This was a quick, fun “locked-room” type of murder mystery with a comic twist. In this book, the locked room is actually a snowed-in ski resort that main character Ernest Cunningham has come to for a family reunion. And, as the title suggests, Ernest tells us right away that everyone in the Cunningham family has killed someone, at some point. Ernest’s day job is to write books on how to write crime novels, so he pledges to us (the readers!) that he will not contravene the traditional rules of Agatha Christie-era mysteries in this book , which he helpfully lists. No unreliable narrators here!

There were lots of things that I enjoyed about this novel:

-I enjoyed the format, with Ernest talking directly to the readers, telling them about the rules for this mystery, and even justifying some of his writing choices. So unusual and engaging! There was even a fun summary chapter of the events and clues at one point that helped.

-The mystery was complicated enough for me to keep guessing, but I did half put it together by the end, though not completely. I liked that, though, because I used some of Ernest’s advice to reason it out.

-Ernest was a likeable character, and that’s always a bonus for me. He was humourous, but could also be thoughtful and acknowledge his sadness at times. The humour helped set a lighthearted tone, despite the body count. I totally welcomed an easy, light book that was fun to read.

If you’re up for an amusing, engaging murder mystery with a chatty, interactive narrator, then I think you may like this!

Thanks to NetGalley and @marinerbooks for a digital ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

This book was so bizarre--but in the very best way! It was like a locked-door mystery with odd revelations on each page. And I loved the way the author wrote the book! It was so unique and kept me intrigued until the very last page. I cannot wait to read more by Benjamin Stevenson!!

A fun mystery and packed full of appeal. I liked this one and drawn in to the family. I will try to read more mystery books. This one made me want to read more.

Clever, almost too clever at times. This mystery is self-aware and fun though the characterization is a bit flimsy to sustain the breakneck plotting .

This novel is such a blast! A love letter to the Golden Age of murder mysteries, told from a modern sensibility and with a twisted and hilarious sense of humor, I had so much fun with this read. Ernest Cunningham tells the story of what happened during his family reunion. Everybody there has killed someone, even if the term “kill” sometimes is not what you think. There is a new crime and it’s up to Ernest to figure out whodunit. Luckily, he writes books about writing, and knows the Knox’s Commandments by heart. Those are the rules that every mystery author must follow (and funnily enough, I’ve always hated it when authors cheat, even before I knew of the existence of these Commandments, Mr. Ackroyd excepted, of course). I loved every single character, warts and all, as well as their dynamic, interactions and dialogues. The humorous parts made me chuckle and Ernest’s voice is appealing and endearing. But the best part is the plot, built with such precision and love for the classic mysteries, cleverly tied together, parsing out clues, red herrings, foreshadowing, flashbacks and plot twists, that it’s impossible not to fall in love with this wonderful whodunit.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Mariner Books!

What. A. Book. While it firmly places itself in the classic mystery field, it takes the usual themes and tropes and manages to be something very different.In a way, it's like a deconstructed mystery novel, as the author describes the "rules" of a mystery novel and makes sure to follow them throughout, yet manages to keep the story surprising in every reveal. Often told in a tongue-in-cheek manner, the lightheartedness of the narrative offsets the darker elements. This was a very engaging and refreshing take on the classic mystery genre.

I was really excited to get the chance to read Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Many thanks to the publisher for the gift! This fun take on the manor house mystery will release January 2023, and I honestly liked it so much that I'll probably buy myself a copy to lend to my other mystery-loving friends.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is written in first-person by Ernest Cunningham. Ernest (or Ern, or Ernie) is a self-published author of advice pamphlets for crime writers, and his voice reflects his knowledge of mystery stories. The story kicks off when Ern's aunt Katherine invites him to a mandatory family reunion at a ski resort. There's a murder on the premises, and (of course) the resort gets snowed in. And so, as per the classic Golden Age trope, Ern and his family set to solving the case.

