Everyone in My Family Has Killed a someone is bound to be a book that everyone talks about. It’s going to be the next thing that all bookish people say, hey, have you read?

It’s without a doubt the most fun, entertaining book I’ve had the opportunity to pick up in a while. The narration is snarky and witty, without being over the top. The setting is perfect for all that goes down, and the characters may possibly resemble people you know…or are even related to!

Thanks for the opportunity to review!

Ernie Cunningham tells readers how his dysfunctional family has killed someone and now they are all converging on a family reunion in the middle of a snow storm. Sounds like everything should be fine, right?
I loved that Ernie talked to the reader and referred to something that was coming along in the story (he is going to kiss the owner of the chalet they are all staying at, but it's not the way you think).
I do feel like the main mystery got a little convoluted- I really had to concentrate on what was going on but I didn't guess the ending, which is a big pet peeve of mine.
I could see this becoming a tv show or movie.

Ernest Cunningham’s family is something else. That’s because everyone, including Ernie, has killed someone.

No joke.

And when they all gather together at a ski resort for an Aussie family reunion, bodies start piling up. Rapidly. But have no fear, for Ernie is on the case. He just needs to solve the whodunnit before he ends up a victim himself.

Benjamin Stevenson’s novel, "Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone," is a clever throwback to The Golden Age of Mystery. It’s like Agatha Christie and "Clue" have been reinvented for the modern fan of detective fiction, and it’s so terrific.

Ernie, our narrator, makes for a great sleuth. He’s bright, witty, and knows how to recount an entertaining story to the reader. He’s also clear and methodical in his explanation of how all the pieces of the mystery fit together, which is important because, frankly, it’s a complicated one. My brain cells had to work overtime to keep it straight, along with the who’s who of Ernie’s family.

Stevenson’s novel is worth every bit of effort, though. It’s a suspenseful read and has twists aplenty. And it’s tough to set it aside once you’ve picked it up.

What makes it even better is that this won’t be the last we hear from Ernie. His detective work continues in Book #2, "Everyone On This Train is a Suspect," set to publish in late 2023 or early 2024.

You can bet I’ll be riding that train with Ernie, sitting nearby.


My sincerest appreciation to Benjamin Stevenson, Mariner Books, and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is a clever and interactive mystery! I really enjoyed all the references to the mystery genre and absolutely adored all the times the main character "breaks the fourth wall" by speaking directly to the readers.
The mystery, deaths, and backstories were a bit grittier and more devastating than I expected from the synopsis. In fact, I almost stopped reading around the halfway mark after a particularly upsetting scene. Then a friend said she tore through the book and I decided to pick it back up to find out whodunnit. I am glad I finished this layered tale and enjoyed the ending. There are funny moments that made me chuckle out loud mixed in with all the trauma.
This unique mystery book is perfect for fans of Fleabag, the first Knives Out movie, and with its Australian setting, The Dry!

Knives Out meets Agatha Christie old-school murder mystery in this cold, blustery tale of a family with a dark black cloud following them...

The Cunninghams almost seem cursed. The MC Ernest isn't kidding when he says everyone in his family killed someone, which is adorably the first line of this story. And now, as they find themselves being hunted in the middle of a bad storm (figuratively and literally) at a remote ski resort during a family reunion, Ernest needs to figure out just what his family has gotten themselves into this time. Because someone is definitely out to get them, and as each body is found, the plot thickens and thickens. Family isn't in a name or by blood, it's who you're willing to spill blood for...

Thoughts: This is one of the best murder mysteries I've read in a while! I loved the fast pace, which surprisingly wasn't hampered by flashbacks as the MC Ern explained his family's history while the plot unfolded. I also loved all of the sarcasm and how Ern broke the "fourth wall" to talk directly to the reader. It was so much fun! I really appreciated that readers weren't led to believe red herrings -- Ern explains evidence and info as it happens in the story and makes sure to call out when we might jump to a conclusion that's best left alone. And I must applaud having a reliable narrator -- author Benjamin Stevenson opens the story with some very interesting notes, including calling out today's popular trope of unreliable narrators by claiming Ern will be reliable as much as he can be given the limited information he had at the time. My only issue with this story is the info dump at the end (it went on for quite a few pages) but I can't even be mad because it had total Agatha Christie vibes and I'm here for it. It was just a lot. I'm recommending this to anyone I know who likes a good murder mystery with a side of humor and sarcasm. Loved it!

**Thank you, NetGalley and publisher, for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.**

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced reader’s copy for my review!

I loved this book. The way it's written is something special in itself. Because it is written as a retrospective retelling of the events by the main character and is more of an intentional *story* than just an internal reflection, the storytelling is very personal and intentional. Ernest has written books with advice for authors on writing mystery novels, so he will point out the little elements that are popping up in real life, or cliches he will or will not be using. His notes on what his editor had advised are also really funny little asides.

The writing style would be nothing if the mystery wasn’t good and, luckily, it is! I genuinely wasn’t sure how everything would work out. The book climaxes with a big family exposition which some people might not be too into, but it felt like Knives Out to me or something and I thought it was really fun.

