i really enjoyed this! this series is so fun and voicey and it grows on me more and more with every installment. i really enjoyed the setting of this, and while i would have loved it to be longer, i didn't feel as though it's novella nature was a drawback to my enjoyment of it.

The 📖: Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson.

Ernest Cunningham—writer, reliable narrator, and Golden Age of Detective Fiction aficionado—is back in this “Christmas Special.” This season, Ernest finds himself embroiled in another mystery. But, fear not reader! Ernest, per usual, will make sure you have all the clues you need to solve this right alongside him!

This is such a fun and clever series—and this installment continues the tradition! This story is told in the manner of an advent calendar—with the reader able to read one chapter a day (starting December 1) and concluding on Christmas (very clever). The prior books are cryptically referenced so I’d recommend reading them first (there’s still time to catch up before December!)

🏔️: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Book 1). The introduction to Ernest Cunningham and his family as they navigate…a family reunion.

🚂: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect (Book 2). Crime Writers on a Train! What could possibly go wrong?

Everyone This Christmas has a secret is out now. Thank you to @netgalley and @marinerbooks for the e-ARC!

A short and sweet book for fans of the series, with enough background included that people new to the series could read it, if they have the patience to follow the development of many characters--because there are quite a few characters involved for a short read. I would recommend this for folks looking a cozy mystery with a sassy and sarcastic narrator.

This perfect Christmas book! Yes I said it - even though it's a murder mystery. I loved the fun "clue advent calendar door" at the end of each chapter leading up to the reveal. This book was absolutely as perfectly planned to confuse the heck out of you, but also keep you trying to guess the entire time. The reveal set up was *chefskiss* (just wait until you read it). I cannot get enough of Ernest (even though he is such a goof and maybe not the best with human relationships, at least he is very caring). If you enjoy the series, you will love this one!

Thank you to Mariner Books for the ARC!

Man, I love these books!! Ernest Cunningham has become one of my all time favorite characters. He's so witty and unique and always finds a way to make me laugh!

The thing I love about Benjamin Stevenson's books is how detail oriented and smart they are, but never in a way that feels like hard work for the reader. I feel like the mysteries are usually more in depth than most cozy mysteries, but that the journey always feels fun and light. I love how he breaks the fourth wall, has lists of rules for himself along the way, and how the ending always surprises me.

This one was a little shorter than a normal full-length novel, but longer than a novella, which makes it the perfect length for a one-sitting read by the Christmas tree with some hot chocolate! If you love festive reads, but don't want to read only Christmas romance, this is the perfect book for you!

I was delighted to see at the end of the book that "Ernest Cunningham will be back in a big way soon" and I can't wait for more!

Every book in the Ernest Cunningham series has such a genius execution in the mystery reveal, and this was no different. This one was lacking a little of the fourth-wall breaking that I loved so much in the first two, making it grittier and a little less whimsical, but I did think that the addition of the clues being laid out in an advent calendar was a nice touch. My main problem with this book is that it was extremely short compared to the other two in the series, which made it a little difficult to keep track of the characters because we didn't get to spend much time with them.
Also, I know that formatting in an ARC changes from before the fully published version, but it was a miss that the email being in Comic Sans didn't copy over into this ebook version, because that was a big part of the story.
Overall, I thought this was another masterful mystery book that gave me everything I needed to solve it, but still kept me guessing until the reveal. I will definitely continue to read anything by this author and especially anything in this series!

4.25 ⭐️s
All the usual snark, malarkey, and typical twisty-turns wrapped up in a very merry gift to the mystery genre.
With the world constantly serving up a neverending buffet of anxiety and depression, Benjamin Stevenson has managed to balance these little horrors by providing a wonderfully unserious Christmas murder [mystery].
Ernest Cunningham is 10,000% my favorite Slapdash Sleuth in all the lands. If I'm ever, wrongly, accused of murder, I want Ernest on the case.
I may have begrudgingly withheld .75 of those make believe stars simply because it wasn't a full length novel.
I love this series.
Keep the murders coming, Stevenson.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the eARC!

