Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham Book 1) by Benjamin Stevenson.
Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.
I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.
Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.
Who was it?
Let's get started.
My sister enjoyed this mystery and recommended it to me, so I got it on Audible. The narrator, Barton Welch, was good too. His Aussie accent wasn't too thick and he performed a good variety of voices.
I like that it was witty and that Ernest, the protagonist, broke the fourth wall. He gives the rules a mystery novel must follow and calls himself a reliable narrator because he tells you what he knows at that time.
There are lots of moving parts and clues to follow. I had to rewind a few times at the reveal to stay connected. [Spoiler (click to open)]Blackmail photos on a chip in a Rolex, that was switched out for a fake Rolex because the daughter/doctor had a drug addiction. And a long-lost kidnapped brother was the serial killer, The Black Tongue, impersonating the cop. Past mysteries mix with present mysteries was well thought-out and executed. A clever mystery.
3.5 out of 5 Ski Lodges.
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Ernest Cunningham Book 2) by Benjamin Stevenson.
When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.
The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:
the debut writer (me!)
the forensic science writer
the blockbuster writer
the legal thriller writer
the literary writer
the psychological suspense writer
But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.
Of course, we should also know how to commit one.
How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?
I liked this one better than the first. The reveal was easier to follow. [Spoiler (click to open)]The editor having the Goodreads password. The fellow author, Lisa, who was raped and the daughter she had didn't know so she was a fan of the murder victim. The other author who switched the DNA sample so she couldn't prove that she was raped. The ghost writer and his wife!
It was also funny to see Ernest and (I forgot his name already) the other author rival each other to solve the murder.
As for the name tally game...readers with an e-book can cheat/spoil themselves by searching for the name word count.
4 out of 5 Train Cars.
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Ernest Cunningham Book 3) by Benjamin Stevenson.
Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his bestselling, Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe.
My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.
So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.
THE MAGICIAN
THE ASSISTANT
THE EXECUTIVE
THE HYPNOTIST
THE IDENTICAL TWIN
THE COUNSELLOR
THE TECH
My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.
If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.
After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?
I really enjoyed this short, holiday special in the Ernest Cunningham series. It's not so much a Christmas story as it is just taking place around Christmas, like Die Hard. It did have an Advent calendar of clues, which I did not figure out.
I also liked the mystery and how less involved it was than the previous two books. [Spoiler (click to open)]The glass work guillotine, the Secret Santa murderer, the light bulb was removed and the hand soap replaced with his blood so that Erin unknowingly washed her hands in the dark with blood instead of soap, Christmas was really Chris + Sam but because he was dyslexic Sam was mas. All very clever and the climax on the ski lift with the glass floor was suspenseful.
I would also say this story doesn't work as a stand-alone. To understand the characters' pasts [Spoiler (click to open)](Erin's PTSD from the murders in Book 1), the wit and style of the story the books should be read (or heard) in order.
5 out of 5 Magic Tricks.
Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.
I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.
Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.
Who was it?
Let's get started.
My sister enjoyed this mystery and recommended it to me, so I got it on Audible. The narrator, Barton Welch, was good too. His Aussie accent wasn't too thick and he performed a good variety of voices.
I like that it was witty and that Ernest, the protagonist, broke the fourth wall. He gives the rules a mystery novel must follow and calls himself a reliable narrator because he tells you what he knows at that time.
There are lots of moving parts and clues to follow. I had to rewind a few times at the reveal to stay connected. [Spoiler (click to open)]Blackmail photos on a chip in a Rolex, that was switched out for a fake Rolex because the daughter/doctor had a drug addiction. And a long-lost kidnapped brother was the serial killer, The Black Tongue, impersonating the cop. Past mysteries mix with present mysteries was well thought-out and executed. A clever mystery.
3.5 out of 5 Ski Lodges.
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Ernest Cunningham Book 2) by Benjamin Stevenson.
When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.
The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:
the debut writer (me!)
the forensic science writer
the blockbuster writer
the legal thriller writer
the literary writer
the psychological suspense writer
But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.
Of course, we should also know how to commit one.
How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?
I liked this one better than the first. The reveal was easier to follow. [Spoiler (click to open)]The editor having the Goodreads password. The fellow author, Lisa, who was raped and the daughter she had didn't know so she was a fan of the murder victim. The other author who switched the DNA sample so she couldn't prove that she was raped. The ghost writer and his wife!
It was also funny to see Ernest and (I forgot his name already) the other author rival each other to solve the murder.
As for the name tally game...readers with an e-book can cheat/spoil themselves by searching for the name word count.
4 out of 5 Train Cars.
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Ernest Cunningham Book 3) by Benjamin Stevenson.
Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his bestselling, Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe.
My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.
So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.
THE MAGICIAN
THE ASSISTANT
THE EXECUTIVE
THE HYPNOTIST
THE IDENTICAL TWIN
THE COUNSELLOR
THE TECH
My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.
If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.
After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?
I really enjoyed this short, holiday special in the Ernest Cunningham series. It's not so much a Christmas story as it is just taking place around Christmas, like Die Hard. It did have an Advent calendar of clues, which I did not figure out.
I also liked the mystery and how less involved it was than the previous two books. [Spoiler (click to open)]The glass work guillotine, the Secret Santa murderer, the light bulb was removed and the hand soap replaced with his blood so that Erin unknowingly washed her hands in the dark with blood instead of soap, Christmas was really Chris + Sam but because he was dyslexic Sam was mas. All very clever and the climax on the ski lift with the glass floor was suspenseful.
I would also say this story doesn't work as a stand-alone. To understand the characters' pasts [Spoiler (click to open)](Erin's PTSD from the murders in Book 1), the wit and style of the story the books should be read (or heard) in order.
5 out of 5 Magic Tricks.