Fresh off the success of his book recounting the events of "Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone," author Ernest Cunningham is participating in the Australian Mystery Writers' Festival. The festival is taking place on board the Ghan, a train which travels the length of Australia from Darwin in the north down to Adelaide in the south. While on board, Ernest and his fellow authors will hold panels and discussions about their work. Ernest has been given an advance to writer another book, and he's hoping to get some work done on board the train. He's stuck for ideas, though, since his other book was based on a series of murders that happened while at a family reunion. Without murders to write about, inspiration is hard to come by. Ernest is narrating the events in the current book, and as he sets them out, he is determined that his book will be a Fair Play mystery. He is determined to follow the rules set out by Ronald Knox, including such requirements as no supernatural elements, the murderer should be a major player in the action, the reader should have all the information to solve the mystery, and so on. As most of the other characters are authors, there are egos and personalities at play. The question is, which one is bruised enough to murder? As the train travels south, there are overheard conversations, secret meetings, exposed secrets, and of course, a few murders. Ernest, who is recounting the story after all of the events have transpired, stops frequently to update us on how his story is following the rules he set out for himself (he says early on that the killer's name is mentioned a total of 106 times, and he gives several running totals on how many times each character has been mentioned).

I thought the story was a very interesting homage to both Golden Age mysteries and authors. While I'm not sure it would be possible to figure out all the clues and unmask the killer, the way Ernest does at the end, there is a big reveal at the end where everything that was puzzling, or misdirection is explained. The motives and actions of even the "not guilty" characters are also exposed in the march to the truth. I enjoyed the story and look forward to finding out what Ernest can possibly find to write about for his third book!

Benjamin Stevenson is a genius!

Ernest Cunningham returns again (the start of Everyone in my family is a Serial Killer) this time on an author's tour, representing the story he wrote after his last near-death experience.

Witty as alway, Ernest has quite the experience navigating amongst the well known and the hoping to be well known authors that have been invited on the tour. The tour itself, takes place on the well known Ghan train. The authors are essentially stuck on the train with all of their fans - providing a locked room experience when of course some one is murdered!

Providing wit and laugh out loud commentary, Stevenson has created another daring and delightful story that will entertain you as well as engage you - who is murdering authors?
#Mariner #EveryoneonThisTrainisaSuspect #BenjaminStevenson