Author Ernest Cunningham has reluctantly agreed to join his family at a remote ski resort for a family reunion. His brother, convicted of murder, will be newly released and in attendance. The challenge is that Ernest testified against him, and the family resents Ern for doing so.
Now when I say “author”, I mean that Ernest is the author of how-to crime books that rely on the 1929 Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction from Ronald Knox. He’s a crime aficionado and becomes the defacto sleuth when a dead body is discovered in the snow one morning. Seems nobody is missing a loved one, nobody is missing from the guest registry, and nobody recognizes the body. Odd.
Then a snowstorm forces everyone to shelter in place, and it’s one death after another. Which of Ernest’s dysfunctional family members is to blame? Or is it Juliette the cagey resort owner? Perhaps Gavin from the competing resort across the way? Or is Ernest an infallible narrator?
What’s fun about this novel is that Ernest talks directly to the reader. He tells us that he’s honest and, to prove it, he forewarns of the page numbers where there will be a murder.
If you’re just here for the gory details, deaths in this book either happen or are reported to have happened on page 14, page 46, page 65, a twofer on page 75, and a hat trick on page 81. Then there’s a bit of a stretch but it picks up again on page 174, page 208(ish), page 218 … I promise that’s the truth, unless the typesetter mucks with the pages. There is only one plot hold you could drive a truck through. I tend to spoil things. There are no sex scenes.
Another fun fact: the book is set in Australia.
If you like Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club or Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders, then you’ll enjoy Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. I’ve also read and enjoyed Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect. Stevenson has others books in this series too.