Thank you to the publishers for letting me read this novella. B. Stevenson is a talented writer and comedian. In my opinion this book is WAY better than the second one. This time the main character was on a real mission to solve this crime. He had no time for tomfoolery. My only dislike was it having too many characters, because of the word count i barely remember the killer in the book or knew them at all. However, this will make a wonderful gifts for mysery lovers.

If there is one thing about the Ernest Cunningham series, it’s that you can tell the author has a blast writing his character. This makes reading them fun. I can’t help but smile to myself the entire time, because they’re witty, cozy and they make you plot and think along with our “very public” detective.

Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret was a cute interlude to hopefully a third Ernest mystery. I love being in his quirky world, questioning all of the murderous characters he surrounds himself with. I especially enjoyed this holiday special.

I highly recommend you give this series a try if you haven’t already! And top the first two off with a quick Christmas read just in time for the holiday season.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
A murder mystery designed to be read as an advent calendar. Holiday camp.

Pre-reading:
I am rabid for this series. Truly have had the best time reading this series. I LOVE CAMP. The Canadian cover of this book is fucking iconic, and I think it’s outrageous that the other countries don’t also have a working advent calendar as their cover. I can’t stop smiling going into this.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
If Andy’s not in this book, we riot.

I literally thought about doing this book as an advent calendar. I think that would be so fun, but I got it for review, and I’m already behind because it’s out now, but I wanted to wait for the audiobook because I’ve loved the audiobooks so much!

I love that it knows what media you're reading!

I'm fuckin giddy. What do they say on the Aussie Bachelorette, I’m buzzin?

Murder number two is definitely gonna be someone cropped out of a photo. (Wrong!)

ANDY

If he’s going to see a magician, maybe it’s also a hypnotist, and they’re hypnotized to not remember how they got blood on them? (Wrong. But also, I was trying to guess before I had even heard about the murder.)

Why do we keep going on about the temperature? (Atmosphere?)

Are we not bringing up how her boyfriend is dead again? (We’ll get there.)

Could the tap water be blood somehow? (Nearly!)

Her story sucks because she said she went to bed scrolling on her phone and then she was looking in the kitchen for her phone. Is that it? (Nope.)

Without lifting a hand to murder, does he eat a cookie that he’s allergic to and die or that protein bar? (Nope.)

Wow, poor Ernie. He gets hurt every single case!

A Sam!
And with a sister Theresa, which is so funny because that’s also my sister‘s name.

If he has to earn it, does he maybe have to get the password from the newspaper guy and the password is the message that he wrote in his blood before he died? (Nope.)

I assume the twins are going to switch to finish a degree. (You assume wrong.)

My dumb American brain keeps hearing Roomba when they say the town name.

Prop master with the gun feels very Rust if he dies.

Chris + Sam? is the message and they’re maybe a murder couple? (I am so smart.)

((For those that don’t know all the Sam lore, my birthday is Christmas and my name is a bad dad joke because my initials are also Sam. When you initial a document, they put a little X where you're supposed to sign, so it becomes Samx which backwards is Xmas.)) (I do wonder if I would've caught the killer so immediately if my name wasn't literally this joke.)

They switched the guillotine blades? (Yup.)

I say it every time, but these books are so well-paced!

Well, didn’t you point out that if it wasn’t attached to a rope it would’ve gone right through the floor, so what if both the paper and the real blade were up there and the real one is now below the floor? (Yup.)

Wouldn’t they record these phone calls? Wouldn’t that be pretty damming for court?

The only clue I can think of is it means he didn’t think he was going to die or leave on a trip very soon if he was getting perishables.

Or, the clue is that he had to get home after she had already made her hot chocolate for bed to notice that they were out of milk.

But did they have blood on them after the bathroom? Methinks yes. (Methinks right.)

See, I know the password works because mystery rules, but there’s no way a man who makes this much money is allowed such a basic password.

Is it that it’s not a t that it’s a + because I’ve already solved it.

Interestingly, the book points out that it kept the font, but it’s not in the Kindle edition because the Kindle corrects it to the font you’ve chosen.

