Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

Oh my gosh...if you're a fan of "Clue" style mysteries, a clever narrator with a dark sense of humour, a dangerous, dysfunctional family and a plot like no other, you need to pick up Benjamin Stevenson's new book, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone!
I was hooked before I even read the first chapters. The prologue includes the membership oath of a secret society of mystery writers (Including Christie) from 1930, as well as the 1929 Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction from Ronald Knox. Our narrator uses these in the telling of this tale.

Reluctantly, the members of the Cunningham family have gathered together at a remote lodge. In the winter with a storm on the way. With bad cell phone coverage. Old hurts, wrongs, clashes of show more personalities and secrets soon rear their ugly heads. And then a body is found....

Ernest Cunningham is the narrator and defacto lead sleuth. Ern's voice is full of dark humour, keen observations and questionable actions. Just wait until you meet his family...

"Everyone in my family has killed someone: my brother, my stepsister, my wife, my father, my mother, my mother-in-law, my uncle, my stepfather and me."

You'll need to be on your toes as there are many characters to keep track of. Ern details what is going on, sharing his observations and some of his theories. Are you be keen enough to see what and who the final 'ah hah' moment might be? I certainly wasn't!

Stevenson has written a elaborate plot, one that will keep you guessing. For this reader, it was Ern and the dark humour that kept me up late. Stevenson is an award winning stand-up comedian. I'd say his sense of humour translates well to the written page. show less

A fun little murder mystery book that genuinely made me gasp at points.
I’m not usually a fan of this genre but I wholly enjoyed being taken along for the ride. The premise of all the characters having killed someone added a nice twist to the “who’s the killer?” narrative.
The slow reveals of the family dynamics and histories made for some engaging characters. Ern himself was an excellent narrator and the meta commentary on murder mystery’s was fun and new to me.

I’d recommend this for those like myself who aren’t super into the genre. The “rules of mystery novels” are laid out at the beginning and I fully enjoyed seeing how they came into play throughout the story.

Ern Cunningham travels to an isolated mountain resort for a family reunion in which he is persona non grata. His family has a notorious reputation, and—when bodies begin piling up—certain members of Ern’s family are eyed as likely suspects for the gruesome murders. It becomes clear that a serial killer is in their midst and Ern must figure out whodunit—is it a stranger, or is it a member of his own family? It’s not that hard for Ern to believe; after all, everyone in his family has killed someone.

This book has a couple of strengths going for it. First, the setting is an old mystery stand-by: the isolated winter resort. Some may say that is a tired old chestnut, but there is a reason that setting is such a popular standard for show more mystery stories—it’s good & it almost never fails to work. This book is no exception.

Second, the idea that all the primary suspects (i.e, everyone in Ern’s family) have already killed someone is incredibly original, and the author skillfully weaves it into the storyline. There are a lot of ways to cause someone’s death without actually committing murder, and the various methods employed by Ern’s family are darkly humorous. The fact that ‘everyone in his family having killed someone’ isn’t technically true by the end of the book is somewhat of a disappointment, but the concept still contributes a lot of intelligent humor to the story.

Unfortunately, the book has a lot of real problems that prevent it from being good. The biggest of these problems is the fact that there is just way too much going on here—with subplots, and sub-subplots, and character histories, and secondary character histories, and subplots within the character histories, and past murders, and current murders, and subplot murders in the past of character histories and the never-ending delving into flashbacks…there is just too much to try and keep track of. Combine all the convoluted plotting, the dizzying past & present back & forth, the hateful characters, and the farfetched, implausible circumstances and all you have is a no-fail recipe for a disastrous reading experience.

The most ludicrous element of the plot is the reason behind Ern’s decision to attend the reunion in the first place. The family is having a reunion. Ern doesn’t want to go. And most of his family, especially his mother, hate him and want nothing to do with him. So, why does Ern go? Well, as the author explains it, Ern’s aunt wrote ‘MANDATORY’ on the invitation...so it’s obvious he has no choice in the matter, right? And, let’s clarify, Ern is not some fifteen year old kid at boarding school; he’s a grown, forty year old married man. What kind of middle-aged man could possibly turn down an invitation from a hostile, distant relative when a word like ‘MANDATORY’ is used…she clearly means business! That whole asinine train of thought is presented so matter-of-factly by the author that the entire novel gets off to a very shaky start from which it never fully recovers.

The author’s whole ‘page-number-exposition-thing’ came incredibly out of left field and was monumentally annoying. He kept writing things like, “This is going to happen on page 192” and “You’ll hear all about this on pages 67, 149 and 307” and “Didn’t I tell you to prepare for this back on page 9”? What the hell, dude? If you have something to tell me, tell me now; and, if it can wait ‘til later, tell me then. I’m trying to engage with a novel here, not looking up something in an index…Jehosaphat!!! This affectation caused the author to come across as a pretentious little git, and I don’t think I have ever been so annoyed by anything while I was reading a book…EVER!

This book is based on a clever idea and I really wanted to like it; sadly, it failed to live up to its promise. I would never want to read it again, and I actually regret taking the time to read it the first time.

