The Bloodstained Doll

The latest homage to the Italian Giallo film genre by award winning John Everson, with nods to the sensational movies of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Luciano Ercoli, Mario Bava and more.

When Allyson’s mom dies unexpectedly, she thinks her world has hit rock bottom. But that’s before she goes to live with her estranged Uncle Otto in Germany. When a child’s empty casket is unearthed in the backyard during a violent storm, suddenly people close to her uncle start turning up dead. Is there a connection? As the noose tightens and murders draw closer to Berger Mansion, Allyson and her new boyfriend Andrew discover a dark truth hidden in the attic. Soon their lives are at stake if they don’t discover why each broken body is decorated with a Bloodstained Doll.

A modern Giallo, building on Everson’s previous homage to the stylish Italian mystery thrillers, Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds.

FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

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 Hellnotes; 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.