Benjamin Stevenson

A novel like a candy box of mystery, with about eight little crimes and capers all wrapped up inside one majorly mysterious bank heist, with a pretty bow.

Like many fictional detectives, Ernie Cunningham would never let a little sense of self preservation get in the way of solving a crime, or keep him from almost being murdered several times a book. But this was the first installment in this series where his actions were SO foolhardy, I had to put the book down for a while. Honestly, I'm show more still ashamed of this man: he is incredibly reckless and should definitely be in jail. But I'm still glad I picked the book back up, because it's a weird, fun, twisty mystery that keeps you guessing. I just hope the next book does something to re-ground Ernie from his over-the-top antics. He can't keep getting away with it! show less

Absolutely brilliant! And to use the words of Jane Harper when interviewing Aussie author Benjamin Stevenson for Dymocks recently, "What a triumph!!"

Ernest Cunningham (Ernie) is a self-published writer who publishes how-to books for readers learning to write a crime novel. Naturally he reads a lot of crime novels himself, and when the book opens Ernie's on his way to a family reunion in the Australian high country. Things are tense in the family and he's on the outer, with references to show more being the primary reason his brother went to jail.

"Without seeming too interested, I tried to read my mother's expression. It was unfamiliar to me, so I figured it must have been warm and welcoming." Page 93

In a surprising opening, our narrator - aptly named Ernest - breaks the fourth wall to inform us he's a truth teller and he promises to tell the truth (or at least the truth as he knew it to be at the time) about what happened at the reunion. Breaking the fourth wall happens when a character or narrator addresses the reader or audience directly. I've just started watching a British crime series called Annika which does this, as does Markus Zusak in The Messenger and of course Charlotte Bronte, famously in Jane Eyre.

Ernie insists he won't be an unreliable narrator and even provides a list of rules from one of his books at the beginning of this one while encouraging the reader to hold him to account.

This isn't the only time he addresses the reader, there are plenty of side notes and easter eggs for the attentive reader to collect and enjoy along the way. Ernie often foreshadows events to come that somehow ratchet up the tension and pace without spoiling a single thing. At one point, a character vomits, but our narrator stops to point out, that 'no, she isn't pregnant.' Ernie hates how a woman throwing up in books or on the big screen is almost always a pre-cursor to finding out she's pregnant. I hate that cliche too and boy does Stevenson tear this one - and others - down in this novel.

Bodies start piling up at the family reunion and we begin to learn the back stories of each of the family members and how they were responsible for killing someone. This refreshingly modern mystery novel is inspired by the likes of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, but don't be fooled by thinking that it'll be old fashioned or contrived.

Witty, fresh and unique, there are also plenty of funny moments and Stevenson's background as a comedian ensures humour is deployed throughout the novel.

"You're a fantastic surgeon, Sofia. Marcelo trusted you with his shoulder, and he needs that for slamming his fist on the table dramatically in court. That's like operating on Beyoncé's voice box." Page 127

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson is meta fiction of the very best kind, and the author has produced a set of characters to remember in the Cunningham family. I loved the Aunt in charge of organising the reunion with her spreadsheet.

"And I know I glossed over the fact that there's a freaking library with a fireplace in the building (which happens to be where I will solve the damn thing)." Page 79

Despite telling us where he'll solve the crime, the page numbers for each of the deaths and more, the thrilling narrative drives the pace forward and had me questioning everyone! Brilliant plotting left this reader impressed and recommending this widely.

In terms of reading experience, this is like reading The Martian by Andy Weir, you read a little, you chuckle, you marvel and read some more, racing to the end. I read and reviewed Greenlight recently and still have the second in the series to look for Either Side of Midnight, but wowee, the author has certainly signalled his arrival in the Australian crime fiction hall of fame with Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.

I already know this is going to be in my Top 5 Books of 2022 list and you can access a FREE extract on my website:https://www.carpelibrum.net/2022/04/review-everyone-in-my-family-has-killed-someone-benjamin-stevenson.html

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House * show less

I am an Ernest Cunningham groupie. This is his fourth (I'm going back to read his third which has remained on my shelf untouched for ages due to time constraints). The Ernest Cunningham (EC) books are original in style, very humorous, and can be confusing...the confusion stemming from EC's incessant internal and external blathering, and the absolutely OTT circumstances he falls into.

