hand, is the typical meticulous reader, attentive to the slightest smudges and with a more critical than literary approach. This effective and ironic metaliterary representation creates in the reader greater empathy with the figures, which are poorly delineated, as they partly recognized themselves in one of the categories of which they are spokespersons.
Furthermore, this initial situation resumes a classic topos of the genre, in which a circle of enthusiastic readers of mystery books finds itself having to face a real case, a theme that characterizes great masterpieces such as “The Poisoned Chocolates Case” by Berkeley or “Bloodhounds” by Peter Lovesey, who in turn made crime writers’ habit, very popular in the Golden Age of the genre, of meeting to discuss the laws, narrative techniques and ideas behind the “greatest game of the world”, literary, a demonstration of which was the prestigious “Detection Club” founded by big names such as Berkeley, Chesterton, Crofts, and Sayers.
Throughout the plot, moreover, there are frequent discussions between the characters about the mystery, the various dynamics to create a locked room, or the motives that push somebody to kill. The characters even search within the genre for the rules to apply to the case they are facing, creating a twine in which reality and narrative fiction are inseparably merged.

Byrnside, as well as creating a bewitching metaliterary echo, with this novel establishes a great tribute to the deductive mystery genre, thanks to the repeated quotations, influences, and references on which the narration itself is articulated. In this sense the work is presented as a rich ensemble of leitmotifs, in a sort of continuous connection with the great past tradition: the nucleus from which the series of events starts, that is the curse of Grahame’s family, is linked to the mystery with a supernatural tone, based on ancestral genealogical occurrences, as happens in “Hag’s Nook”, “The Plague Court Murders” and “The Case of the Constant Suicides” by Carr or in “Whistle Up the Devil” by Derek Smith; the various dissertations on locked rooms and on how to deconstruct them recall the large inserts on the subject by Carr and Rawson; the situation of isolation in a place far from the civilised world, in which an unstoppable series of deaths begins, calls to mind Christie’s masterpiece “And Then There Were None”, to which is added the reflection of “The Siamese Twin Mystery” by Queen due to the presence of the fire which acts as an imminent danger; the story of the Burlington Butcher is a reference to the famous current of the mystery fiction dedicated to serial murders, with a pinch of splatter (in the amputation of the victims’ middle and index fingers), which is affected by the gore present in contemporary Japanese mysteries.

[Jameson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to NetGally for… nothing. I paid for this book myself thank you very much. Happily. Those reviews rub me the wrong way for some reason. If it’s anything less than glowing the reviewer comes off entitled and ungrateful.

And doesn’t it seem like almost everyone on this site gets their books for free nowadays? I’ve been wondering how that affects their enjoyment and, in turn, their rating, and how their rating in turn affects a book’s sales, success, and reputation. But I’ll post my review first; my conspiracy theory follows.

On January 1, 2022 I was abducted by alien-shaped demons from the planet Ping Pong in Dimension 615. It sucked and made me miserable. As much as I was looking forward to this (and the latest Paul Halter, not to mention the newest Kindaichi English translation), I didn’t want to read it until I felt better. And now that I do and have, I give it 6 stars out of 5. I should have read it months ago—with my crap memory by now I’d be ready for a second go.

I think there’s something suspicious about this Mr. Byrnside. He came onto the scene out of the blue a few years ago with a couple of very good mystery novels in the classic mold, proudly pronouncing that he was never really into the genre. Am I remembering this right? If so, it appears he dove straight into the deep end. Although is that really suspicious? Don’t we all do that? Us hardcore Impossible Crime/Locked Room fans, I mean.

Speaking of: classic mystery fans will be happy to know this book includes Dramatis Personae, fun chapter titles in the table of contents, floor plans, as well as a Dell-ish mapback! Smart move, this.

When I first heard that Byrnside’s next novel wouldn’t feature the detective duo from his previous books, I flew to a Caribbean island not on any maps and in exchange for 10 sacks of rice, 10 crates of socks, and one Elvira: Mistress of the Dark Blu Ray, I arranged for a curse to befall one James Scott Byrnside. Glad to know I wasted several hundred dollars! T5FS is breezier than those books but it’s just as gorey and just as well-constructed. Kudos for taking a chance—it paid off.

So: it’s the 1940s and three plucky broads, mystery lovers all, fall into a pitch perfect potboiler of impossible murders and they’ll have to deduce their way out. Blood, curses, witchcraft, gore! What’s not to love?