A meta-textual murder mystery

The book opens with an epigraph from Ronald Knox on the "Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction". These, Ern tells us, are the rules that make Golden Age mysteries great. Therefore, they are the rules he will adhere to as he tells his story. As a narrator, Ern is smart and snarky, and it's fun to watch him navigate the events of the book. He promises "fair play", and he pauses the narrative to remind the reader of critical questions and clues. It's a testament of the quality of Stevenson's writing that it's still easy to get swept up in the narrative. No spoilers, but even the first chapter manages to blend wit and observational humor with hard-hitting reflections on family.

Structurally, the book is a puzzle made of smaller puzzles. Ern promises that everyone in his family has killed someone, and each section focuses on a single family member and the death they caused. These mini-puzzles are wrapped up in the larger, overarching puzzle of the mystery in the present-day. If the best puzzles make you feel smart, this structure offers plenty of opportunities to get that little frisson of solving something. It also creates focus that helps you navigate Ern's expansive cast of family members.

A love letter to the manor house mystery

The family themselves are the main event, and over the course of the novel we get to break down Ern's relationship with each one. One of the best parts of a manor house mystery is untangling the relationships between all the guests. Here, we replicate that dynamic, except with Ern steering us through the family. Each of the characters is well-realized and feels like a full person (though I may be referencing stock characters I'm familiar with...).

Families are particularly tough topics, and Stevenson does a great job of exploring why. Ern starts the novel estranged from his family, and nervous to meet them. While my family has (to my knowledge) killed zero people, the anxiety about the mandatory family reunion is still highly relatable. Stevenson uses the Cunningham-Garcias to explore the definition of family loyalty, for a manor house mystery with substance.

Of course, it's no manor house murder mystery without a great (wintry) setting. Stevenson, via Ern, sets the scene at exactly the right moments. The chill of the snow and the wind, the crackling fire in the library, and the warmth of the dining hall all bring the story to vivid life. Stevenson inserts these moments to emphasize the drama of the narrative, so that you're reading with all five senses.

Stevenson's love of mysteries is present in every page and paragraph. The book is full of references to Golden Age mysteries, and the narration does a great job of "playing fair". This kind of meta-writing is exactly my cup of tea (I'm a huge fan of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series for example). There's something so fun about a book you feel like you can pick up multiple times, finding new clues on each re-read.

Reader's notes & rating (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

I really enjoyed this book - it fits perfectly into a flavor of self-aware mystery that I love. The narrator is funny, the characters and plot are compelling, and it'd well-written and well-paced. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who already knows and loves mystery novels (especially Golden Age mysteries). That said, it's very much written for readers already In the Know about mystery stories. That genre-specificity makes this a four-star book for me - and one I can't wait to get my hands on for real!

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book so I think I will go with the PRO VS CON format!

PROS:
I always like when an author tries a new way to write a book and I initially thought that the 1st person narrative would work, but grew tired of it midway through.

There were some really funny and entertaining parts of the book.

The mystery itself was very good but the author had to tie all of the threads together in the end!

CONS:
I disliked the “tone” of the narrator, that’s the only word that seems to fit for me. The narration was preachy and repetitive. It broke up any tension and suspense there was by continually stopping.

This trope has been done so many times before – enough with the characters being stuck on an island, mountaintop, airplane or wherever. There have been a lot of locked-room mysteries lately.

There were too many characters. I found it a chore to keep up with the antics of so many. I found myself having to check my list of family members several times throughout the novel.

I was hoping for a quick read and lots of suspense since they were trapped on a mountaintop with a killer in a snowstorm!!

I’m an outlier, for sure. This just failed to keep my attention throughout. I think the actual mystery was quite good although OTT – but this is fiction so I went with that.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.

I have mixed emotions about this book. I enjoyed Ernest Cunningham talking directly to me as a reader, revealing details about his dysfunctional family and taking us along for the ride as he solves the mystery. The characters were interesting and became more so as their back stories were revealed. The list of rules was fun at first, as the book went on and it felt like their details were slowing down the telling of the story, they lost their appeal.

I’m a fan of several “golden age” mystery authors, like Agatha Christie and PD James, and while this book was somewhat reminiscent of that style, at times I actually wondered if the book was intended to be a parody of those classics. The family was snowed in on the mountain, yet buses were able to get most people off, and the camp on the other side of the mountain was having a big party?