Book #3 in what I hope will become a very long run of Ernest Cunningham stories. Benjamin Stevenson has taken us into one of Ernie's investigations twice before and generated a huge fan club along the way. The books are set in Australia, but Ernie takes his show on the road at the drop of a hat. Each book has generated the back drop for the next one, this one finds Ernie getting ready to marry his girlfriend from book #2 that he saved from book #1 with help from his slightly off key family that we met in book #1. So you see, the book is much more fun if you've read them in order......and fun they are. The murders are scene stealers, the charcters all suspicious, and the clues are so many Ernie has to remind us where they are. Readers of Fredrik Bachman will find a similar story telling style, but Stevenson is definitely unique in his style and execution. So far everyone to whom I have recommended this series, has read it and passed along the recommendation. That's one of the best things you can say about any book or series.

Ernest Cunningham is back with another puzzle to solve!

This is a shorter book and features a magician (tricky tricks), an advent calendar and some countdown to Christmas mishaps that suggested hints to the mystery. I didn't solve it, but had fun following how Ernest put the clues together. It is his third murder mystery after all!

A dead body and his ex-wife as a suspect. He really needed to get to the bottom of this one!

This worked better for me than the second in the series. Like the previous books, there are many misdirections, suspects, and someone with sleight of hand! We find out who when the final door of the calendar is opened!

Fun little mystery from the hilarious author of Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone. It’s a holiday special, an advent calendar full of clues the author lays out to solve the mystery of his ex-wife’s husband’s murder, of which is she falsely accused.

The plot is as byzantine as my previous sentence, but Stevenson’s tongue-in-cheek self-referential commentary is delightful. And the mystery is quite short, making for a perfect holiday read one cozy evening.

Don’t forget the Christmas cookies and cocoa!
Thanks to the publisher for the free ebook.

Stevenson has not written a bad book and I stand by that!! These are always so fun, I look forward to his release every year.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret is the third mystery in a series where the author purports to "play fair" by presenting the clues as the detective finds them. No tricks up his sleeve as it were. You wouldn't think it would work, but it does! The result is a devilishly creative and entertaining mystery that you might be able to solve, but I'm o detective, so I just let the story take me where it will. I love it!

As the name suggests, Everyone This Christmas takes place in the days leading up to Christmas, so it's a mashup of a murder mystery and a Christmas special. This time our detective, or Slapdash Sleuth as he's been nicknamed in the press, finds himself investigating the death of a philanthropist and the magic show crew that *might have killed him. I loved this idea, adding a new element --the Christmas special--to a formula Stevenson's readers already know and love. This time the clues were even gift wrapped, presented as the 24 pieces of an Advent calendar for the reader to mull over and play detective.
I'm also honestly impressed with the idea that an author can lay out all the clues of a mystery like this and still surprise his readers. To be fair, Stevenson presents the clues but he doesn't always help us interpret them fully, but still. It's clever and makes the reading experience fun. It doesn't hurt that main character Ernest is likeable and funny on his own. You can't help but root for him as he works it all out.
I also love the idea of setting the mystery within a magic show. Ernest claims repeatedly to "play fair" during his mysteries, no literary sleight of hand, and yet, he's sleuthing among characters whose livelihood is sleight of hand. Clever. And on the nose. I'm here for it.
I will admit to be initially disappointed when I saw that this was a novella rather than a full-length novel, but in this case it works! This was meant to be akin to a Christmas special, so a more contained story and plot work. I think stretching this out into a longer mystery would have risked some of the genius here.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this series, and while I hope murder doesn't taint Ernest's upcoming nuptials, I can't help but hope that everyone at the wedding has a motive. Or something like that!

I have grown to love Ernest Cunningham. He didn’t want to become a detective, but somehow the role found him. A new version of Detective Poirot. It was a fun, short read to ease into the holidays!

A different holiday novel that will keep you entertained from word one. It’s not your typical holiday novel but that’s what makes it so good!

