Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson is a follow-up book to Everyone In My Family Had Killed Someone. The first-person narrator Ern Cunningham has been invited to a literary mystery writer festival, and all the authors are traveling to the festival on a train. As the title suggests, a murder occurs making everyone a suspect. I loved the first book and enjoyed the campy humor and found this sequel to feel more like Agatha Christie with a complex plot and only dashes of humor. What makes Stevenson stand out is breaking the fourth wall with clues like the number of times the killer's name is mentioned. The clever title and great cover will have readers picking it up and giving it a try.

I absolutely loved the first book in this series - I flew through it in just a couple of days, and it made me gasp and laugh out loud and completely shocked me. I knew it was going to be hard to live up to that one, and while I still liked this book a lot and thought it was a masterfully crafted mystery that kept me guessing while still all clicking into place, I thought this one was just a little bit underwhelming. The characters in this sequel weren't as poignant as the first book, and I just didn't care about them as much, which was a shame. Even Ernest, the narrator, felt like a different character in this one, especially with his relationship with Juliette. I found myself getting annoyed with him and his actions a lot more in this one. Still, this was a fun and clever mystery, and I still loved the fourth wall breaks and thought it was a really unique way of telling a story. Would definitely recommend! It doesn't quite live up to the first one, but I thought the first one was genius. Probably not fair for me to compare, but it is a sequel, so I may as well.

Loved this book. The writing style, especially it being in first person makes it all so much better.
Ernest has to write a second book. But he swears he can't write fiction. He needs an actual murder. So, all these writers together on a train, what could go wrong? There's anguish and fighting among them in more ways than one that gets revealed as the story goes on. Murder is definitely on the menu.
This book was great. Go read it now!

After reading the first book in this series, I really wasn't sure how the author was going to be able to create a second book. I sought it out on NetGalley to see if it happened to be available and I got lucky and was given access to it.

While I wouldn't say it was better than the first, it was certainly on par with the first. If you loved the first one, I do recommend also getting this one. Our narrator is just as funny, clumsy, oblivious, and keeps making decisions that make you cringe a bit while still managing to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together... while adding in his tidbits about how murder mysteries are written. It was a fun ride for me and I quite enjoyed it. I'm sure it isn't for everyone, there were a lot of characters to keep track of... however this isn't any different than the first book. Most characters from the previous book don't make an appearance but there are exceptions.

I would say if you enjoyed the first book, give this one a read too. If you didn't read the first book, you don't need to read it to enjoy this story, but you understand the relationships of the two returning characters a bit better. Not necessary to the story... our narrator explains them just fine... it just gives you that extra knowledge.

Stevenson's locked room mystery is made all the more interesting because it's written in the first person. Therefore, the reader is intimately involved in the process of discerning just who the murderer might be. Because the train is filled with successful writers, there's no shortage of suspects who would know just how to commit—and get away with—murder. But I found the solution to be a genuine surprise.

I loved Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, but I have to tell you, this one was better! It had all the great nods to Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, but was still incredibly funny and full of lovable characters. Juliette is back, and just as smart as before. Simone, the agent, was probably my favorite character ( I kept picturing Estelle, Joey’s agent in Friends 😂). But the best part was that each writer on board the train brought a certain specialty to Ernest’s narration, from forensics to legality to psychology. I loved all the helpful hints Ernest offers, even though I did not figure out who did it. I really just didn’t want it to end. 5 ⭐️

5 stars for this creative, funny, smart, twisty, and fast-paced mystery by Benjamin Stevenson. I haven't read his first, but now I am definitely gong back to it. I loved the nod to Agatha Christie and the whole "locked room" (in this case locked train) mystery. The author breaks the fourth wall several times, providing clues and comments along the way. The reveal is spectacular...while you think you might know, you really don't, and if you do know, you probably don't know why. I can't wait to see what this author does next!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC.

I received this DRC from NetGalley.

I think this was a solid 3.5 stars.
I hadn't read the first book, but that didn't matter. It gets talked about a lot. It felt like too many times, but they are in this trip because of the book, and it's Ernest's main defining trait, so I don't know.

The structure of the book was interesting. It was like a mystery book for beginners, using fourth wall breaks to point out clues and rules of a mystery. I thought it did a good job of making the information gathered clear so that you could have a good chance at deducing the killer, without making it too obvious (although some of the potential motives were a bit flimsy). However, the blurb was a bit misleading. It sounded to me like the authors were going to all be investigating and possibly come together as a team with one of them potentially being a saboteur. That's not what happened.

Overall, it was a pretty quick read with a light tone. Good if you like mysteries but like to have someone helping you put the pieces together.

The beginning of this book is a little slow going. Maybe I would even go so far to say the first half. But once it picks up, it’s great. I never quite catch all the clues that Ernest does, but are you really supposed to? The Oxford comma is the best though!

Ern Cunningham is back! This time he's managed, luckily enough, to come upon another set of murders.

The book immediately had me hooked and not just because it was set on a train. It had an interesting cast of characters where I suspected everyone at one point or the other which is how a great mystery should be done. It was even funnier than the first book.

I love how genre-savvy and meta the book is but I wish Ern stopped telling us how honest he was or informing us about the page numbers. Other than that and some plot points involving his personal life, I had a lot of fun reading it.
Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mariner Books for the e-copy!