Most of the characters are initially not super likable, which normally would turn me off. However, we start to see that there are deep reasons why they’ve all become this way, and there is more weakness and vulnerability to them than malice. This makes them much easier to root for. And, luckily, our narrator is a decent person so we can at least stick with him through the story, even while tempted to give up on his stressful family.

Overall, this is a five star read for me! I’d love to read more from this author.

This is what I wrote for Goodreads:

Loved this! Good-natured family noir? Thoroughly enjoyable self-referntial tribute to Golden Age of Crime locked room mysteries? In any case, it's a wonderful addition to the brilliant group of Australian crime novels out recently.
Gave FIVE Stars

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest reviews.

I'm not even sure where to start with this. I also mean that is a great way. I'm not going to resay the story, the title pretty much says it all. I will say, I loved Ernie (Ernest) and how is he written. He tells this story as if he is talking to you over coffee. The story has all the making of a true who done it story. A family of killers with a reunion where a blizzard pretty much snows them all in. Ernie walks us through it all and keeps us guessing and entertained until the very end!

"Family is not whose blood runs in your veins, it's who you'd spill it for."

When I read the title and summary of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, I knew I needed to read it. Benjamin Stevenson did not disappoint! The book was laugh out loud funny and witty. It was an adventure to read and I enjoyed every second.

To start, I loved how Stevenson used his main character as the author of the book. Ernest immediately begins by talking about unreliable narrators and how he is a reliable narrator and will be honest. This, naturally, has you second guessing everything he says. Furthermore, he indicates exactly where in the book someone dies. This was extremely clever. As a reader, you often want to skip ahead and figure out who was murdered or who the murderer was. In this book, though, you're figuring out who killed who - because you know EVERYONE has killed SOMEONE. You just don't know who will be alive at the end of the book.

Stevenson's character development was on point. I found myself getting mad at Audrey, rolling my eyes at Lucy and her "business", sympathizing with Sofia, getting annoyed at Andy and Katherine, and not quite able to hate Erin or Michael. My feelings towards Ernest were pretty neutral, I didn't love or hate him. He didn't seem like a bad guy or a good guy. He just... was. So it was shocking for me to have developed such strong emotions towards the secondary characters in the book.

This was a perfect mystery to read on a cold, snowy day (the story takes place at a ski resort). It was just what I was looking to read right now!

4.5 stars stars from me!

4 stars! I really liked how this book was written! It was funny, witty, and I actually couldn't figure it out so that was great! I loved how the MC would give you the heads up of when someone was going to die and would constantly remind you that he didn't intend on being an untrustworthy storyteller. I found it funny and a refreshing take on a whodunnit mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

If you liked Glass Onion, you will love this book! I think it’s themes and tone was more like Glass Onion than Knives Out. And it reminded me a liiittle bit of House of Cards where our main character kind of breaks the fourth wall to speak to you, the reader, then you jump right back into the scene.

This was a fun read! It had a cast of characters where everyone had a past that made them real sus 👀 (but you already know that because you’ve seen the title of this book). The final few twists really got me! I was gasping while reading (which was at almost 11pm when I should have been sleeping but instead here I was gasping at this book and scaring my almost-asleep-husband 😂).

Anywho, this book was published last week and I highly recommend you pick it up! Thank you to Penguin Randomhouse and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

*This book was received as an Advanced Reader's Copy from NetGalley.

Generally, the only kind of mysteries I read are the cozy ones. Light, full of themes and fun (ok and maybe some murder, but you get the drift). However, how could I resist the title of this one? And then having been drawn in by the title, the synopsis.

"Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate." Our narrator, Ernie, gives us this information from the very beginning. And then takes us step by step through a family reunion.

Is Ernie a reliable narrator? Unreliable. He does his best to promise you reliability. And he knows all the rules to writing a decent mystery. I like that the book keeps you guessing throughout. His family is interesting, to say the least. While there were a few characters that were just kinda meh, largely everyone was likably unlikeable.

The whole book is fast paced. There's always something happening. Which I liked; tedium in a mystery can make it draw out too long, especially if full of red herrings or other false trails. I will say that I don't think I would have guessed the ending on this one, which I'm mostly ok with but maybe still side-eying the author a bit on. But overall the humor (sometimes dark), novelty, and twists and turns made this an enjoyable read.

Since it seems possible that there will be more to the series, I look forward to reading the next.

