Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone – Benjamin Stevenson

Here we have another book that does exactly what it says on the tin. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone is set at the Cunningham family reunion, held at a remote ski chalet (which they’ve booked with a non-refundable deposit), and given the family’s history it’s hardly a surprise when a body is found in the snow.

The narrator is Ernest Cunningham, a black sheep (of sorts) who makes a living writing how-to guides for other people who want to write mystery novels. He’s on the outs with most of his family members because he committed the cardinal sin of testifying at his brother’s murder trial. His occupation becomes a kind of frame for Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone; the epigraph is the real list of ten commandments for writing detective fiction by Ronald Knox. Ernie promises from the beginning that he’ll be a reliable narrator of the events at the Cunningham reunion, and he is… but he’s tricksy.

The conceit unfolds much as the title suggests. Everyone in Ernie’s family has killed someone: his brother, his father, his step-sister, the lot. One by one, Ernie reveals how each family member was culpable in someone’s death, as he tries to figure out which one of them is responsible for the most recent murder – a man none of them appear to know, who simply showed up dead outside their accommodation. Naturally, his investigation is conducted entirely within the “rules” for murder mysteries that Ronald Knox laid out.

So, from the outset, I highly recommend Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone to readers who are bored of the unreliable narrators that are a dime-a-dozen in contemporary mystery-thrillers. The point-of-view in this one is truly a breath of fresh air.

Stevenson absolutely nails the vibe of an imperfect family – with its own rifts and affections and absurdities – getting together after an extended period of estrangement. The wry, dark humour really tickled me; I was unsurprised to learn afterwards that Stevenson is a comedian by trade. It’s not many writers who could squeeze so many laughs out of a book about a family of killers.

Let’s be clear, though, that Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone isn’t a cozy mystery, despite the ski chalet setting and all the giggles. There are some truly hair-raising, gut-churning moments (you’ll maybe want to skip it if you’re sensitive to grisly deaths and injuries). It’s every bit as gritty and real as a regular mystery-thriller – it just doesn’t take itself so seriously.

The resolution might be a smidge too convoluted for readers who like a straightforward “aha!” moment at the end. I had to double back a couple of times to make sure I hadn’t missed a key detail, but I thought it was very well done. Despite Ernie’s conspiratorial foreshadowing and explicit explanations of what’s about to happen, Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone still has some tricks up its sleeve.

Read Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone on audiobook via Libro.fm here.

My favourite Amazon reviews of Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone:

• “This is all about who says what, who married who and why, who hates whose daddy, why that’s not correct, or maybe it is, who screwed around on who, and how everybody feels about it, including the protagonist’s loose mother. A bunch of people end up dead, mostly via the wimpiest violence that has ever killed anyone. I stuck it out for a while, then I quit after about two thirds of it because I could no longer follow the plot. What the hell, twelve dollars is a cheap lesson.” – HD
• “I can only say that I wish this had actually been titled “Everyone in My Family Has Been Killed” because that would spare us the risk of a sequel.” – Pro Shopper