Did he ask her if he was dyslexic? Because that explains how he struggled in school and why Sam‘s name is backwards. (Nailed it!)

Is the needle prick from a blood draw, and then they use the blood to spatter Erin?

I’m not sure why the lightbulb would be missing, but I would assume the glass in the house is from the missing lightbulb. (Yup.)

Also, Chris mentioned that he’s familiar with the guest room, and Erin going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

You know, I know Theresa has limited names, but it is funny that I also call my little sister T.

The way I fucking nailed the Christmas note.

Dude, I'm so smart. (These books always fool me into thinking I’m so intelligent, and I’m like Samantha, they’re literally designed to be solved.)

Post-reading:
God, I love these. They're always so fun and bouncy. They're so quick-paced. The book wants you to play along, and that makes for the best reading experience. This one’s a little too short to get that invested in, but it's a holiday special. It’s kinda like a novella where it's hard to fault it for not going into the depth that a full-length novel would, but by that notion, it also can't be as good as the rest of the series. It’s still super enjoyable though.

Designing it to be read as an advent calendar makes for such a sweet holiday activity. I feel like you could easily read this series to older kids too.

If you like the series, it's definitely worth picking up, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Who should read this:
Campy mystery fans

Ideal reading time:
December as an advent calendar.

Do I want to reread this:
No, I think it's pretty memorable.

Would I buy this:
Yup. Definitely a series I want to have on my shelves.

Similar books:
* The Last Word by Taylor Adams-campy thriller satire, makes fun of the genre and lets you play detective
* Kill Joy by Holly Jackson-the series in general, but especially this one because it’s a murder mystery dinner party
* Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams-CAMP revenge thriller
* No Exit by Taylor Adama-I think this is the perfect thriller, and I will die on this hill, lets you play detective
* Five Survive by Holly Jackson-YA thriller, lets you play detective
* The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman-classic twist on the mystery genre
* The Guest List by Lucy Foley-classic locked room mystery, revenge thriller
* The Christmas Party by Mikayla Davids-holiday thriller
* Anxious People by Fredrik Backman-heist, bouncy narrative voice, ensemble cast, plays on your assumptions

i really enjoyed this! this series is so fun and voicey and it grows on me more and more with every installment. i really enjoyed the setting of this, and while i would have loved it to be longer, i didn't feel as though it's novella nature was a drawback to my enjoyment of it.

The 📖: Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson.

Ernest Cunningham—writer, reliable narrator, and Golden Age of Detective Fiction aficionado—is back in this “Christmas Special.” This season, Ernest finds himself embroiled in another mystery. But, fear not reader! Ernest, per usual, will make sure you have all the clues you need to solve this right alongside him!

This is such a fun and clever series—and this installment continues the tradition! This story is told in the manner of an advent calendar—with the reader able to read one chapter a day (starting December 1) and concluding on Christmas (very clever). The prior books are cryptically referenced so I’d recommend reading them first (there’s still time to catch up before December!)

🏔️: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Book 1). The introduction to Ernest Cunningham and his family as they navigate…a family reunion.

🚂: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect (Book 2). Crime Writers on a Train! What could possibly go wrong?

Everyone This Christmas has a secret is out now. Thank you to @netgalley and @marinerbooks for the e-ARC!

A short and sweet book for fans of the series, with enough background included that people new to the series could read it, if they have the patience to follow the development of many characters--because there are quite a few characters involved for a short read. I would recommend this for folks looking a cozy mystery with a sassy and sarcastic narrator.

This perfect Christmas book! Yes I said it - even though it's a murder mystery. I loved the fun "clue advent calendar door" at the end of each chapter leading up to the reveal. This book was absolutely as perfectly planned to confuse the heck out of you, but also keep you trying to guess the entire time. The reveal set up was *chefskiss* (just wait until you read it). I cannot get enough of Ernest (even though he is such a goof and maybe not the best with human relationships, at least he is very caring). If you enjoy the series, you will love this one!

Thank you to Mariner Books for the ARC!