Oh dear... Earnest, a believer in writing "fair mysteries" is back, this time to help out his ex-wife Erin. She's in jail accused of killing her wealthy former actor, now do-gooder boyfriend. He was found on the kitchen floor where he was stabbed. He scrawled the word Christmas in his own blood. Erin was covered in blood and is terrified she killed him in his sleep.. Lyle Pearse runs a large charitable enterprise that serves as a both a rehabilitation program for addicts and an opportunity to get involved in the arts, theater, and more at the center he created. Everyone loves him. Who would kill him? The staff is moving forward with its plans to stage a benefit for its wealthy donors, featuring a famous and not beloved magician. As Ernest plods along with his investigation, he gets to know all of the workers, mostly former addicts and finds there was something going wrong. Any more of the plot and there are spoilers, but...

As with his other works, Stevenson's structure and plotting is just. Fun. In this case, since it is a "Christmas Special," the book represents an advent calendar. Each of the 24 chapters is a door and each door holds a clue until chapter 24 in this slim book, when all is solved. There is a final little Christmas present in an afterword when Stevenson shares with us the 7 commandments of holiday specials. A great read. Definitely recommend!

The story flowed well and the characters were well developed. I recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.


****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****

Tis’ the season for Hallothanksmas 😅😭 it’s so many Christmas themed books that’s are being released before Christmas and Thanksgiving. Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret is book 3 of the Ernest Cunningham Mysteries series. When I requested this book, I didn’t know it was a series at the time. I haven’t gotten the chance to read the first 2 books, but I have them on my TBR. I’m definitely interested in reading those and getting the full story behind Ernest Cunningham.

I really enjoyed how the story mimicked an advent calendar with there being 24 chapters and 24 clues to help piece together the murder at hand. The author made this book a fun & festive mystery and everything was laid out perfectly for the reader to play detective along with Ernest. For this to be a novella, it was packed with so much suspense that it made it difficult to even know who the killer was. I’m excited to read more from the author!

3.5⭐️

Ernest Cunningham, famed mystery writer and sleuth, was hoping that Christmas would be a break without murder. Unfortunately, he gets a call that his ex-wife's new partner has been murdered and she's the prime suspect. That's how Ernest finds himself backstage of a charity magician show trying to find who had the means and motive to kill the benefactor.

Right off the bat, Ern tells us that even some of the best authors couldn't escape the holiday special; specifically Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And apparently Benjamin Stevenson isn't immune to the magic of the holiday special, either. I enjoy the typical fourth wall breaks that are expected with the series and I really liked the way this story was formatted as an advent calendar where a clue or a theory was provided each chapter. I also like that we got to see more of Ern's ex wife and how he was able to use their previous relationship to interrogate her in a way to prove her innocence. I also enjoyed the way the holidays in the Southern Hemisphere were explained.

That being said, with this being a novella, this felt extremely rushed. It felt like their were more characters/suspects in this than there has been in some of the full novels and we never really got to see much of any of them. This also started falling into that cozy mystery trope of the sleuth just taking over the investigation even when the real police are involved. In the previous books, the story took place in a relatively isolated locale, so Ern taking over made more sense considering there wasn't a large police presence available. The fact that Ern was just able to interview his ex-wife while she was in custody with no supervision was wild to me. Unless the police in Australia operate in a completely different way than anywhere else, it just wasn't believable. I will always enjoy this series, but I'm not sure a holiday special added anything to it.

Thank you Netgalley and Mariner Books for providing this eARC to me!

This was fun novella for fans of Ernest Cunningham. The story is told similar to an advent calendar - 24 chapters and 24 clues to solve a murder by Christmas as Ernest steps into the world of magic, illusions and secrets. Stevenson gives us a strong foundation as we follow along with to piece together the puzzle. With the style of narration that we have grown to enjoy from Ernest in his first two novels, this book was a fun twist on the holidays!

Stevenson does it again! Ernest is funny, fun, and solves mysteries with humor, humanity, and aplomb Hes becoming my favorite sleuth.