Ernest Cunningham (call him Ern or Ernie) is a fan of novels from the Golden Age of mysteries: the detective stories by Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers. He even writes how-to books to help aspiring mystery writers craft good stories. And he lives by the classic rules written by Ronald Knox back in 1929, “The Ten Rules of (Golden Age) Detective Fiction.” Those include “No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right. The detective must not himself commit the crime. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.”

And Ern asserts at the beginning of this story, which he is writing about experiences he actually had: “Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once.”

Ern is writing primarily about a weekend family reunion at a ski resort. There’s plenty of family drama, lots of snow —and death. Ern is the sleuth who experiences, collects, and shares the story and relevant clues. (And then solves the murders at the end.) He also is a chatty guy. We definitely know what he is thinking. Because this book is essentially us reading all that he writes down to capture his thoughts as well as the facts. It’s almost stream of consciousness, but he’s still trying to put it in a clear, readable format to get it published. (He refers often to his editor and what they’ll say about what and how he’s writing.)

All of that said, though this novel is a fun twist on a standard murder mystery, with lots of humor and wry observations from our narrator, it’s still an excellent mystery book. It would work really well, with its requisite big reveals at the end, even without the added elements I’ve just described. There’s a lot going on, with plenty of layers in the plot, and it all comes together fantastically. It’s great entertainment and I’m looking forward to more!

"Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once." The opening line hooked me immediately and I had so much fun reading this book!
I absolutely loved this!!! This is a locked room mystery that is insanely smart and funny!! This takes place during a family reunion at an Australian ski chalet. The story is narrated by Ernest Cunningham, a crime fiction expert, and I loved how the story was told - it feels like he's talking directly to you and his voice is distinct, humorous, and has great foreshadowing. I also bet this would be fantastic as an audiobook and may reread it in that form at some point!  I don't want to spoil too much - I recommend going into this blind. But it's so much fun!! And it's the first in a series so I cannot wait until what's next!
Highly recommend if you enjoy
- Reliable narrator
- Locked room mystery Australian ski chalet setting
- Dysfunctional families
- Figuring out the clues and whodunit mysteries

Explicitly following the rules and rhythms of "golden age" mystery novelists, this tightly wound whodunit features a narrator-detective looking back on events, holding all the cards and slowly and tantalizingly turning them over for you. The cards just happen to be about the various deaths caused by every member of his own Australian family (criminally or otherwise? You must read carefully to find out) and particularly about the highly dangerous reunion weekend in which they all became very relevant. The narrator/mystery-novel-expert/snitch turned detective/memoirist somewhat obnoxiously tells you, the reader, exactly how and when he's going to reveal things, exactly how he's going to obfuscate them, and then proceeds to sneakily reveal things while obfuscating others just as he said. I couldn't put it down; it's precisely my jam!

This was a fun read. I was thinking about it when I wasn't reading it, which is always a good thing. The tone was lighthearted and funny. It's kind of written like a memoir of how this guy solved a bunch of murders during a family reunion. And he goes through each person in his family to describe who they've killed.

The family goes to this Australian mountain ski lodge for the family reunion because Ernest's (he's the narrator) older brother is being released from prison. A sentence that Ernest's testimony sent him to. Ernest called the police after Michael had him help bury a body.

Ernest has written a series of how-to books on rules for writing mysteries and he puts them in play in this one.

This was released in Australia last year, and is just now getting its US release. I had fun with it and I did not guess who the killer was. Although, I guess they were all killers. I didn't guess who the murderer was.

It took me a really long time to get into it, but holy cow when it started rolling toward the end, I couldn’t get enough. I definitely couldn’t have ever guessed the ending and I really liked the format how it all unraveled and revisiting all the clues the narrator left along the way. Overall, it’s a yes from me!

The cover and title were all I needed to see to want to pick this book up.

I went into this book without really reading any descriptions and basing it off of the title and reading it would be a fun time - and was it ever!

One of the main things that separates this from your normal whodunnit is the perspective of the narrator. It breaks the traditional mold and has the narrator take time to speak directly to the reader; I could very easily see this in my mind that formed more of a conversation between narrator and reader. This is one thing that I know others can be a little leery about, but I thought it added to the fun and made you pay attention differently.

Due to the nature of the narrator telling stories as well as interjecting with little tidbits to the reader, it creates an empathy with the narrator that follows the same process that I would when trying to solve something. We definitely get an internal view that, in other cases, we may only speculate about.

I thought it was fun to go into everyone's backstories because it really helped to peel away all the layers of each individual's mindsets/thought processes and agendas rather than just solely providing you with a need-to-know type case. I will say, had I had a family tree, I think it would've added to the aesthetic of the book as well as helped me keep track of things (I created my own mental sheets like you get in Clue while I was reading).

Another item that I appreciated was the setting in the book; I could easily picture things as they were happening/being described almost as if I were watching it. This is a fun and cheeky story that really opened up and expanded the traditional route of the murder mystery.

Thank you so much to the author, Benjamin Stevenson, Mariner Books and NetGalley for this eARC of Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone!

Gosh, I hate so much to say that this one was a swing and a miss for me. That title? The premise? That cover art? An allusion to Knives Out? Yeah, this should have hit on all the levels. But for some reason, it never did. It never really gelled. I liked the idea of the winky-wink kind of presence of the narrator, but I think I the end there were too many characters and the style never really worked for me. It might be a “me listening to the audiobook and not paying enough attention” kind of a thing. Give it a shot and tell me what you think.

This book comes out January 17th. Thank you to @netgalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Things I loved about the book:
1. It was unlike anything I had ever read before and there were some laugh out loud moments!
2. Great opening!
3. Loved the set up and the setting for the book - definitely played a big part as a character in the book!

