This book! The dry humor…the format…the characters…everything about it was perfection! I listened to the audio which was edited slightly to speak to the listener instead of the reader which I thought was a delightful little detail!

The story is told with one point of view, Ernie Cunningham, as if the reader (or listener) is listening to him tell a story. Ernie (Call me Ern) is an author who writes books about how to write books. Mystery books to be precise. He uses his “rules of writing” to tell the story and interjects with hilarious quips directed at you and his editor.

There 𝘢𝘳𝘦 murders and there 𝘪𝘴 a mystery that must be solved but, to me, the format alone gets five stars! @bartwelchh narrates this one perfectly — adding sarcasm, emotion, and even a brilliant American accent in all the right places! He’s Australian by the way. And so is the author, who asks the reader (listener) to read more Aussie fiction in his acknowledgements…which I now fully intend to do!

If you love murder mysteries mixed with a fair amount of humor, this book is definitely for you! It’s also a refreshing break from heavier reads in any genre!

I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

This is a wildly intelligent and entertaining book. Sure, it is reminiscent of Knives Out and definitely tackles the format of mystery novels, but it does so with an intriguing voice and plot at the center of it as well. I loved this book!

Well written and quite clever, but something kept me at arms length and unable to fully love everything happening here.

Meet Ernest Cunningham. He's a writer of how-to guides for authors who write detective fiction (yes, you read that right), and he has quite an interesting family. You see, everyone in his family has killed someone, so he's not entirely surprised when a family reunion at a ski resort in the Australian mountains results in more murder. Everyone's already a killer, and now everyone's a suspect. It's time for Ernest to put his skills to use to crack the case before he himself becomes a victim.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is a stylish, original murder mystery with fun metafictional elements, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Anthony Horowitz. Benjamin Stevenson has taken all the best parts of classic detective fiction -- a locked room setting, well-hidden clues, a slew of suspects, numerous red herrings -- and presented them in a clever, modern way. Even though the mystery here does get a bit complicated at times, the execution of this novel is just so inventive and fun that I was engaged the entire way through.

The best part about this book is the narrator himself, Ernest Cunningham. Ernest comes across as bright and funny and self-deprecating, a character who's easy to root for. Stevenson's narrative has Ernest addressing the reader directly throughout a lot of the book, which is something I absolutely adored. Ernest also spoils a few things for us, which kept me riveted and waiting for those particular things to happen in the plot.

I will admit to getting a little bit lost at times due to the complex, layered mystery, but I still had so much fun with Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. I'm so glad we'll be seeing Ernest again soon in a second installment, which I hear takes place on a train. All aboard for another meta murder mystery!

This was a fun read! It started off a bit slow for me, but once I got used to the narration, I was able to enjoy it more and it really picks up as it goes along. A little bit golden age-esque, snowed in on a mountain with a murderer amongst them, it was also very modern with a pithy narration style. Like I said, it took a while for me to get into the groove, but lots of fun to read. Oodles of twists and turns and red herrings.

What a fun book with a unique writing style. I love the way the narrator spoke to the reader with such humor and straight forwardness. I appreciated the mystery story writing anecdotes like how he mentions that he will be a reliable narrator since that is one of the classic rules. At times it slowed down a bit but overall I still really enjoyed the humor and the murder mystery. It had more classic murder mystery vibes, no gore and super crazy turn of events but instead clues that are dropped along the way!

Ernie Cunningham gets straight to the point—everyone in his family has killed someone. Including him. But don’t worry, he’s going to tell us all about it.

We follow Ernie to a family reunion at a small ski resort, to celebrate his brother getting out of prison. But soon there’s a dead body, and everyone’s a suspect.

Ernest is telling us the story, and adding asides while he does, which gives the prose a conversational, almost conspiratorial, tone. He refers to the book we’re reading, which does jar me out of the story sometimes.

Billed as “Knives Out and Clue meet Agatha Christie and The Thursday Murder Club”—high praise indeed—the story mostly lives up to that hype. Chapters end with cliffhangers, which I love, but my attention did wander at times. I wasn’t desperate to figure out the ending; I was just kind of along for the ride.

But the ending was great, with a twist I never saw coming. It definitely bumped this up to a 4-star read for me.

Check out this book if you like the classic whodunit format with an updated twist.

Thanks to @netgalley and @harpercollins for the eARC.

This is a most enjoyable locked room mystery - well, isolated ski resort during a super blizzard locking everyone down. A most dysfunctional family is there for a family reunion and when people start dying, whatever trust folks may have had is destroyed, alliances are created and secrets come out. Well written and both dark and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny, the narrator is very likable with a sarcastic style and the rest of the family is similarly interesting. Fresh, fun read with lots of twists.

I’ll round up to a 4. The beginning had me convinced this would be an easy 5 stars for me… but it didn’t quite get there. Still, this was an enjoyable read & full of dark humor.

4.5 Stars

Stevenson’s novel, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, might not be for everyone, but if you are a classic mystery fan, love witty banter, closed-door whodunits, or excellent characters, pick this one up! We follow the Cunningham family who are visiting a picture perfect ski lodge and resort for a family reunion, as they get snowed in and bodies are dropping. Except the Cunninghams aren’t your normal kind of family. Because everyone in their family has killed someone. Ernest Cunningham narrates our tale of murder and a sordid family history filled with intrigue. He’s a faithful narrator and I figured out the main twist fairly early, but the author kept me guessing on lot of the details. Very satisfying ending that I didn’t see coming. I’m docking a half a star because the novel had a bit of a slow start. Big thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this great book.

