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betanianne 's review for:
Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect
by Benjamin Stevenson
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Finally pulled this one off my shelf because my friend said over drinks that she was reading it and struggling either from how meta it is or because she hadn't read the first book. This has been on my TBR and my bookshelf, so I decided to read it so I could answer that question.
Emily, I think it's the writing style.
This is a first person POV, as told by a guy who loves the golden age of murder mysteries. There are a lot of meta references to rules such as: you have to give the reader a fair chance and actually give them the clues, suspects must be introduced early on, no ghosts or supernatural murderers, the main character/speaker has to survive, and you need a proper climax and dénouement.
I think that this series is a good one for a murder mystery fan who liked to play in the murder mystery novel sandbox. You have an equal chance to guess the murderer.
So Ernest is now dating Juliette from the first book, and they have both written books about the murders on the mountain. He's just more famous because his publisher can market Everyone In My Family Is a Murderer as the book from a relative of a serial killer. Tbh I barely remember that book, though I enjoyed it. Ernest and Juliette have been invited to a mystery novel conference on a famous train that's traveling across Australia. Ernest owes his editor a draft of a second book, but he has writer's block, so everyone hopes that this trip will provide him with a fictional inspiration. Then of course, some asshole at the conference gets murdered, and Ernest and his fellow authors decide to try to solve the murder.
This was a fun book, and I read it in less than a day. I think I might have enjoyed the first one slightly more, just because I liked Ernest more in that one, but this was a fun afternoon.
Emily, I think it's the writing style.
This is a first person POV, as told by a guy who loves the golden age of murder mysteries. There are a lot of meta references to rules such as: you have to give the reader a fair chance and actually give them the clues, suspects must be introduced early on, no ghosts or supernatural murderers, the main character/speaker has to survive, and you need a proper climax and dénouement.
I think that this series is a good one for a murder mystery fan who liked to play in the murder mystery novel sandbox. You have an equal chance to guess the murderer.
So Ernest is now dating Juliette from the first book, and they have both written books about the murders on the mountain. He's just more famous because his publisher can market Everyone In My Family Is a Murderer as the book from a relative of a serial killer. Tbh I barely remember that book, though I enjoyed it. Ernest and Juliette have been invited to a mystery novel conference on a famous train that's traveling across Australia. Ernest owes his editor a draft of a second book, but he has writer's block, so everyone hopes that this trip will provide him with a fictional inspiration. Then of course, some asshole at the conference gets murdered, and Ernest and his fellow authors decide to try to solve the murder.
This was a fun book, and I read it in less than a day. I think I might have enjoyed the first one slightly more, just because I liked Ernest more in that one, but this was a fun afternoon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit
Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Incest, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Discussion of off-page rape and pregnancy. Discussion of off-page child abuse and murder. Medical misconduct