Man, I love these books!! Ernest Cunningham has become one of my all time favorite characters. He's so witty and unique and always finds a way to make me laugh!

The thing I love about Benjamin Stevenson's books is how detail oriented and smart they are, but never in a way that feels like hard work for the reader. I feel like the mysteries are usually more in depth than most cozy mysteries, but that the journey always feels fun and light. I love how he breaks the fourth wall, has lists of rules for himself along the way, and how the ending always surprises me.

This one was a little shorter than a normal full-length novel, but longer than a novella, which makes it the perfect length for a one-sitting read by the Christmas tree with some hot chocolate! If you love festive reads, but don't want to read only Christmas romance, this is the perfect book for you!

I was delighted to see at the end of the book that "Ernest Cunningham will be back in a big way soon" and I can't wait for more!

Every book in the Ernest Cunningham series has such a genius execution in the mystery reveal, and this was no different. This one was lacking a little of the fourth-wall breaking that I loved so much in the first two, making it grittier and a little less whimsical, but I did think that the addition of the clues being laid out in an advent calendar was a nice touch. My main problem with this book is that it was extremely short compared to the other two in the series, which made it a little difficult to keep track of the characters because we didn't get to spend much time with them.
Also, I know that formatting in an ARC changes from before the fully published version, but it was a miss that the email being in Comic Sans didn't copy over into this ebook version, because that was a big part of the story.
Overall, I thought this was another masterful mystery book that gave me everything I needed to solve it, but still kept me guessing until the reveal. I will definitely continue to read anything by this author and especially anything in this series!

4.25 ⭐️s
All the usual snark, malarkey, and typical twisty-turns wrapped up in a very merry gift to the mystery genre.
With the world constantly serving up a neverending buffet of anxiety and depression, Benjamin Stevenson has managed to balance these little horrors by providing a wonderfully unserious Christmas murder [mystery].
Ernest Cunningham is 10,000% my favorite Slapdash Sleuth in all the lands. If I'm ever, wrongly, accused of murder, I want Ernest on the case.
I may have begrudgingly withheld .75 of those make believe stars simply because it wasn't a full length novel.
I love this series.
Keep the murders coming, Stevenson.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the eARC!

Book #3 in what I hope will become a very long run of Ernest Cunningham stories. Benjamin Stevenson has taken us into one of Ernie's investigations twice before and generated a huge fan club along the way. The books are set in Australia, but Ernie takes his show on the road at the drop of a hat. Each book has generated the back drop for the next one, this one finds Ernie getting ready to marry his girlfriend from book #2 that he saved from book #1 with help from his slightly off key family that we met in book #1. So you see, the book is much more fun if you've read them in order......and fun they are. The murders are scene stealers, the charcters all suspicious, and the clues are so many Ernie has to remind us where they are. Readers of Fredrik Bachman will find a similar story telling style, but Stevenson is definitely unique in his style and execution. So far everyone to whom I have recommended this series, has read it and passed along the recommendation. That's one of the best things you can say about any book or series.

Ernest Cunningham is back with another puzzle to solve!

This is a shorter book and features a magician (tricky tricks), an advent calendar and some countdown to Christmas mishaps that suggested hints to the mystery. I didn't solve it, but had fun following how Ernest put the clues together. It is his third murder mystery after all!

A dead body and his ex-wife as a suspect. He really needed to get to the bottom of this one!

This worked better for me than the second in the series. Like the previous books, there are many misdirections, suspects, and someone with sleight of hand! We find out who when the final door of the calendar is opened!

Fun little mystery from the hilarious author of Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone. It’s a holiday special, an advent calendar full of clues the author lays out to solve the mystery of his ex-wife’s husband’s murder, of which is she falsely accused.

The plot is as byzantine as my previous sentence, but Stevenson’s tongue-in-cheek self-referential commentary is delightful. And the mystery is quite short, making for a perfect holiday read one cozy evening.

Don’t forget the Christmas cookies and cocoa!
Thanks to the publisher for the free ebook.

