BOOK REVIEW: EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE by Benjamin Stevenson

BOOK REVIEW: EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE by Benjamin Stevenson
Penguin Random House
March 2022
Paperback, $32.99
Mystery, thriller, whodunnit

Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
85%

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone has, quite rightly, already had the rights sold to HBO for a future film or TV series, and that’s all down to author Benjamin Stevenson’s clever plotting and unique storytelling abilities. It’s rare to find a book nowadays that you literally don’t want to put down, and my eyes gave up several nights before the rest of me was ready to turn out the light, whilst reading this great novel.

Ernie Cunningham writes books about writing crime fiction, and is mostly estranged from his family following witnessing – and dobbing in – his brother Michael murder a man three years prior. When the family – including Ernie – gather in a storm-isolated Victorian ski resort to welcome Michael back to freedom after his release, the closet is opened and skeletons a-plenty come tumbling forth – not to mention new bodies beginning to pile up.

With more than a passing nod to the excellence of Agatha Christie, and warmly quoting (and sometimes messing with) the “Ten Commandments Of Detective Fiction” as laid out in 1929 by Robert Knox and agreed to by Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, GK Chesterton and other detective authors who formed the Detection Club, Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone boasts endearing, multi-layered characters with depth and humanity, and twists and surprises galore, right up to the bitter, shocking end.

 

Category: Book Reviews