Given the decade, T5FS is very appropriately in the vein of a screwball comedy—by way of one of those 1940s B mystery movies, by way of a camp slasher. I love that about it but I can understand if some readers can’t keep up. The dialogue isn’t as rapid-fire as His Girl Friday, but it’s quick and clever; ditto the twists and turns. The most obvious inspiration here is Carr’s Constant Suicides. Family curse, impossible murder, etc. But there are other influences too and spotting them was fun. The meta-ness in general was a good time.

Byrnside should be applauded for his wit. He has a lot of fun with character names and place names: phony authors, locations, etc, that allude to different stars in the mystery-horror fermament. And of all the times I’ve heard the phrase “there’s a special place in hell for (fill in the blank),” I never heard anyone say “and that’s what so-and-so wanted because he was a satanist!” Like the best whodunit reveals, this joke seems obvious in retrospect. I wish I’d thought of it.

The 5 False Suicides is deceptively ambitious. Byrnside not only knocked the ending of an impossible crime out of the park, he did it twice, ensuring that this book will stand up to multiple readings. There’s a lot of foreshadowing and irony that many readers won’t catch the first time around.

Many thanks to the author, James Scott Byrnside, for writing this book especially and solely for me. I don’t even know ol’ Byrnsy, in fact we’re perfect strangers, yet he went out of his way to write a satirical Carrian/Halterish mystery novel just for moi. What a guy! This book is having a party right on the intersection of mystery and horror. I wish more people partied here. I read horror for the mystery and mysteries for the horror so I live here. Highly recommended.

STRAY BULLETS
-I like how JB lampshades characterization. These kind of books don’t need too much.
-Great ending! There’s nothing I love more than a double deduction.
-I never heard of wildfires in ME before. Interesting. 1947.
-The pace is nuts. I wish there was a tiny extra time for helping my enfeebled brain better picture time and place: the island, weather, clothes, music. There’s a bit but I could have used a smidge more. I love the 40s.

SPOILER-Y STRAY BULLET AKA EXCUSE TO RE-READ SOON
Did I miss the part where Oscar explained why Boroqe helped Greta and why he hanged himself? (Per Oscar’s theory that there were only three false suicides: Olive, Faye, Georgie.)



RANT
Hear me out. If I got a free lunch, you might think I’d be inclined to rate it more highly than one I paid for. But with such a low investment, I might in fact be more inclined to be ambivalent, or even critical. Especially if the free lunch came not from my own choice out of all possible lunches but out of a limited buffet. Impossible Crimes, as a sub genre of mystery, is niche. Free Readers on the look out for a mystery thriller—the HBIC of the mystery genre—may download an Impossible Crime/Locked Room whodunit and be confused.

These days, everywhere you look people are looking gift horses in the mouth. These “free” business models have poisoned the cultural landscape and I wonder if this “books for reviews” thing is contributing to that. People tolerate paying their plumbers, dentists, and teachers, but when it comes to journalists, writers, and filmmakers, not so much. I think Goodreads should maybe ban NetGalley and BookSirens and companies like them from doing what they do. Niche genres, niche works of art, will likely suffer under the system as it’s currently run.

“Thank you BookSirens for my free copy; this review is honest and voluntary” is not good enough either. The ratings of reviewers who received free copies of books shouldn’t be factored into the total score and they should be greyed out or otherwise highlighted somehow to let everyone else know the source of the review is a bit tainted.

Even if the intent of this system is to grow the genre, or encourage readership in general, I wonder if it’s working. Or maybe it’s having the opposite effect—discouraging readers because 1) the free books aren’t to their tastes and 2) they don’t want to pay for a book that would suit them better. Just spitballing.

This is definitely not any kind of attack on Free Readers. I’ve been known to enjoy free stuff myself. Ho, ho, ho. Who hasn’t. But I don’t like seeing negative reviews that essentially say “Thanks, Company, for this free book in exchange for my honest review. I usually don’t like this sort of book and I still don’t.” Reviews like this, to be sure, are voluntary. So when a Free Reader honestly tells you they don’t like this new example of things that historically they never liked, you can believe them, rest assured the review wasn’t typed up under threat of bodily harm.

Looking at the scores, I don’t think there’s any pattern that proves my theory and I really am just spitballing here. I may be completely wrong but I hope people can at least begin to talk about this (potential) problem. Bigger brains than mine could make some hay out of this, I imagine.

