Monkey Business
I’ll admit there’s always something a bit special when digging into self-published fiction, or just fiction by lesser-known authors. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a matter of kinship – unlike me, the people in question usually have the good sense to make some money from the thing (and, God forbid, thoroughly edit it before releasing it). The key term I’d probably use is nostalgia.
My obsession with the genre truly kicked in five or so years ago. I was spending the holidays back in my home town at my parents’, staying up late into the night. I’d just discovered this guy Paul Halter. The sun had yet to come up. There was a light chill to the room. The coffee was half-gone, but the cup was still warm. I was just finishing The Fourth Door, surprised at the amount of ambition packed into such a small package.
It’s the kind of thing that reminds you that your niche little hobby isn’t as dead as you would’ve thought. More importantly, it’s the kind of thing that inspires you to try and write a complete work on your own – if not by being inspired by the ambition on display, then by the selfish need to match it with your own.
James Scott Byrnside’s works always stir that strange feeling in me. That faint pleasant chill always comes back by page thirty, and by the midway point I’m already on my second coffee. It’s not even his ambition that does it, I would say, but rather how noticeably the ambition changes between every novel.
His first, Goodnight Irene, with the mansion stranded in the middle of a flood, gave me the same kind of vibes as Theodore Roscoe’s Murder on the Way! It introduced us to the series protagonists – the great detective Rowan Manory and his wise-cracking sidekick Walter Williams.
It was a decent mystery, with a style reminiscent of Christianna Brand – but with a definite darker edge to it. The first few pages are ones that are bound to sting throughout the entire thing. It’s as if the gut punch in Death of Jezebel worse a brass knuckle. In truth – it’s what I remember far more clearly than the locked room.
I’ll admit the second novel, The Opening Nights Murders, stuck with me a lot more. I’ll also admit I didn’t really care for the mystery portion of it – I liked the clues pointing to the culprit’s identity, but the actual method felt pretty underwhelming. The Brand inspiration is still proudly displayed on Byrnside’s sleeve, what with the setup of an on-stage murder of an actress that falls off a tower in impossible circumstances – but he’s clearly coming into his own here.
What I like in particular is the arc Manory goes through. Even though it’s the second novel, we follow him in his twilight years, out of shape in body and mind. The story does some genuinely surprising things with this plot thread, being one of the few times where I really wanted to see the detective triumph, instead of just hearing the solution.
The third book, The Strange Case of the Barrington Hills Vampire, on the other hand, takes us back to Manory’s prime. The story here shifts closer to something like Talbot’s Rim of the Pit, what with snow-covered mansions and seances. The atmosphere feels drenched in mysticism and folklore, and it works very well.
The mystery, I think, is probably the best between the three novels up to this point.
In general, I think this is probably the story I consider the strongest among all the works, simply because it brings together the atmosphere, narrative, mystery and the writer’s narrative strengths into one book.
I’ll admit I walked away from The Five False Suicides a bit lukewarm. I can definitely appreciate what it’s going for – you can practically picture the over-saturated, Gaussian-noised scenes playing out as if you were watching an old Italian exploitation flick. But as a story, it just didn’t come together fully for me.
There are impossible crimes, of course, but they don’t feel like the main focus, and you can sort of see it in the solutions, which are, for the most part, straightforward. And that’s totally fine!
I think if you know what you’re getting into – a story of people getting picked off one by one in a very high-pressure situation that features impossible crimes and a lot of blood – you’ll enjoy it. Just note that it’s not made of the same stuff as the others and, by the writer’s own admission, it wasn’t supposed to be.
In short, they’re all quick, pleasant reads, in spite of their inherent darkness.
Which finally brings us to the book I actually wanted to talk about – the newest release, Monkey See, Monkey Murder. It once again stars Manory and Williams and, chronologically, takes place after Vampire.
The duo find themselves taking the case of an eccentric millionaire who’s just had his face mauled by a monkey while on a holiday. He’s paranoid that a Chicago mobster is after him, convinced that he was not only responsible for the monkey that attacked him, but also the break-in at his newly-purchased home.
Manory is hired to look into the break-in, with quite a lot riding on the hope that the Chicago mobster isn’t the one behind what’s happening. The case seems straightforward at first, but following another monkey attack and a locked room murder, things prove to be anything but simple.
For one, I liked this one quite a lot. I’d rank it somewhere above Five Suicides and Irene. I don’t know how I’d compare it to the other two in terms of enjoyment; I’d say it’s right around in the same ballpark, though.
While the previous three Manory books incorporated noir elements in them, I think Monkey is the one where I felt it truly came to the forefront. The main reason is the way it approaches its plotting and atmosphere.
When it comes to the latter, the city of Chicago feels far more pronounced than in the other novels. Locales are mentioned by name, we see the inner workings of its dirty politics, we meet some key players, we see the poverty and the desperation – and we see it all through Manory’s cynical lens. The whole city gives an air of tragedy and inevitability around it. Crimes happen because they’re supposed to. They’re brutal because they have to be. That’s what Chicago is. That’s why the banter between Manory and Walter sticks out all the more, but in a good way. It reminds you that in all this darkness, people are ultimately just trying to live their lives.