There is vulgar language and a few mild sexual references that might be offensive to some readers. show less

“Ernest” Cunningham begins his narration by promising to tell the whole truth in this, his novel about a disastrous family reunion. Despite this pledge, his cheeky name and playful teasing with the reader contradict his veracity. Stevenson’s character admits he is the proverbial “Black Sheep,” with a complicated explanation of the dynamics and background of his family members. Ernest’s story is a charming, layered and diverting one, with a highly entertaining mystery at its core. The cast of characters are well-formed and interesting enough to warrant their own vignettes, and Ernest uses these chapters to illuminate the meaning behind his book’s title. Stevenson uses some fun narrative tricks to cultivate a sense of show more discovery and provide evidence of the storyteller as curator. Through Ernest the author references the tropes of the genre but breaks through to explain why they appear. Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is nicely paced and would be a good fit for admirers of the Hawthorne/Horowitz series by Anthony Horowitz or Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club.

Thanks to the author, Mariner Books and Edelweiss for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review. show less

This is a whole load of fun. Ernie Cunningham is our narrator. He writes books about how to write detective fiction in the style of the golden age, using Knox's rules for detective fiction. At the start we have Knox's rules written and Ernie references them several times. The tale is set in a mountain resort where the Cunningham family has met for a reunion, marking Michael's release from prison - where he was because Ernie testified against him for murder.
There is backstory, relating to the murder committed by Michael, as well as the death of their father, Robert. He shot a cop and was then killed by one. The past weighs heavy on the reunion, with each person having their own secrets and lies to hide and reveal. the title is both true show more and a misdirection, which is interesting. It's very cleverly done, at times a little far fetched, but it rolls along at a fair old pace. Ernie is engaging and the way this is told, with the narrator engaging with the reader (breaking the 4th wall, if you like) makes you feel like you're being told a long & complicated story in a bar - it has that kind of tone. I enjoyed this trip to the Australian mountains. show less

A very meta murder mystery, in which our narrator, Ernest "Ern" Cunningham, is a writer of how-to-write guides for aspiring mystery writers. That means that he knows all of the rules, tricks, and tropes of the trade, so when he and his family are caught up in a murder story of their own, Ern can not only tell us the story, but point out all of the ways in which he might (or might not) be sneakily misleading us. He promises to be a "reliable narrator," never to lie to us, and not to withhold any information that proved useful in solving the mystery.

Ern (and Stevenson) mostly keep those promises in this lively story, which finds the Cunningham family gathering at a ski resort for a family reunion. It's going to be a stressful reunion; the show more family is gathering as Ern's brother is released from prison, and it was Ern's testimony that put him there.

When people start dying at the resort -- as a massive snowstorm moves in, of course -- the local bumbling cop naturally assumes that the Cunninghams must be involved. After all, as Ern keeps telling us, everyone in the family has killed someone. (This turns out not to be strictly true, but discovering how and why is a key part of the story.)

Stevenson's prose is lively, with a wink that never sours into smirk, and a bouncier tone that you might expect in a murder mystery. And it's occasionally unexpectedly lovely and emotional. Take, for instance, this passage about a family member who died young:

"We never call Jeremy anything but his first name. It's a thing, I've noticed, when someone dies young. Like they haven't lived into the legacy of their surname. Sofia might not think so, that it's not what's in your blood or on your birth certificate that matters, but she still cares which way the names go around the hyphen. It's why you can go from Ernest, as you practice the rigid capital E over and over in bright crayon; to Cunners, on the second-grade football team; to Mr. Cunningham, speaking into the snake's head of a courtroom microphone; to Ernest James Cunningham printed inside a wreath, on a pamphlet handed out in the archway of a church. Because you get your name back when you die -- all of it. I've noticed that too. That's legacy. It's why Jeremy never made it past Jeremy."

"I'm not saying he's not a Cunningham, because he is, in the truest, deepest sense of the word. But to call him "Jeremy Cunningham," I think, makes him smaller than he is, tethering him to us. As a Cunningham, he is part of those dreams that wake me dry-tongued, gagging. Without our surname to anchor him, he is part of the sky, the wind, the mind."

I think the wrap-up, which of course gathers everyone in the library for Ern's "I've called you all here..." speech, is overly convoluted, with a few too many scheming characters at the heart of the mystery, but Stevenson lays out the story as clearly as it can be laid out. But on the whole, nicely done, and I look forward to Ern's promised return in Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect. show less

Explicitly following the rules and rhythms of "golden age" mystery novelists, this tightly wound whodunit features a narrator-detective looking back on events, holding all the cards and slowly and tantalizingly turning them over for you. The cards just happen to be about the various deaths caused by every member of his own Australian family (criminally or otherwise? You must read carefully to find out) and particularly about the highly dangerous reunion weekend in which they all became very relevant. The narrator/mystery-novel-expert/snitch turned detective/memoirist somewhat obnoxiously tells you, the reader, exactly how and when he's going to reveal things, exactly how he's going to obfuscate them, and then proceeds to sneakily reveal show more things while obfuscating others just as he said. I couldn't put it down; it's precisely my jam! show less