Stevenson's EC is very loveable, extremely reliable in his narration, and totally unpredictable in his show more actions. He is, by turns, a murderer, a thief, daredevil, a mediocre author of murder mystery novels (EC, not to be confused with Stevenson), and fiancé to Julia - his forbearing partner in crime(s). Julia has been the “straight man” to EC’s vaudevillian character since Book One in the series. EC’s humor and congeniality bubble up in his incessant chattering, at times self-effacing, at times full of self-bravura, and always describing the multiple serious injuries and near-death experiences suffered while solving the crimes he investigated – they are all there in Stevenson’s previous EC novels. Stevenson’s originality stems from EC’s complete and utter transparency as he tells the reader right at the start, what and where to find all the clues to solve the crimes he solves in the book. Most, if not all, of his characters are guilty of something (including EC) so there are tons of clues described and interspersed throughout the novel. In his first book he even tells the page number or chapters (so you can breeze there and back to review). I loved that. His crime solving skills come from the most unexpected sources. This book provided all of his scientific deductions from right out of High School science book (which mostly went right over my head, so I cannot even be sure if what he wrote was true, as science was my preferred class for afternoon schlafstunde* in High School), and let’s not leave out his supernaturally keen observation abilities.

In this novel, Juliette and Ernest are in some remote town in Australia, to meet with a banker who might agree to give them a loan to start-up their detective agency. They made the 16-hour trip to see a banker who clearly did not know (or did he?) that his loan applications had been rejected by all the big banks they had applied to in the big cities. As Juliette and Ernest sit in a café, Juliette playing the role of banker and grilling Ernest in pages of hilarious dialog (which included divorce statistics related specifically to the amount spent on a wedding), Juliette (J) reads out an article describing the hit and run death of none other than our hero E! ….as it turns out the victim was a movie star who was cast to play the role of Ernest Cunnigham based on the the plot of EC’/Stevenson’s first book, Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone). Was it murder or a providential convenient accident? (a wink at Mel Brooks’, The Producers?)

Two of the books’ current suspects are introduced briefly in the café, and the reader meets the rest of the suspects when E and J cross the street and enter the bank. The rest of the story is told by E as he lay dying, trapped inside the bank’s vault, with only a glass of holy water, the High School Science book, and a dead body to sustain him until he runs out of air and suffocates.

So, in the Prologue, our blathering E tells us that there will be ’ten suspects and ten heists. And from what he can tell, to begin with, the stolen items are: a gold pen, a single dollar, other varied amounts ranging from a few thousand to twenty-five million dollars, a coffee cup, a life, and, to be cute about it, a heart. That list doesn’t quite cover the promised ten heists; there are more thefts and thieves for him to puzzle out’.

…and that he does. His brilliant detective work is achieved while also masquerading as a/the bank robber, in a mad-cap over-the-top continuous range of antics that are too myriad to describe in a brief review. If I had one thing to complain about in Stevenson’s books it would be that reading his books can be like eating an over-rich dessert - hard to resist, yet more than a bite will kill you. Bless the author for doing so on the average of circa 350 pages or less…that already earns bonus stars from this focus-challenged Reader/Reviewer.

* schlafstunde=snooze – for those of you unfamiliar with the vernacular show less

I did love this - although not nearly as much as Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone. Ernest Cunningham is back and for those of you who were wondering by the end of EIMFHKS, he and Julia are now a thing (now yes, now no, now yes.....). Julia is, as always, the "straight man" to the rest of the novel's vaudevillian characters.

Our oblivious schlemiel of an MC, hops a trans-continent train wreck of a journey across Australia, as a guest (or guest of a guest) at an elite writer's show more convention. There is a heavily laden cast of characters, some of whom have aliases too, and although Cunningham warns us of this at the get-go, it felt like a shell-game where I found it impossible to keep my eye on the ball. Everything, of course, is all neatly tied up in a bow in the penultimate scene where all suspects gather in the dining car and Poirot, er Cunningham, proceeds to reveal who is/are the murderer/s and who are culprits of numerous other crimes.

There are two trademark nail-biting scenes toward the end of the novel. Both are exciting and hilarious. There is also much of Ernest's continued bungling humor throughout, but all the rest of the characters (save Julia) are even bigger schlemiels so he comes out smelling like a rose.

I'd like to read more of Ernest's exploits but with a slimmer cast of characters and a little more substance earlier on in the novel.

Many thanks to both NetGalley and Edelweiss, I requested an ARC from each and both came through! I loved the book and recommend, especially for those who are already familiar with the characters of Ernest and Julia. show less