Review by M. Reynard 2023

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stevenson, is an engaging, entertaining whodunit!
The protagonist, Ernest Cunningham (call me Ern or Ernie), is an author of books about writing crime fiction. A self-described “reliable” narrator, he admires works from the Golden Age (of detective fiction) and its Golden Rule—play fair. In his own writing, he aspires to follow Knox’s 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction, from 1929, as closely as he can, dismissing the new age of psychological twisty mysteries.
Ern is indeed an earnest fellow and he attends his family’s reunion at a ski resort with some trepidation. The location is brilliant, as, in typical Golden Age fashion, it brings all the characters together in a locked-room scenario. One by one, Ern introduces each member of his quirky extended family, focusing his laser beam of pithy commentary on each one. And yes, while all are killers, not all are murderers!
No spoilers here—the action is at times exciting and always illuminating as the plot moves forward to the classic whodunit denouement where Ern explains all.
I like the trope of the “author” as an active character in the story as well as narrator. When Ern takes himself out of the narrative a la a Greek chorus, commenting on writing style points and literary devices, he speaks directly to his reader with cheeky asides about his family and their activities, but also some sentimental ruminations about the ultimate meaning of family—“Family is not whose blood runs in your veins, it’s who you’d spill it for.”
The plotting is complex, with a couple startling twists. In classic Golden Age style, he drops many breadcrumbs (clues) for the reader along the way, so it pays to pay attention!
Stevenson is a clever, intelligent wordsmith and his witty, irreverent humor was great fun to read and savor.
This is listed as “Ernest Cunningham #1” and I hope #2 will be forthcoming very soon!
I highly recommend this novel to lovers of classic mystery writing mixed with modern mores!

Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Everyone in Ern's family has killed someone, but not all are murderers. Erv is a writer of books to help writers write books in particular genres. He is joining his family at a ski resort in Australia (I did not know they had these!) for a family reunion since his brother is getting out of jail. Within 24 hours of arriving at the reunion, a body is found. Then (of course) a big storm comes in and cuts off all communication for the family with anyone outside of the resort.

Throughout the book, Ern recounts his different family members and who they killed. I have read some reviews that said that they thought the book was like the "Knives Out" series of movies. Unfortunately, I thought the story required the reader to suspend belief several times and played upon cliches of the mystery/suspense genre. Perhaps I read this at the wrong time to find the humor.

This one was such a fun read! I really enjoyed the conversational tone the author took, often speaking directly to the reader with a dry sense of humor that occasionally had me laughing out loud. The plot was complex and twisty, and the various threads were woven together skillfully. The pace was moderate, with a few faster really tense scenes that had me holding my breath.

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.

I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.

Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.

Who was it?

Let's get started.

This is a fun mystery where everyone is a suspect, and everyone has killed at least once before. I enjoyed the way that this was plotted out and we were given a little information at a time. In the kindle version the narrator would reference something that was going to happen on a future page or a past page and you could click on it and it would take you there. This was also very atmospheric with the setting a ski lodge in the middle of a storm for a family reunion and people keep turning up dead.

This was fast paced, and I really enjoyed the ending. One of the best mysteries I have read this year.

I was given a copy of this to review by NetGalley and the publisher. My opinions are my own.

A fun satirical look at the modern mystery genre. A mysterious vase abd a family where everyone has killed someone..gueareenteed to keep you entertained with a wonderful delicious twisty end.

Y’all this book was so freaking entertaining. This was an extremely cozy murder mystery.

I have my suspicions that this will be turned into a movie or series at some point because the details are vague enough to be put into film, yet explanatory enough to transport us into the book i.e. “avalanche struck version of Chernobyl.”

I adored the fact that this author created RULES for a murder mystery and pushed the boundaries of those rules throughout the book. He also includes time(page) stamps to each murder that occurs, which was fun and engaging.

——#rtiyl———

-MC is a self-published crime fiction author who hones in on ⇣⇣⇣
-callbacks to classic mystery authors and themes
-addresses and assesses above-mentioned components ⇱ ⇱ ⇱
-highly unlikeable family trope
-unexpected heart feels ♥︎

I definitely recommend this book, preferably over a snowy weekend and several cups of a steamy beverage and with your comfiest blanket.

Many thanks to @stevensonexperience and @marinerbooks and @netgalley for an advanced reader copy of this book.

An adequately told modern mystery that has some clever elements but is, unfortunately, very overhyped.

About a decade ago, everything in the Thriller genre got compared to Gone Girl, which was almost always misleading and inaccurate and a shameless attempt to market to trend rather than accuracy. I feel like the new version of this is to compare the style of mystery used in this book to Knives Out, because right now that’s the capital T Thing, especially among those who enjoyed the movie but likely don’t actually read a lot of mysteries.

It’s a disservice to this book to compare it to Knives Out. Not only does it fail miserably in comparison, but they don’t even have much in common beyond the superficial, and I wonder if this book suffered in my opinion (and will likely do the same in others’) because we feel misled by the promotion of the book as something it’s not.

First, this isn’t really funny, per se. It has a few moments where you truly do chuckle and a lot of moments where you cringe and the author’s try-hard attempts at overused Mystery jokes, but in the end it’s a mystery retry serious book with an underlying story that is actually pretty depressing. It has none of the light touch of Knives Out (read Loch Down Abbey if you truly want a book that feels like the movie), and doesn’t really match most of the tropes used in the movie either.

All of that said, this certainly isn’t a bad book. It’s just not what it claims to be. On the plus side, there is some very clever structural stuff happening here, and I loved the way the plot points behind the title matter so much to the solve. The solve itself has an element of cheapness to it, but it’s explained well and wouldn’t have been a problem worthy of mention on its own.

It’s a fine read and I’m not necessarily recommending skipping it, just going in with the awareness that it’s far from what the hype says it is.

I enjoyed the humor in this book. It was a light easy read. Enough clues and red herrings to keep you guessing.