What a fiendishly fun murder mystery novel! Ernest has family bringing death to his doorstep. The Cunningham’s are a complicated clan that seem to leave bodies in their wake. Ernie, an author who writes books about writing crime novels, humorously lays out the story of his relatives at a family reunion of sorts. The setting…a snowy mountainside retreat in Australia. When a dead body is discovered, everyone in the family is on Ernie’s list of suspects. What follows is a total Clue meets Agatha Christie meets Knives Out plot. Fans of any of those works will love this book. One of my favorite reads this year.

Very meta, very intelligently written and very, very snarky...

I SO enjoyed tagging along with Ernie as he solved this intriguing mystery wrapped in a riddle.

Very fun read and I highly recommend.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson was interesting enough. I felt like it was a little too generic in places and it certainly was not a unique concept.

As soon as I read the prologue of this book, I knew I was in for a good time. Reliable narrator Ernest Cunningham (Ern) fully delivers in the dark humor and the promised body count. Despite Ern’s honesty as he recalls his family reunion turned murder mystery, this story has many twists that will keep you guessing. With so many characters to keep track of, things can get a little convoluted at times. However, if you like complicated family drama in the vein of Knives Out, this is definitely a book for you.

Three years after the fateful night that landed Ern Cunningham’s brother Michael in jail, the family has decided to have a reunion at a cold, isolated mountain resort in Australia to celebrate Michael’s release. Despite Ern’s ostracization from the family for testifying against Michael, he is required to attend in order to mend fences. But there is a whole lot more to that night than either Michael or Ern has let on to the family or each other. To make matters worse, a local man is found dead on the resort property. With nobody but a bumbling local police officer to investigate, the task of discovering the killer falls on Ern, the self-published author of guides on writing crime novels. Being part of an infamous family full of secrets, the killer could be anyone.

As Ern informs us from the very beginning, he is a reliable narrator and expert in how to write murder mysteries. He proves both to be true as he tells the tale of his family reunion gone awry and delivers on the promise of the title. I love his dark humor and, though honest, Ern finds many ways to surprise you and keep you guessing. Every person in his large, blended family carries their own baggage and secrets, more than even Ern knows when he arrives at the isolated mountain retreat. Though figuring out who committed the murder at the retreat is at the center of this story, the real fun was in learning about the different characters and slowly unravelling their secrets, even Ern’s.

Though the characters really make this story shine, there are definitely a lot of them. Additionally, Ern tends to break the fourth wall and jump back and forth in time. Where a lot of this works really well, it can get a little confusing at times given the amount of characters and storylines. I found some of the fourth wall breaking a little tedious as well, but this is only a minor complaint.

In a family where everyone has killed someone, solving a murder is tricky business. The book is narrated by Ernest, the main character, in a very meta style- he'll make various asides to the reader regarding mystery novel tropes and archetypes, reference different chapters of the book, and generally snark about everything that happens. Some will enjoy this style of storytelling but I personally found it grating after the first few chapters. Most of the characters in this book are also unlikeable, and while that may be the author's intent, it doesn't make it any easier to read. The book itself seemed to drag quite a bit and made it tough to read.

Good for those looking for a darkly quirky send-up of mystery novels, but probably too convoluted for anyone else.

So I was immediately drawn in by the title. Although I’ll admit the story’s summary had me intrigued. The whole story is so uniquely written I found it very refreshing.

I liked this. It was very engaging. I had a hard time with a sense of place though. In my ignorance I had no idea there was skiing and massive snow storms in Australia, so while I knew the people were from Australia, I had to do my own research to figure out they were actually in Australia and it kept me a bit distracted. The first person narrative came across too colloquial for me so I instantly took a dislike to the main character. And his constant reference back to 'the rules' of mystery writing made me think he was distracting me from figuring out he actually wasn't following the rules. When that didn't happen I was disappointed and I think that could have been a more clever book. Though don't get me wrong, as a mystery lover, this was very entertaining and I very much enjoyed it. I also appreciated the MC providing summaries of events and clues along the way which kept all the details very fresh.