RANT 2: THE SEQUEL
I hate even mentioning the typos because this love letter to mystery junkies is beyond that kind of criticism. When Santa comes down the chimney you shouldn’t tell him his breath stinks if you can already see a Red Ryder BB Gun sticking out of his sack. If you disagree, I’m going to “find you a hill.” Whatever that means. (To die on?) But I have a theory. So many books are being published unclean these days that I’m thinking whatever program or method a lot of authors and publishers use somehow tricks them into submitting for publication their penultimate draft instead of their final draft. Crippen & Landru are the worst offenders. It boggles my mind how they can keep putting out such awesome content besmirched by such carelessness. Except for their latest John Dickson Carr offering, and only because it’s JDC Himself, I won’t buy a book from them anymore. Not even Ellery Queen’s tempting Puzzle Club. I have got it in my mind that at this point they gleefully revel in publishing books with errors. Otherwise, why not address and/or redress the issue? Classic and locked room fiction as well as horror stories told in the classic tradition are my two favorite countries on planet fiction. And they’re both constantly and unnecessarily publishing error-laden material. Unnecessarily because die-hard fans like me would probably vet their final drafts for nothing but a good read. Constantly because I DO NOT FRIGGIN’ KNOW!

[Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mind right after finishing the book: WHAT??! I don't know if I'm very dumb to understand the solution of every mystery throughout my reading, or the storyline is just too complicated to be understood. The ending was very confusing to me.

🌟🌟🌟 3 stars because the plot is fast paced which I appreciate because I don't really like slow burn storyline. The thing is, the plot escalates way too fast to the point there is not much characters development and plotholes are here and there.

If you want to help a puzzled reader (me), lmk and we'll talk about this book because it definitely left me with many unanswered questions:/and I don't like being wondered when I actually can get the answers from others (I even looked up on Google for the explanation but it was fruitless lol).

**I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Sapphire Detective · Rating 5 out of 5]

When looking for things for gifts, I had written on my list all four of James Scott Byrnside's books (the others being Goodnight, Irene, The Opening Night Murders, and The Strange Case of the Barrington Hills Vampire, all belonging to the same series), as a "just get me one of these, and I'll be happy." This was among the other things on the list (which I will get to in due time). It was my fortune that the first one I got happened to be the stand-alone one, and from what I had heard of it, I figured it was going to be up my alley. I did not expect how much this would turn out to be up my alley.

This book was a rollercoaster ride. It clocks in at just over 200 pages, but it read like it was barely 120--that's how easy flowing it was. And sure, part of this comes from the fact that I've been reading all my books in one sitting lately (ironically, this was the first to break that trend, only due to limited reading time last night), but I was at the point where I didn't want to stop reading it, even last night.

Honestly, to go into this further might spoil the experience, so I'll leave it at this: don't go into this expecting your standard kind of mystery--it's not that. Is it a really well-thought-out mystery? Absolutely. Was it engaging, gripping, a real page-turner? Definitely! But is it like the Golden Age stories I usually read, the style that at times it pays homage to? No way. If I had read Hake Talbot's Rim of the Pit, I could perhaps compare it to that, given what I've heard. But I haven't, so I won't. I will compare it, however, to pulp horror thrillers from the same era, some of which I have read. So, if you like classic Tales from the Crypt-style yarns with a Golden Aged spin to it, I'm sure you'll love this as much as I did.

My rating: 5/5
Would I own it/re-read it?: Fortunately, I already do own it! And yes, I will absolutely re-read it.
TW: Death, Murder, Suicide, Mental Illness, Gore, Cops, Dark Magic (implied), Serial Killer, Racism towards Native Americans (not in the story itself, but through past actions referenced in the story)
Does the animal die?: To my recollection, no animals perform a false suicide.
How difficult was the mystery?: I'll admit, I thought it had me for a bit, but I got it right in the end. Like I say with most rollercoasters, don't worry about solving too much, but if you want to play the game, the clues are all there. Byrnside even pulls some Christianna Brand-esque fourth wall leans in this (no Carr-ian locked room lectures though).

[Munie Moe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it a suicide or is it a murder?

The question linger in my mind after reading this book. The storyline is quite interesting with lots of twist and turns. And the ending brought more question of who done it and what exactly happen. The supernatural element that being include put more an air to the mystery even though it is brief. The characters is being written as quirky and obsessed of writing/rewriting and explaining the crime story and theory. I love the way it written as it is remind me instantly a golden age of detective/mystery fiction novel.