I know many people are going to love this book, but unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them.

My thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for an advance copy of this book.

I really loved this one! If you are a fan of classic mystery/detective novels, you will enjoy this one with a modern twist! I loved the conversational style and witty narrator (who prides himself in following Ronald Knox’s 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction). I didn’t see the end coming, but like all classic mystery novels, I wish I had pieced it together, given all the clues scattered throughout! Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy!

Definitely read for a good laugh! I haven't finished this book yet, so full review to come soon but I am savoring every page in this book. It is hilarious! It's like hanging out with the funniest person you know.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone starts off with the most jaw dropping opening lines and truly doesn't let up from there. Our narrator Ern is a how-to author, dedicated to the rules of the Golden Age of Mystery novels, and this book is full of clever nods and tie ins that truly completed the package.

Ern has a trouble familial history and over the course of a handful of days at a fraught family reunion in the mountains of Australia, we slowly learn about this family, their history, and how they all work together to resolve the mystery of the murders in the mountains that seem to be targeting their family.

This book was a romp, very entertaining, although it wraps up very neatly, I still enjoyed it greatly.

Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the electronic ARC for review.

QUICK TAKE: one of the funniest, darkest, most original locked room mysteries I've read in a long time. I absolutely loved it.

Let’s start with the title: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. it doesn’t get more provocative or clever than that. This book also tells you what you’re in for — or not in for — based on the rules it begins with for detective fiction. While the premise is straightforward — a family reunion at a remote hotel — almost everything else in this story is complicated to the point where I frequently had to retrace what I’d read to make sure I was keeping up.

That is not meant as criticism, but as admiration based on how complex and surprising this mystery is. Ern, the narrator, is recounting the story to us and he knows exactly what he’s doing as he doles out the clues and breadcrumbs for the reader. Read this book closely and be patient with it.

If this had been a movie, I think the audience might be able to piece the clues together more easily because I feel like it might have been harder to bury the nuggets of foreshadowing, But as a book, there is a lot to shift through and it’s not immediately clear what is going to be meaningful later. Again, for maximum enjoyment read carefully and you will be rewarded.

I’m not familiar with this authors other books but I’m certainly intrigued after reading this one!

Really, really enjoyed this one. The story unraveled at just the right pace, and although I guessed part of one of the reveals, I was totally blindsided by the rest of it! This is rare for me given how many twisty mysteries I read. That being said, I had to suspend my disbelief toward the end when the narrator solved the mystery all at once-- reading the explanation was like trying to follow a Rube Goldberg machine of cause and effect.

This was so much fun! I love a good whodunit and this one was awesome. I loved the witty dialogue and the wintery, whodunit vibes. Definitely recommend this one.

A family reunion stirs up emotions on its own but when everyone in your family has killed someone, all bets are off. Ernie introduces you to the members of his family and it’s hilarious. A stranger is found dead in the snow and Ernie takes it upon himself to figure out who this guy is and who killed him.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is available January 17, 2023.

Thank you to netgalley and marinerbooks for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone was a new novel I was so excited to read as it had been on my TBR for a while. I love murder mysteries and this one was no exception. The story was rather complex. There are a lot of characters to get straight, reminiscent to when I first started Game of Thrones (but not that crazy complicated). However, once the characters were well established the story was fun and engaging. The novel is full or dark humor and the narration is quite fun. This was a solid read that I would recommend to fans of this genre.

I tried, but while the tone of this book is really fun, I couldn't get it to keep my attention. I'm sure there are people who would enjoy it a lot though!

I loved the narrator of this one! The book was super witty and I found myself laughing a lot. I’m not much of a mystery person, but this one was written in a way that made me feel like a part of the investigation, not just an outsider.

I had heard some really great things about this book. However, it just didn't do it for me. Ernest narrates his family tale. All are murderers, but what story does each family member hide behind. The family heads off for a vacation where they end up in the middle of a murder. But who did it? Ernest tells each family members story while weaving it with what's happening at the resort's murder. I had a difficult time following the plot lines, as well as the random tidbits about the expectations of a mystery that are interlaced throughout the writing. I think there were too many pieces for me. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me an early read.