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A review by lastblossom
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
tl;dr
A deeply self-aware tribute to the golden age of murder mysteries with plenty of twists and a satisfying conclusion. Mostly funny, but also incredibly melancholy.
About
Ernest Cunningham knows plenty about a good murder, or at least fictional ones. He spends most of his time writing books on how to write books, and staying away from his extremely complicated family. But when a mandatory family reunion at a distant ski lodge leads to several real life deaths, our hapless writer will have to unravel the murders and his own family's very messy history.
Thoughts
Snappy writing and dark humor are the order of the day, with the fictional author POV deeply self-aware that this adventure is falling into some of the classic murder mystery tropes. As a fan of murder mysteries from all eras, I enjoyed the genre breakdowns, and definitely laughed at some of his incredibly dry commentary. The writer Ernest promises that true to his name, he will tell no lies. But despite being honest, he is not terribly earnest. Through all the referential jokes, I began to sense an emotional wall in the MC akin to a kid on the playground who is all-too-eager to point out their own flaws so that no one else can mention them first. By the time I got to the end of the book, I couldn't help but feel like the entire thing was a story told by a sad person who is working very hard to insist they are not sad.
Like the MC, the book has a strict adherence to the rules - namely Ronald Knox's Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction, and it does its best to be a fair play mystery, with regular reminders of all the clues currently available. Overall the mystery is really solidly built, with twists in all the right places and a strong reveal at the end. One of the earlier clues felt really out of place to me, and it still feels like a slight coincidence that we even got it. Everything else fits together really well, and although I expected the ending, it still came as a great shock when it actually happened. A fairy easy read for fans of the murder mystery genre with a lot of irreverent narration and a good reveal.
Edit: Second book is out, and it might be even better? You can find my review of it here!
Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for a review copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.
A deeply self-aware tribute to the golden age of murder mysteries with plenty of twists and a satisfying conclusion. Mostly funny, but also incredibly melancholy.
About
Ernest Cunningham knows plenty about a good murder, or at least fictional ones. He spends most of his time writing books on how to write books, and staying away from his extremely complicated family. But when a mandatory family reunion at a distant ski lodge leads to several real life deaths, our hapless writer will have to unravel the murders and his own family's very messy history.
Thoughts
Snappy writing and dark humor are the order of the day, with the fictional author POV deeply self-aware that this adventure is falling into some of the classic murder mystery tropes. As a fan of murder mysteries from all eras, I enjoyed the genre breakdowns, and definitely laughed at some of his incredibly dry commentary. The writer Ernest promises that true to his name, he will tell no lies. But despite being honest, he is not terribly earnest. Through all the referential jokes, I began to sense an emotional wall in the MC akin to a kid on the playground who is all-too-eager to point out their own flaws so that no one else can mention them first. By the time I got to the end of the book, I couldn't help but feel like the entire thing was a story told by a sad person who is working very hard to insist they are not sad.
Like the MC, the book has a strict adherence to the rules - namely Ronald Knox's Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction, and it does its best to be a fair play mystery, with regular reminders of all the clues currently available. Overall the mystery is really solidly built, with twists in all the right places and a strong reveal at the end. One of the earlier clues felt really out of place to me, and it still feels like a slight coincidence that we even got it. Everything else fits together really well, and although I expected the ending, it still came as a great shock when it actually happened. A fairy easy read for fans of the murder mystery genre with a lot of irreverent narration and a good reveal.
Edit: Second book is out, and it might be even better? You can find my review of it here!
Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for a review copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Suicide, Child death, and Infidelity
Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, and Infertility