I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Krupal Kulkarni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first outing of Byrnside without his detective duo follows And Then There Were None to a T and actually mentioned it to foreshadow the twist at the end though those who have read Brand can also guess at it as did I when a character has a dream about self destruction just like another character from Brand's first thriller had though I then was led astray by the red herrings just like the remaining two book members and didn't suspect the culprit even when he admits the crime as Bryneside's previous series detective also did display vigilant tendencies. In fact that leads to a disturbing and unfortunate implication inadvertently that one must not come to the aid of people with self destructive tendencies as it may backfire and instead of you helping them they might themselves drag you down with them.
Anyway the plot of FFS revolves around the Book Club started by Greta on the advice of her psychiatrist who suggests it as a means of coping after her horrific experiences. She starts the club with two of her closest friends and the club extends membership to two couples and a porter who gather around discussing various mysteries to read and to criticize the tropes associated with the genre. The first Chapter ends ominously portending the fates of all the book club members which is not surprising given the genre.
The Main Character's troubled family background and a family curse kick of the action and lead the members of the book club who have been invited by her to arrive at the island in turns.
Then the deaths begin....
From that point it almost follows all the peculiar twists and turns characteristic of the author's previous thriller involving a vampire and involves impersonation, drugs that induce suicide, A crazy serial killer and a troubled detective, witches spells and ceremonies until everything ends up going in flames though fortunately the innocent survive and justice is met out.... or is it?
The ending chapter flips the book over its head out like we expect from most thrillers though the author breezes over many questions it raises and expects the reader to work it out and overlook one or two potholes it creates.
The author has summoned his inner Christie, Brand and Carr and mixed the trios trademark style and infused it with noirish femme fatale influences. Whether he has successfully created a credible pulp version of Barbara Stanwyck or perhaps only a diluted version of Susannah is anybody's guess depending on how devastating you find the reveal at the end.

[Kate Sibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read the 3 Manory and Williams books by James Scott Brynside, I jumped at the chance to read this one. On the advice of her therapist, Gretta Grahame forms a book club, featuring only murder mysteries. Known as the Masons, they pick apart their favoured genre and dicuss how they would plot a perfect mystery. However, following a call from a long lost family member, the group find themselves within their own murder mystery.

I found the characters well formed and the writing to be good. It is very fast paced and might not suit everyone. It has more supernatural elements than some murder mysteries but this wasn't something that put me off. I did however become confused at various points and lost track of who was doing what, as the plot does become quite convoluted. It is open ended, which some might prefer but isn't something I would gravitate to. I have to say, I didn't solve the mystery but I'm a rubbish detective and rarely do (plus I like the surprise at the reveal).

I did enjoy this, even at my most baffled, although I did prefer the Manory and Williams books. I would definitely read more from this author.

I received an advance review copy from BookSirens and am leaving this review voluntarily

[Ozymandias · Rating 1 out of 5]

A shame.

This is the only mystery I've read by JSB. The one thing that is clear from his work, and that I truly and dearly loved, was how much admiration and respect comes through for other locked room mysteries. This is definitely a book that rewards those familiar with the subgenre and can be quite funny at times.

I loved the premise and the group of characters, but I quickly became skeptical after the drugs were introduced. Mental illness and behaviour changing drugs should be handled with a lot of care. Many authors use them as a shortcut for motivation and do lots of harm spawning dreadful "Crazy person's alter ego is a killer" stories. I began to take a magnifying glass to every interaction characters had, fully expecting someone to not exist. Thankfully, the author didn't go that route

However, I regrettably almost wish he did.

I will admit I didn't come to the same conclusion as the true denouement and so in that respect I was fooled. In my defense, my reasoning came out as a mix between the first and true endings, with the only difference being that Faye *believed* herself to be Gretta due to (stealing and) abusing Gretta's drugs without her knowledge, and then acting on her friend's behalf trying to fulfill some prophecy of murder, before ironically succumbing to the drugs' effect.

In the true denouement, though, the story goes off the rails.

