Monkey See, Monkey Murder (2023) by James Scott Byrnside

The 1920s began in the United States with an amendment to the constitution banning the sale of beer, wine and spirits, effective January 19, 1920, but outlawing alcohol to battle and reduce domestic violence only made things worse – leading to the rise of organized crime and gangsterism. These were the days of bootlegging, rum running, speakeasies, rough (deadly) liquor and gang murders. Chicago brutally carved out a prominent place in the grim, bloody history of the Prohibition-era, but a fascinating chapter in US history nonetheless. And, today, fertile grounds for a historical, hardboiled crime novel. Or so you would think.

James Scott Byrnside had a different idea and took two incorruptible, 1920s Chicago gumshoes, Rowan Manory and Walter William, simply added some "locked-room murders, ghosts, vanishing killers, and so forth." The first three novels in the series, Goodnight Irene (2018), The Opening Night Murders (2019) and The Strange Case of the Barrington Hills Vampire (2020), are highlights of both self-published mysteries and new wave of impossible crime fiction. Monkey See, Monkey Murder (2023) is the fourth title in the series and the first one to probe the criminal underbelly of 1920s Chicago. This time, Manory's preference and ability to attract inexplicable, intricately-plotted murders and seeming impossible crimes can't keep him out of the way of a notoriously ruthless gangster.

Steven Rinehardt, owner of the Rinehardt Smelting Company out of Boston, has come to Chicago to expand his company with a new big metals plant, blast furnace and several factories, but it's a pleasure, not business, that gets him neck deep into trouble – dumping his fiancee to get engaged to a night club singer. Lulu Raspin is contracted to Ivan "The Flesher" Florkowski, "club owner, bookmaker, extortionist, murderer and gang leader," who not exactly thrilled the singer ran off or that her loved told him to pound sand over the telephone. Not a terribly clever strategy as "those who cross Ivan Florkowski end up in pieces, buried in concrete-filled barrels at the bottom of the river." However, something entirely different happened than the expected cement-filled barrels and a watery grave. Rinehardt took his new fiancee on holiday to Malaya, Southeast Asia, where a macaque "pummeled him and tore his face up" ("the poor son of a bitch doesn't even have a nose anymore"). Rinehardt believes the gangster is somehow behind the vicious monkey attack. A suspicion that's not alleviated when a gun-wielding man in a hazmat suit and gas mark is chased out of his house.

So this poses a really tricky, potential deadly problem for Police Sergeant Delbert Grady as he finds himself in an impossible position. The mayor had instructed him to make Rinehardt's happiness his top priority and demands Grady arrests Florkowski for attempted murder, but Grady's name is on Florkowski's payroll. Grady turns to the only incorruptible person in Chicago, Rowan Manory. If the city's finest detective can prove Florkowski has nothing to do with the strange attacks, Rinehardt or the mayor will believe it. And if he has something do with it, Grady has plenty of time to leave town ("some other dumb bastard can sign his own death warrant because I won't be around to have anything to do with it").

Rowan Manory and Walter William have their work cut out as people connected to the case either turn up very murdered or go missing. While the house is closely guarded by the Pinkerton Security Agency, the place is invaded by armed men and another angry macaque. This culminates with Florkowski unexpectly agreeing to a meeting at Rinehardt's home. Manory correctly predicts, "if the meeting goes anything like the other developments in this case, we'll walk away with even more questions."

This ends with the discovery of the one of more bizarrely posed, pulp-style locked room murders I've come across in some time, which I'm not even going to attempt to describe, but it should almost go without saying another macaque is involved – necessitating a "Locked Room Lecture" to bring some clarity. Manory discusses with Williams the finite solutions and principles by which an impossible crime can be accomplished. And rejects Williams suggesting the murderer might stumbled across a new locked room idea: "Hogwash! There are no new principles. Repackaged? Yes. Renamed. Sure. Altered with technology? Fine. Hidden within the details of a plot? Absolutely. But new? No." Just a matter of finding the right locked room principle "well hidden within the fabric of the plot." That being said, Monkey See, Monkey Murder should not be read solely for its locked room-angle or lecture. Byrnside's fifth novel is a better whodunit, superior even, than impossible crime story. One of those incredibly difficult, slippery and treacherous tightrope walking-acts that would have ended in a nasty fall in the hands of a less talented writer and plotter. Just very pleasing and rewarding to see something like this being produced again in the West. By comparison, the locked room murder and its explanation underwhelmed after such an intriguing presentation and lecture on the subject. Manory warned the reader the trick would rely on a well worn, well hidden principle, but even then, the locked room-trick felt very basic and unsatisfying. Particularly, when the change of one or two small details would have allowed for another method to leave a locked crime scene behind. A trick practically custom-made to the circumstances of Rinehardt's house and the locked room at the time of the murder.

So here's my solution to Monkey See, Monkey Murder's bizarre locked room situation: Manory notes in the story the door has a so-called Ryerson bolt-lock, "only lock that could not, under any known circumstances, be manipulated from the outside," because "weight and unique vertical movement made it resistant to magnets, strings, and any other makeshift tools." The key sticking inside the keyhole didn't add an extra layer to the impossibility or posed an obstacle to any trickery. So it could have just as good been found lying in the middle of the room without diminishing the impossibility of the locked room slaying in any way. That would have opened another door hiding in plain sight. During the story, work is still being done on the house and construction material is strewn all over the place such as canvas hoses. A canvas hose can be used to guide the key down the chimney, through "the tiny spaces of the curlicue design" of the iron grate to the fireplace, which "can only be locked into place from inside the room," back into the room now appearing to be locked from the inside – only key lying right there on the floor. After that, the murderer pulls the canvas hose back up. I don't always demand blistering original, grandiosely-staged tricks from a locked room mystery. Just something to match its presentation and this one demanded something that at least looked a little bit more complicated than a basic trick. Even if it actually hinges on a basic trick.

Fortunately, Monkey See, Monkey Murder is so much more than only a locked room mystery. Byrnside packed the same ingenuity, vigor, sportsmanship and understanding of the detective story to craft an excellent, hardboiled whodunit that made him the leading light of the traditional, self-published (locked room) mystery novels. While it would have been nice if the locked room murder would have developed into something better, it's not the end-all. Particularly, if behind that locked door is, what's in every other regard, a first-rate detective story playing the Grandest Game in the World. I very much look forward to the next title in the series or perhaps another crazy-ass piece of pulp like the standalone The 5 False Suicides (2021). Either way, I'll be there!