I think this is the first time I’ve chosen a book based on its title. But how could I resist?
Ernest Cunningham, “Ern” has written and self-published two books on how to write mysteries and spy thrillers. He is a strong believer in the classic rules for mysteries as laid out by Ronald Knox in 1929. He’s not a fan of modern day literary means, such as the “unreliable narrator”, and promises to be a reliable one. In this book, his latest, he breaks the fourth wall by talking directly to the reader. As he recounts his family’s history with murder, he slides in the terms he would use in his books, like foreshadowing, or gives the reader hints (rooms that are capitalized will be significant later on). Or comments like “police officers in these books, while being Last Resorts or Only Hopes, can also have character traits such as By The Book or Screw the Rules.” He reminds us that the language an author uses, even the punctuation, has significance.
Ern introduces us to each of his relations, each more quirky than the next. They’ve all gathered for a family reunion at a ski resort. Ern is the odd man out as he testified against his brother in a murder investigation. The reunion is soon disrupted first by a snow storm and then when a dead body turns up in the snow.
I found the book’s style of dry humor wonderfully entertaining. It’s an intelligent, mind boggling tale that kept me totally engaged. Maybe a smarter person could figure out the villain, but I sure couldn’t.
The blurb compares this to Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club (both accurate comparisons), but I would also recommend it for fans of The Word is Murder.
My thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for an advance copy of this book.

First off this was a very witty, creatively written novel. But, it was almost too witty for its own good and ultimately didn’t work for me.

The novel speaks to the reader, as together you solve the mystery using the rules that all great mystery novels should follow. I felt like the author spent more time explaining the rules to me, than allowing the book to naturally flow and show me the story. This was frustrating for me, and left too many clues unturned.

The book was hardly believable, especially the rave, lost me there. At this point I kept waiting for all the loose ends to come together, which they did ?, but very very loosely. The last third of the book tells the reader how everything happens, instead of showing me. I never enjoy when a book does this. Ugh. So this was a miss for me

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was an intriguing conversational type of narrative that kept me engaged from the first line. I so wanted to know the who and the why and the author did a great job in giving us the details. I like how the author chose a playful yet intense illustration of how a person can kill whether it was intentional or not. With great aplomb the author teases, provokes, yet tell a complex and quirky mystery that will keep you entertained, especially with all the twists and turns that leads you in so many directions, it’s no wonder one is amazed when you near the end. A great read that I can read all over again just to pick up any clues that I did not see before until it was over.

Read the prologue of this and I promise, you will be SOLD! I am not one to enjoy cozy mysteries, and I found this to be great!

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is cleverly written and engaging from page one. It is told through the lens of Ern Cunningham, a hilarious and reliable narrator, who happens to publish ebooks on how to write crime novels. At the start of the story, Ern explains that everyone in his family has killed someone, including him, and while none are psychopaths, just unlucky, the readers are going to find out more as the story unravels. Set during a long anticipated family reunion at a snowed in ski lodge, Ern plays both the parts of Sherlock and Watson as the reader discovers who killed who and if his family has anything to do with a mysterious man found dead at the resort.

As someone who typically does not like cozy mysteries, Benjamin Stevenson nailed this one!! I love how the story was written as if Ern was talking to the reader. This conversational style allowed for the author to continuously recap clues and the suspects, review the twisted family tree, and bluntly remark on the turn of events. I loved the dark humor, Clue vibes and bits of education on how these novels are written. I will definitely be recommending this to many!!

Read if you like:
-Dysfunctional families
-Witty, dark humor
-Whodunit, cozy mysteries
-Captivating, reliable narrators
-Agatha Christie books

Told in the first-person voice of Ernest "Ern" Cunningham, the author lays out all the clues that will allow the reader to figure out "whodunnit" to include, near the end, a list of all the places in the story that the clues are set. You can also read ahead to see whenever someone dies as "Ern" provides page numbers (or hyperlinks if you're reading the digital version) to all the deaths in the book.

Ern is a writer of "how-to" books for writers, self-published, digital-only. He comes from a family known for their criminal tendencies but his efforts to do the right thing in the past have alienated him from his family. A family reunion is planned at a ski resort that Ern is told is mandatory. He goes and then people begin to die at the same time a snow storm cuts them off from civilization. It is up to Ern to solve the murders.

It's a classic closed circle mystery. I liked the humor in it. I think the expository bits where Ern explains how he is writing this as a "fair play" mystery were too much of the story and I think scenes were described too extensively at the expense of character development. I think the characters promised to be interesting but ended up pretty two-dimensional.

Ernest Cunningham writes books about how to write mysteries, and he is from a family of murderers. He's just arrived to his family reunion vacation at an Australian ski resort when a dead body is found. Then there's a blizzard and a whole lot of self-referential, side-eye, wink-wink-nudge-nudge-style meta narration.