The motivations become messy and hard to understand.
- Did Gretta's uncle commit suicide?
-- If so, why? I believe this was left out of the end monologue.
-- If not, how did he die? There is no candidate for killing him, as Gretta lacks the justification that early in the story.
- Did Boroqe believe in magic?
-- If no, there are many things that don't make sense. For starters: Why does he convince Gretta to kill her family?
-- If yes, the story instantly jumps to "insanely unbelievable". The magician always knows how their tricks are performed.
- Why does Boroqe commit suicide?
-- This felt like such a wasted death. ANYTHING is possible if you have an accomplice who is willing to commit suicide. For them to die by hanging is so mundane it's disappointing.

It may be improper to suggest how the story "should" have went, but dammit, the true denouement really spoiled any potential enjoyment of the story. It would have been better if the epilogue was cut entirely, but if it must stay, a possible way to make it palatable would be to take the route of "Death Within The Evil Eye" by Masahiro Imamura and rework the story where Gretta convinces herself the curse is real. The manipulation by the suicidal third party makes no sense in the context of what is given.

There were a few errors here and there {"He face became pained" should be "her face", (p.120) / "Olive was thinking about those patterns" should (presumably) be "Gretta", as Olive is already dead by this point (p. 138) / others exist but these should suffice} but it's self-published so I think they're understandable and don't detract from the overall work. The writing style was fine and I enjoyed the pacing.

[Eero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a prime example of the contrived nature of the impossible crime. The characters are basically ciphers, or game pieces that the author manipulates to achieve the pattern he desires. Still, it is a clever design, although I did not particularly like the final flourish. There is too much randomness and unpredictability involved in the proposed solution.

As an aside, I think I found a variant method for manipulating a key into a keyhole from the opposite side that does not have the disadvantages discussed in this book and should be reasonably quick. (This is not a spoiler, as the characters who are mystery aficionados discuss this topic early on.)

The author seems to always include fires and other disasters that completely destroy the location of the crimes.

According to Wikipedia, the term "serial killer" entered common usage in the English language only in the 1970s, although in other languages similar terms were used prior to the time this novel is set in. Also, it is not impossible that a person living in the 1940s could come up with the term spontaneously. As I recall, the term is used only once.

I do not think spelling marshals as "Marshalls" is correct.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC free from BookSirens and this is my voluntary honest review.
Wow! What a read!
Oh, my so cleverly crafted! Mind blowing suspense and unbelievable tension!
The quick pace of this heart pounding crime thriller will not disappoint. Watch out for the unexpected out come! You won't be disappointed.
You may be able to over look the unnecessary cuss words, but you will be greatly satisfied and will want more. Don't miss out!
Read and enjoy!

[Kechi Otta · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 5 false suicides is a brilliantly crafted books that leaves you craving for what is happening. So much twists and tension happens in the book.
People are found in dead by suicides or is it actually murder? The characters are complex and relatable that feels like you are in there with them. The plot was like a rollercoaster. I loved it. An amazing book. If you love whodunnit, this is your cup or tea.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down because I really didn't like the ending.

The story is interesting, quirky, and funny with many odd characters. I enjoyed it even though it is not quite my type of novel. Then it became overly convoluted and lost much of what little credibility it had.

You might have a wry smile or smirk as you read along but then might have a different reaction when you get to the very end.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Wendy Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be an enjoyable book. It's a story about five suicides - or were they murders? That is the question the MASONS book club try to decide. There were plenty of red herrings.

However, I was a bit confused about the ending. Was it suicide or murder?

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Ronali Dela Cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 5 False Suicides was the second book I read by James Scott Byrnside. I admit that I preferred The Opening Night Murders, but only because it was laced with real-life credulity, unlike the supernatural elements incorporated throughout The 5 False Suicides.

I received an advanced reader's copy (ARC) of this book, and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

[Brandon Eisen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mystery novel that works extra hard to subvert your expectations. The humor is wild, the false solution fantastic, and the final image is pure horrific poetry. Just don't go in expecting the typical story of a detective piecing the mystery together clue by clue and you'll have a great time.

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book did contain some suspense and twists, especially the end. For me, it was an ok read. The characters were well developed but at times felt the plot was not a believable story. Received an ARC and this is my voluntary honest review.

[Rajesh Gadgil · Rating 1 out of 5]

An open-ended, unduly contrived novel.

[SuedePuzzler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever puzzle mystery, but bloodier and more depressing than almost all Golden Age Detective fiction. It is told at a fast pace, too fast for my taste.

[Juan Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buena intriga y desarrollo, pero con un final incomprensible.