What I wanted to be different:
1. Too many characters
2. Which led to too many deaths/mysteries
3. The ending was brilliant but convoluted. Could have been tightened up and ended sooner!

Many thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the eARC of this book.

I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun with a book that boasts such a high body count, but this extremely self-aware locked-room mystery is the most fun I’ve had with murder… hopefully ever, but my memory fails me.

The structure of this book - narrated by an author of murder mystery how-tos is inventive and fresh. Within the first couple of pages, he’s given the page numbers of all the murders and often breaks the fourth wall (is there a literary term for this??) to concede overdone cliches and make sure the reader holds him accountable to his promise to tell the truth.

The twists and turns had me racing to get to the end ( I literally gasped at one point) and I only half figured it out - quite a feat for a mystery devotee like me.

Read if you like: Knives Out, Agatha Christe, being talked to by a narrator, having to flip back to previous sections to check clues

"Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once."

Every now and then I pick up a book that may not have been the traditional trope that I go for. This is one of those cases where I am so glad that I did!

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is a knives out, who dunnit, murder mystery-esque thriller. From the prologue, Benjamin Stevenson had me reeled in. I had to know where we were going next and who was getting killed next. I found myself flipping back to the beginning trying to find the clues that were left behind. The asides from the narrator were my favorite part. They truly made me feel like I was the Watson to his Sherlock Holmes. I loved everything about this book and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read it!

Wow, I absolutely LOVED this book ! My interest was first piqued from the title, and then the author draws you in right from the start by breaking the fourth wall, which made it such a unique read. This was a page-turner that is but incredibly clever and funny to boot ! I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a good whodunit 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What a delightful new take on a murder mystery! Literally, everything is spelled out for the reader at the beginning of the book. Why? Because the writer, Ern, doesn't want to be seen as an unreliable narrator. In the ebook version, there are even links to where someone dies. This upfront in your face total transparent story still leaves plenty of twists and humor for the reader. This is the nudge-nudge wink-wink of murder mysteries.

This was just such a smart murder mystery. I loved the conversational tone of the narrator - it gave the whole book a “fun” air to it, despite, you know, all the murder. I enjoyed how, while he was not unreliable, he definitely never gave the reader all the information so that I was constantly reassessing my theories. But I also appreciated that you could use what you knew to solve at least some of the mystery at any point if you were savvy enough. If you like whodunnits, I’d definitely recommend checking this out - it’s one of the most unique in the genre I’ve ever read!

4.5/5

Loved loved loved this one. I thought the narrator was such a creative twist. I loved talking straight to the audience. The plot was a bit hard to follow at times but Stevenson always did a good job of re-explaining what was going on. I thought it was so creative and so good. I will be recommending to my audience.

Join Ernest Cunningham and his family at an Australian mountain resort for their family reunion and be prepared for a roller coaster ride! This is the kind of book where I don't want to tell much about the plot because I don't want to give anything away. The author is a master of distraction --along the way, I'd find myself wondering about something but then something momentous would happen (or someone would die) and I'd forget about it until pretty much the end when what I'd been wondering was explained. Lots of red herrings, humor, and action, very clever writing. I loved it, I am not going to say more except you need to read it for yourself.

Twisty, clever, and humorous, Benjamin Stevenson's book Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone is the perfect novel for those who love detective or whodunit novels. And in this book, there is no shortage of people who could have "done it".

Our narrator is Ernest Cunningham, a writer who writes books about how to write detective novels. So he's kind of the go-to man when, on a family reunion, someone winds up dead. Was it an accident or murder? And why do these things keep happening when Ernest's family is around?

While I was sort of able to figure out a person of interest, I still did not see the twist coming! There is a lot of dialogue in this novel, mainly toward the end, and that's because the characters have a lot to say to each other and explain. This is more than just a murder mystery. It's a book about secrets and family.

If you're a fan of movies like Knives Out and Clue, or you love a good Agatha Christie novel, then you'll enjoy reading this book.

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone is published by Mariner and will be available to purchase on January 17, 2023. I received a free e-ARC.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone has it all: great writing, humor, quirky characters, a mystery, and a snowy backdrop in Australian Mountains. I will be recommending this to everyone.

Thanks to William Morrow and Harper Collins for this ARC. Ernest is a how to write a crime novel author that uses his techniques to write this crime novel. Interesting to follow the techniques as the narrator interacts with the reader. I didn’t solve the mystery so that was good. It was a good story, not great, but good.

A wonderful mystery that is reminiscent of Agatha Christie. Ernest Cunningham has quite a story to tell and a really unique way of sharing it. As he’s narrating the mystery, Ern is breaking the 4th wall and speaking directly to the reader. He very firmly sticks to Ronald Knox’s 10 commandments of crime fiction while explaining how basically everyone in his family has killed someone. Highly entertaining and quite the mystery. Glad this see,seems like it’s going to be a series.

* special thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this e-arc.*

Ernest (Ern, Ernie) Cunningham is a self appointed sleuth, after all he does help out crime writers with their publications. As a “reliable” narrator, Ern tells us exactly what we need to know at exactly the right time. Sometimes he even speaks directly to the reader giving us necessary clues to help solve the mystery. Everyone in Ern’s family has killed someone so what could possibly go wrong at a family reunion at a snowed in mountain retreat? Plenty!! As bodies turn up and a brother recently released from prison joins them there are suspects galore and Ern might just be in over his head! As reveals are slowly made, we learn more about each character, but the overall mystery was a bit complex and the final twist felt a bit overshadowed by the overall reveal. That being said, it was cleverly put together (think Knives Out) and quite a fun read! Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.