I did not enjoy reading this book and nearly DNFd it several times. I can see what Stevenson was trying to do, and it felt clever for the first bit, but it was just too much, for too long. I did like how each chapter was dedicated to a family member and their murder, but Ern was extremely annoying, and it took me FOREVER to finish reading this book. I'm still not quite sure what happened at the end because the characters all ran together and the plot got way too convoluted and confusing and I couldn't force myself to go back and reread anything to figure it out.

A lot of people really loved this book, so this is clearly a better fit for readers other than me.

I am newer to this type of mystery genre so I'm still figuring out what I like. This one was very interesting and I liked how it involved a family of murderers?? What an interesting concept!

Everyone in Ern's family has killed someone, his mother, father, brother, stepfather, stepsister, aunt. When one family member gets out of prison and everyone meets up for a family reunion, of course a body is discovered. I looooved the writing in this book so much. The mystery story making fun of the mystery story genre thing really worked for me. For example, the family is trapped at a mountain hotel in a snowstorm, but Ern is quick to point out that they are not trapped because of the weather but because no one wants to lose the money they spent on it. It's a book that points out all its own cliches. The story did get a little convoluted toward the end, but I have no major complaints. It was kind of a Golden Age meets modern day murder mystery and in fact had some major elements that reminded me of one particular Agatha Christie story (which I won't name here because it could be a major spoiler if you guessed which elements I was referring to). I suspect it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but it sure was mine. I will definitely be looking for more from this author. One of my favorites this year. 5 stars

Snarky and hilarious, protagonist Ernie Cunningham is half Sherlock Holmes, half Amelia Bedelia. This book is cleverly crafted and laugh-out-loud funny!

First off, thank you so much to #Netgalley, the publisher and especially the author for this ARC!

This was a really fun book to read; I read it in one sitting! I recommend going in blind like I did; you will love this if you enjoy Agatha Christie ☺️

Many thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions expressed in this review are my own! The book is due for release (U.S.) on January 17, 2023.

3.5⭐

Our narrator Ernest “Ern” Cunningham is a self-published author who writes books on “how to write books”. A fan of Golden Age detective novels, he tries to adhere to Ronald Knox’s 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction (1929). He isn’t too fond of new age tropes such as the “unreliable narrator” and therefore makes his intentions of being a “reliable narrator” clear as writes his book based on the events that occurred during a family reunion held in a ski resort in winter. The discovery of a body of a local man on the grounds of the resort and Ern's brother Michael’s release from prison after serving a three year sentence (Ern’s testimony was instrumental in sending Michael to jail) sets the tone for an eventful (to put it mildly) and tension fraught family reunion. What follows is a complex web of multiple suspects including a serial killer who could be someone among them, a hefty sum of cash that Ern’s brother left his him before being jailed the origins of which remain questionable, twists and turns and red herrings, a bumbling police officer, loads of family drama and the unraveling of secrets of the infamous Cunningham family including a mystery that has a connection to the narrator's father who was killed while committing a crime years ago.

Oh, and as our narrator claims,
“Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once.”

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson is an entertaining read. I really liked the premise of this novel and the structure of the plot. I loved the easy-flowing narrative and the conversational (and occasionally satirical) tone of storytelling in which the author breaks the fourth wall in his efforts to engage the reader and establish his “reliability”. I enjoyed the narrator’s references to the “Rules” throughout the narrative and his efforts to stick to them, not without bending them a bit, make for some amusing moments. There are multiple threads to this story and the author skillfully weaves it all together as the narrative progresses . The dark humor, the cast of interesting characters and the solid mystery at the core make for an engaging read. However, I felt that the book was a bit too long and does become a tad convoluted toward the end. The repetitiveness and the uneven pace did cause my mind to wander at times. There are a few OTT moments but those did not detract from the overall reading experience. There is a lot about this book that is praiseworthy and I did find it to be a fun read.

This was such a fun novel! As an avid thriller/ suspense reader, I loved the unique storytelling devices used in this book it's unlike any other mysteries I've read. More than just a mystery, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone weaves family drama and complexities into the story, making it a book I could not put down. Can't wait for this one to be out in the world!

I am sure we will get this book for the library but I found the way it was written hard to get into. I like the idea of the ‘chatting to the reader’ but I didn’t think it worked here.
By the time I gave up about half way through I still didn’t care about any of the characters or whodunnit.
I know other people will enjoy the book though.