Benjamin Stevenson wins the award for most eye-catching title in recent memory for Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone. Admit that pairing this wordy title with a murder mystery has to intrigue mystery bibliophiles everywhere. But what’s in a name, or title? Does this book hold up beyond its moniker and deliver a cracker of a whodunnit?
You have read this plot before. A group of people inhabit a ski lodge only to be snowed-in when a murder occurs. Except in a Christie or Christie-adjacent novel, usually some connective thread exists between the people (see Ruth Gordon’s One by One, as an example). In this case, the bond is family.
Ernest (Ern) Cunningham arrives at the lodge for a family reunion and explains, throughout the book, how each one of his family has killed someone in the past. In this novel, the official narrative is that someone has killed a stranger outside the lodge the night Ern arrives. No one knows the victim. The murdered person’s method of death is also unusual. Who is he, why was he murdered, and why has the local policeman (also snowed in) arrested one of the Cunninghams with so little evidence?
If you checked the title, you know the answer to the last question. The authorities have just released Ern’s brother, Michael, from jail in time for the reunion. Michael lied, however, and was released earlier. So did he arrive at the lodge earlier and murder again? It’s up to Ern to set the record straight.
Ern’s full-time job is writing “How To” guides for writing mysteries. The reader is treated with a list of rules from the Golden Age at the start, and Ern swears he won’t break any during the book. He bends a few but holds to his promise. Being a mystery-writer coach, Ern’s perspective on mysteries often puts a hilarious spin on the plot. He points out cliches, reassures the reader when he’s not lying, and tells the reader in what chapters you will encounter a murder. This is the most unique voice of a mystery novel I’ve ever read, and I really enjoyed it. (Note: I’m not sure I would continue to love it in a series, but for one novel, it works.)
Given all the trappings, the story must still do the yeoman’s work of delivering an exciting and fair mystery. Does it? The story is solid even without provocative titles and a meta-narrator. The method of death is fascinating, if a bit over the top. The mystery of the suspect is always welcome and not too over-used in modern times. Yet, mysteries live or die by their ending. Everyone has a satisfying ending. I especially enjoyed the Ellery Queen “Address to the Reader,” listing the clues that lead to the ending. The novel pulls out an all-too-common trope with the murderer. Given the elevated writing and plot, I was slightly disappointed with “the reveal” along with a few coincidences that were hard to swallow. I’m surprised the narrator didn’t take a jab at his own ending. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and it should satisfy most mystery fans.
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone is a worthy addition to your list if you like a little meta in your mystery and a little wit in your detecting. The novel is certainly worth telling everyone in your family about it, even if they aren’t a killer.