Stevenson has not written a bad book and I stand by that!! These are always so fun, I look forward to his release every year.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret is the third mystery in a series where the author purports to "play fair" by presenting the clues as the detective finds them. No tricks up his sleeve as it were. You wouldn't think it would work, but it does! The result is a devilishly creative and entertaining mystery that you might be able to solve, but I'm o detective, so I just let the story take me where it will. I love it!

As the name suggests, Everyone This Christmas takes place in the days leading up to Christmas, so it's a mashup of a murder mystery and a Christmas special. This time our detective, or Slapdash Sleuth as he's been nicknamed in the press, finds himself investigating the death of a philanthropist and the magic show crew that *might have killed him. I loved this idea, adding a new element --the Christmas special--to a formula Stevenson's readers already know and love. This time the clues were even gift wrapped, presented as the 24 pieces of an Advent calendar for the reader to mull over and play detective.
I'm also honestly impressed with the idea that an author can lay out all the clues of a mystery like this and still surprise his readers. To be fair, Stevenson presents the clues but he doesn't always help us interpret them fully, but still. It's clever and makes the reading experience fun. It doesn't hurt that main character Ernest is likeable and funny on his own. You can't help but root for him as he works it all out.
I also love the idea of setting the mystery within a magic show. Ernest claims repeatedly to "play fair" during his mysteries, no literary sleight of hand, and yet, he's sleuthing among characters whose livelihood is sleight of hand. Clever. And on the nose. I'm here for it.
I will admit to be initially disappointed when I saw that this was a novella rather than a full-length novel, but in this case it works! This was meant to be akin to a Christmas special, so a more contained story and plot work. I think stretching this out into a longer mystery would have risked some of the genius here.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this series, and while I hope murder doesn't taint Ernest's upcoming nuptials, I can't help but hope that everyone at the wedding has a motive. Or something like that!

I have grown to love Ernest Cunningham. He didn’t want to become a detective, but somehow the role found him. A new version of Detective Poirot. It was a fun, short read to ease into the holidays!

A different holiday novel that will keep you entertained from word one. It’s not your typical holiday novel but that’s what makes it so good!

Oh dear... Earnest, a believer in writing "fair mysteries" is back, this time to help out his ex-wife Erin. She's in jail accused of killing her wealthy former actor, now do-gooder boyfriend. He was found on the kitchen floor where he was stabbed. He scrawled the word Christmas in his own blood. Erin was covered in blood and is terrified she killed him in his sleep.. Lyle Pearse runs a large charitable enterprise that serves as a both a rehabilitation program for addicts and an opportunity to get involved in the arts, theater, and more at the center he created. Everyone loves him. Who would kill him? The staff is moving forward with its plans to stage a benefit for its wealthy donors, featuring a famous and not beloved magician. As Ernest plods along with his investigation, he gets to know all of the workers, mostly former addicts and finds there was something going wrong. Any more of the plot and there are spoilers, but...

As with his other works, Stevenson's structure and plotting is just. Fun. In this case, since it is a "Christmas Special," the book represents an advent calendar. Each of the 24 chapters is a door and each door holds a clue until chapter 24 in this slim book, when all is solved. There is a final little Christmas present in an afterword when Stevenson shares with us the 7 commandments of holiday specials. A great read. Definitely recommend!

The story flowed well and the characters were well developed. I recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.


****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****

Tis’ the season for Hallothanksmas 😅😭 it’s so many Christmas themed books that’s are being released before Christmas and Thanksgiving. Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret is book 3 of the Ernest Cunningham Mysteries series. When I requested this book, I didn’t know it was a series at the time. I haven’t gotten the chance to read the first 2 books, but I have them on my TBR. I’m definitely interested in reading those and getting the full story behind Ernest Cunningham.

I really enjoyed how the story mimicked an advent calendar with there being 24 chapters and 24 clues to help piece together the murder at hand. The author made this book a fun & festive mystery and everything was laid out perfectly for the reader to play detective along with Ernest. For this to be a novella, it was packed with so much suspense that it made it difficult to even know who the killer was. I’m excited to read more from the author!