The former, though, is what makes the novel far more memorable for me. There’s a lot of moving parts here – far more than you’d think at first. The way these separate plot lines come together is certainly impressive… but not always satisfying. I don’t think there’s a good way to talk about some of these things without spoilers, so I’ll mark that part of the discussion in ROT-13 below:
Sbe rknzcyr, gur jnl Yhyh, ure cevingr qrgrpgvir naq rira gur zbaxrl nggnpx zvqjnl vagb gur obbx ner xvaq bs whfg unaq-jnirq njnl va gur svany fgntrf bs gur obbx jnf xvaq bs n ohzzre. Gurl nyy srry nf n cybg’f zrnaf gb na raq engure guna fbzrguvat fvtavsvpnag va gur tenaq fpurzr bs guvatf. Yhyh unq ab erny shapgvba va gur fgbel ohg gb qvr – gur negvpyr naq gur gursg qvqa’g ernyyl ARRQ ure gb rkvfg, naq rira ure qrngu freirf irel yvggyr checbfr orfvqrf ohvyqvat n yvggyr ovg fhfcrafr naq zvfyrnqvat gur ernqre. Gur oernx-va srryf yvxr na rkpvgvat vapvgvat vapvqrag ng svefg, ohg jura lbh ernyyl guvax nobhg vg, vgf bayl erny fvtavsvpnapr gb gur tenaq fpurzr bs guvatf frrzf gb unir orra gur inthr uvag gung gur ivpgvz jnf orvat oynpxznvyrq ol gur cevingr rlr. Rira gur zbaxrl nggnpx, va gur ybat eha, jnf bayl gurer gb uvag ng gur rkvfgrapr bs gur zbaxrl va gur fnsr naq tvir guvf vyyhfvba bs n gnetrgrq zbaxrl nggnpx… ohg gur sbezre qbrfa’g ernyyl jbex, orpnhfr gur ybpxrq ebbz va frg hc va fhpu n jnl jurer gur zbaxrl’f vaibyirzrag vf nyzbfg vzzrqvngryl qvfzvffrq. Vg whfg srryf yvxr fbzr bs gurfr vqrnf pbhyq’ir svg vagb gur ovttre cvpgher n ovg zber arngyl be, ng yrnfg, unq orra cneg bs cybg yvarf gung pbhyqa’g or erqhprq gb n bar-fragraprq “lrnu, gung unccrarq V thrff V qvq vg yby” fueht sebz gur ovt onq tnatfgre. Ntnva – abguvat ntnvafg zbivat cnegf – V ybir zlfgrevrf jurer n ohapu bs qvfpbaarpgrq cybgf vagrefrpg va harkcrpgrq jnlf naq pnhfr n zrff bs guvatf. Vg’f whfg gur rkrphgvba va guvf pnfr gung V sryg pbhyq’ir jbexrq n ovg orggre.
I think the idea behind the locked room is, on the whole, good. I won’t go into too much detail on it because it happens about midway into the book, but rest assured that the room is sufficiently locked. And the victim – after being pieced together – established as most certainly murdered.
The book even comes with a locked room lecture!
I’m getting a bit tired of those, but the book more than makes up for it by providing entertaining mini-locked-room solutions Manory uses to illustrate the different types. I particularly liked the one with the man that gets found in a locked room pierced with a trident.
Going back to the actual locked room – there’s a lot of little seeds thrown throughout the story designed to throw you off-track on what the whole scheme actually is. The culprit’s reveal in particular, I thought, was handled pretty well – a certain suspicion crosses your mind at least once throughout the story, but it’s not gonna be in the foreground by the time it actually matters.
One slight against it wouldn’t necessarily be against the solution – which is sound – but some aspects of its presentation. (Again, ROT-13.)
Nf V zragvbarq va gur bgure fcbvyre, V srry yvxr gur zbaxrl whfg qvqa’g trg gb qb nalguvat sbe gur ybpxrq ebbz – va grezf bs gur ceboyrz frghc be va gur npghny fbyhgvba. Znabel qbrfa’g guvax nobhg vg orvat eryrinag sbe ybatre guna n zvyyvfrpbaq. Guhf, gur zbaxrl va gur fnsr hygvzngryl rkvfgf sbe gur bgure zbaxrl gb tb penml sbe vgf cerfrapr… jvgu gur bgure zbaxrl rkvfgvat bayl gb uvag ng gur zbaxrl va gur fnsr. Vg raqf hc srryvat n ovg cbvagyrff. Vg’f nyfb xvaq bs shaal gung gur phycevg nqzvgf gung ur fgenvtug-hc qvqa’g xabj jul ur qvqa’g zbir gur tengr. Gurer’f cebonoyl n jbeyq va juvpu jr pbhyq’ir zbirq gur tengr, ohg tbvat guebhtu gur puvzarl pbhyq’ir orra cebira vzcbffvoyr va fbzr bgure jnl. Be, na nygreangr fbyhgvba pbhyq’ir orra cebcbfrq jurer gur xvyyre, va na rssbeg gb pbire hc uvf rfpncr guebhtu gur puvzarl, hfrq fbzr gevpx gb zbir gur tengr onpx vagb cbfvgvba nsgre yrnivat, juvpu pbhyq or qrzbafgengrq nf jebat… Vg whfg frrzf whfg fyvtugyl varyrtnag nf-vf, ohg vg’f abg n uhtr qrny.
Overall, a fun entry. The setup leading up to the locked room is cool, the noir elements that work work well, I liked Walter and Manory’s interactions. It’s a fairly quick read, and I recommend giving it a shot.
I’ll admit that I’m not a huge fan of the cover, though. It definitely sticks out when compared to the others. I get what the idea was, but I think the brown is really throwing me off.
But, y’know. To each their own.
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