This is an awesome book! I am so happy I got the chance to read this one, and I have been recommending it to friends ever since so I have someone to talk to about it! It is a great mystery!

This was a funny murder mystery, that had some unique features. I really appreciated the links embedded in the ebook that would take you to the specific part the ambitious narrator was talking. That was fun little surprise to play around with. I also liked the telling of time by how much battery percentage was left on the phone, because #firstworldproblems. It did take me a bit to get into because I had to be in the mood to deal with the unreliable narrator, and apparently I was not for a bit (sorry, I’m a complete and total mood reader)

Ernie is a Cunningham. They are notorious. And he is notorious even inside of his family. He testified against his own brother and put him in jail. And now, he’s being released. And his family put together a family reunion, even though most of them haven’t talked to him in years, his presence is demanded. Is it really a surprise when the bodies start piling up?

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The title definitely grabbed my attention but I also found the story quite compelling. The story is told from our narrator, Ernest’s point of view. As we work out way through the book, we learn some background of all the members of the Cunningham family while working to save the case of a much more recent murder. This was a locked room mystery that broke the fourth wall which was exactly the something a bit different that I had hoped it would be.

Ern is an author. He writes books about how to write books for the most part. As he tells this story, he takes time to stop and talk to the reader about why he presents the facts in the manner he does in this book. Ern is attending a family reunion at a remote ski resort. This reunion coincides with his brother’s release from prison. Ern may be a big reason why his brother went to prison in the first place so he is not the most popular relative at the reunion. It doesn’t take long for the first body to show up and Ern decides that he needs to figure out just what is really going on.

I really liked the way that this story is told. I thought it was fun that Ern talked directly to the reader and I really liked his character. I was hooked by the mystery right away and couldn’t wait to find out exactly what was going on. Ern’s family was an interesting group of characters and I liked the way that we learn a bit about each of their histories as we work our way through the book. There was plenty of excitement and twists to keep the story very interesting.

I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be an entertaining and somewhat unique mystery featuring a quirky cast of characters. I would definitely read more of Benjamin Stephenson’s work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Mariner Books.

Ever since finishing Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, I have not been able to stop talking about it. I absolutely adored our protagonist, Ern, and I am so excited that there is going to be a sequel to this title since I was definitely not ready to say goodbye to him. This book focuses on a family reunion at a ski resort. Unlike other families, Ern’s family is known for something especially heinous, everyone has killed someone. I tore through this story and was caught completely off guard with the ending. Stevenson, the author, is someone to keep an eye on if you are a fan of crime fiction. If you chose to read just one book because of my reviews, make it this one. You won’t regret it.

I really enjoyed this book! It was sometimes a little tricky to keep track of all of the characters, but the author did a good job of reminding you who is who. Parts of this book were so funny I was laughing out loud! Super fun murder mystery, and I would definitely recommend this book! I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I definitely missed the thriller tag on this one before starting because this book was an interesting and, at times, intense ride through our narrator's less than ideal family reunion in the snowy mountains. The title of the book speaks to what enfolds in the story but not nearly in the way you would think. I'm definitely glad I saw this one through to the end. Although the narration style isn't always my favorite in a book, I appreciate the nods to the classic mystery greats.

This mash-up of family drama and murder mystery is one of the more unique murder mysteries I've ever read and the publisher says it's a "reboot" of the Golden Age locked room mystery. Every member of Ernest Cunningham's family has killed someone...and they all meet at a remote Australian ski resort for a family reunion. What could go wrong? The plot is smart and intricate - perfect for puzzle lovers - and made me want to concentrate to put all the pieces together. Jaw dropping revelations about various family members added to the twisty feeling of the murder mystery. But, the two things that made this mystery stand out to me were: 1) Ernest's sarcastic and salty voice. This is a funny murder mystery. 2) The meta way he pokes fun at the Mystery / Thriller genre...even breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the reader about particular plot devices he's using. For people that enjoy seasonal reading, this is a perfect book for winter.

This is an absolutely delightful, yet still suspenseful, twist on the modern mystery story. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I first started, but the narrator and quick beginning instantly reeled me in.

It's a family reunion at a ski resort in the mountains of Australia. The twist is, one brother basically put the other brother in jail 3 years ago, and this is the first time everyone will see each other again. To say that there are complicated family dynamics at play is a vast understatement.

This is an incredibly smart book, and I marveled multiple times at how every single word must have been carefully chosen and pored over to ensure that there are no plot holes. Because as an extra layer of quirk, our narrator is an author of "How To Write A Mystery Novel" guides.

The plot and story are just part of the charm of this one. The characters, the angle, and the pacing are all flawless. Highly recommend.

I really liked this book! I loved how it played on all of the classic mystery tropes! I wish I’d read the print version so I could have paid more attention to the page numbers. It was a really fun book!

Delightful self-aware "fair play mystery", although unsurprisingly a bit contrived (doesn't it almost have to be?) Great for fans of the Thursday Murder Club, Flavia de Luce, and other humorous books where the mysteries themselves are serious.