Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Publisher: michaeljbooks
It’s the first part of the Ernest Cunningham series. So far, two books have been released. Each book is standalone with a little connection to the first one (or so it seems; I haven’t read the second part yet).
It has a really good and fast pacing and gets into the story quickly.
Benjamin Stevenson takes inspiration from The Golden Age and follows Ronald Knox’s ‘10 Commandments of Detective Fiction’ for writing the book.
Our protagonist, Ernest Cunningham is a writer who writes ‘how to write’ books, and, as the title says, everyone in his family has killed someone, some of them high achievers, have killed more than once. A murder takes place during a family reunion somewhere in Australia and Ernest takes the job of finding out who. You can call Ernest a reliable narrator; everything he will tell you will be the truth, or, at least, the truth as he knew it to be at that time he thought he knew. Hold me to that.
The plot development was excellent; I loved it.
The writing style, especially, made me love this book more. It felt so close to me personally; if I were to write a book recently, this would be my writing style. It is filled with witty, humorous comments (as expected from a stand-up comedian, which I came to know about later), callbacks and references to Jane Eyre and And Then There Were None, etc.
It also navigates the theme of what a family is.
Benjamin did a good job with the character development as well. As the story goes deeper, we get to know more about everyone’s lives and how they are connected to the murder. The book is written in parts named after each of the family members, in which Benjamin delves deeper into the family dynamics, particularly about that family member’s history, making each character well-rounded.
However, there is a plot hole through which you can literally drive a truck through.
Its sequel, Everyone on This Train Is A Suspect was released in 2023 (just look how beautiful the U.S. cover looks on the fifth slide). I can’t wait to read it!
4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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