Review: EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE, Benjamin Stevenson

• 
  This edition an e-book from Amazon on Kindle 
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09JP2WJSH
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin eBooks (29 March 2022)
  
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 365 pages
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Synopsis  (Amazon) 

I was dreading the Cunningham family reunion even before the first murder.

Before the storm stranded us at the mountain resort, snow and bodies piling up.

The thing is, us Cunninghams don’t really get along. We’ve only got one thing in common: we’ve all killed someone.

My brother
My step-sister
My wife
My father
My mother
My sister-in-law
My uncle
My stepfather
My aunt
Me 

My Take

Ern (Ernest) Cunningham has done the unforgiveable in most families- he dobbed his brother Michael in, gave evidence at his murder trial, and sent his brother to jail. Michael, for an unknown reason, got a surprisingly light sentence, and now three years later is being released.

The setting is a remote resort in the Victorian Alps, and by the time Michael and Ern's estranged wife Erin turn up (the last to arrive), there is already a body, and a storm is about to break. The police have arrived in the form of one officer who appears to be a detective but no-one is sure how he was notified that a murder had already happened. Michael and Erin arrive in a large truck containing something that Michael wants Ern to see.

Ern's Aunt Katherine has organised this reunion in the remotest place she can find. But what is the purpose? To celebrate Michael's release, or is there something else?

In real life Ern writes how-to e-books on different genres for budding authors. EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY.. is narrated by Ern, and at times he addresses the readers, rather quirkily, telling us what to look out for, and what is coming.

An odd sense of humour shows itself from time to time, and there are references to authors like Agatha Christie, just to remind us that above all else this is a murder mystery. There are plenty of murders and plenty of mystery.

My rating: 4.4

About the Author
Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning stand-up comedian and author. He has sold out shows from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival all the way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Off-stage, Benjamin has worked for publishing houses and literary agencies in Australia and the USA. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone will be published in twenty-four territories around the world, and will soon be adapted into a major HBO TV series. 

This is his third novel.

His first novel, Greenlight, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction, and his second novel, Either Side of Midnight, was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Original Paperback.