The sequel was very aligned with the voice of the first, however I find our MC/narrator to be whiny and annoying. He has zero credentials criticizing everyone else. Probably won’t be ready any further from him.

5 stars! adventurous, funny, lighthearted, mysterious, fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

Every bit as funny, twisty, thrilling as the first Ernest Cunningham novel. Maybe even better! I enjoyed how different this was from most mysteries I’ve read. I really hope EC comes back for a third book!

This started out a bit slowly and I honestly almost set it aside, however it more than delivered in the reveal of the killer. I love how Stevenson not only created this intricate world in which Ernest plays amateur detective but also peoples it with so many secondary characters. I am also enthralled with all the layers found here from the ways firecracker was incorporated to the little clues dropped about the killer being named 106 times. Ernest picking apart the genre and trying to hold himself to specific word counts as he told “his story” made this much more fun than reading a regular detective novel. I’ve already recommended the first book to several friends and I am delighted that the sequel lived up to the first.

This is the second installment in the series, and it was so much fun! Just like in the first book, we get all of the witty banter and the narrator feeling as though you are friends just having a chat about things.

This book follows writers on a train who end up getting killed one by one, and I must say that this was so much fun. I would go into it with as little knowledge as possible, as this makes it even more fun and enjoyable to read. I highly recommend, especially if you liked the first book!

A phenomenal follow-up that doesn't fall prey to the sophomore slump -- if anything, it's better than the first book in the series. I love the narrator's wry and knowing metafictional tone. I love the execution and subversion of classic mystery tropes, a trick that Stevenson flawlessly achieves once again. Another deft storytelling device that I adore is the constant flow of "spoilers" that do nothing to lessen my shock when the twists and resolutions come. For example, even though the reader knows how many times the perpetrator's name is mentioned in the book, searching for that character's name gives a different number of results -- but the number given in the book is still correct! Mind. Blown. I would compare these novels very favorably to Anthony Horowitz's Hawthorne series, except that I like and respect Stevenson's protagonist(s).

Again, there are some minor places where realism is stretched when it comes to injuries. "Could they really do all that if they were that injured?" I said aloud to myself at one point. I expect this trope to continue and not go uncommented on in future Ern Cunningham mysteries, which I'm very much looking forward to. It's a good reminder that the books are fiction because the world otherwise feels so real! I almost started googling for news articles when I was done.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I enjoyed the first book, but really struggled with this one. I am hoping the series ends here. To me, some of the appeal of book one was how unique it was. At this point, it’s losing me. I think this book was well written, but it drug on at times. The end reveal was a bit of a mess as well to be honest.

A group of mystery writers attending a literary festival aboard a train find themselves scrambling to solve a real crime when one of them ends up murdered. The direct to reader narration is fun and like the first in the series, the mystery is very clever and smartly plotted. Sadly, this one just doesn’t have the same magic that made the previous book so special.

I started reading this book and felt as though I was missing something. I was! Apparently this is the second in a series. I will go back and read the first book and then hopefully this one eill make more sense!

Everyone on The Train is a Suspect – Benjamin Stevenson January 30, 2024
Mariner Books


Thank you NetGalley and Mariner Books for a complimentary copy of this novel! This Book is a sequel to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.
Ernest Cunningham along with a handful of other mystery writers receive invitations to attend the Australian Mystery Writer’s Conference that takes place on a high-end luxury train, the Ghan; traveling from Darwin to Adelaide, Australia across the desert. When the keynote speaker, McTavish drops dead, Royce, a “forensic pathologist” and one of the invited mystery writers, comes to the conclusion McTavish was poisoned. So now, Ernest and the rest of the writers (but mostly Ernest) work together to find out who is the killer. However, they all have a good motive. Who had it in for McTavish? Who invited these specific mystery writers to the conference and why? Will they find out the killer before another possible murder may take place? Read this fast-paced sequel by Benjamin Stevenson to find out!!!

This sequel was even better than the first!!! 5 stars!!! It was spectacular in an oddly satisfying sort of way! And every time I see a blue scarf, I will think of this novel! (PS: I think the Ernest Cunningham series would make a great movie or series!!!)

***NetGalley ARC review ***

Thank you, NetGalley and Mariner Books, for the opportunity to review the January 30, 2024 release of Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect. I didn't realize this was the 2nd in a series, so I read it as a standalone ARC, which worked just fine. I am a lover of mysteries, and grew up reading Agatha Christie, and this is a modern version of that genre.

This book is written in a unique style with 1st person narration by the protagonist, Ernest Cunningham, who is a mystery writer. As such, when he is sequestered aboard the Ghan train, along a famous route in Australia (here's a link if you want to understand how this is IRL considered one of the world's great train journeys https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/... ), he takes it upon himself to solve a murder that occurs among a gathered group of writers. It is kind of like Murder on the Orient Express, where there are webs of relationships and history among the passengers that are parceled out to the reader throughout the book. I did not guess the ending!

There are a lot of clever literary references, like the use/non-use of the Oxford comma to help solve parts of the crime, which was fun. The tone of the book is lighter and the author/protagonist states that there will be no shenanigans like ghosts or unknown twins involved in the story lol. One problem I had was that I felt there were too many characters, referred to at times by full name, first name or last name, making it even a little harder to keep track of them, their back story, and connections to other passengers.

Overall, this was a decent read, but not sure I would read a future #3 in the series. 3 stars.