It's not often I like the second book in a series more than the first, but I'm quite glad to say Ernest Cunningham proved me wrong. It's 'Murder on the Orient Express' except we're in Australia, it's a train full of writers and there's no Belgian with a twirly mustache to solve things quietly.

Whilst I enjoyed the first book in this series, I had some issues with it - and those kind of cropped up again in this one. I think, as the author so deftly puts it in the last few chapters, that's just his style as a writer. The middle was a bit overwritten and dragged for longer than necessary, but I certainly did not see the ending coming and the book brilliantly threw plenty of red herrings in my direction. The best murder mysteries are generally the ones where you've got no idea what's going on, but you're having fun anyway.

I took off a star because of a personal gripe that I felt spoiled the novel a bit. I'll be vague in an attempt to avoid spoilers, but one of the core motivations / backgrounds for one of the female characters is that she was raped by one of the victims. And it made me feel incredibly icky. Generally, the female characters in these books are so-so, but I felt putting such a cliched plot point one of the characters to that, when there were so many other options the author could have chosen to give her motive was a bit of a cop-out. Lads, we can get through books without women being victims to powerful men. There are other plots. But, that's just a me thing.

I've gotten a bit of a bug for murder mysteries right now and truly, there's no one writing quite like Benjamin Stevenson and, to an extent, Ernest Cunningham too.

The sequel to ‘Everyone in my family has killed someone’ is just as tongue in cheek and clever as its original. Taking the meta borderline further, Stevenson continues to talk to the reader about crime conventions and provides pointers to solving the mystery. This time around a writers festival on a train provides plenty of opportunities to dig at crime writers themselves: their insecurities, egos and inspirations.
There is a large pool of suspects and lots of clues. Early on I solved a cryptic clue that told me a reason as to why the murder happened but I was unable to solve who.
Fun, witty and with a decent chance of the reader getting involved in the detection.

Ern Cunningham is back! This time he's managed, luckily enough, to come upon another set of murders.

The book immediately had me hooked and not just because it was set on a train. It had an interesting cast of characters where I suspected everyone at one point or the other which is how a great mystery should be done. It was even funnier than the first book.

I love how genre-savvy and meta the book is but I wish Ern stopped telling us how honest he was or informing us about the page numbers. Other than that and some plot points involving his personal life, I had a lot of fun reading it.
Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the e-copy!

I absolutely loved this read. The second book in the series was just as good as the first. I love Cunningham's character as a chatty detective it adds the humour to the murder mystery. I would highly recommend this to anyone!

I had high hopes for this novel, having devoured the first one and been highly entertained by it. Happily, I was not disappointed, it's brilliant.
The 'voice' of the lead character is brilliantly done, with dry humour and great wit, and we are led step-by-step to a denouement hard to work out before it actually happens. Every character is really well fleshed out, which is helpful as there are a lot!
This is an immensely clever form of storytelling and I look forward to Stevenson's next release.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Yay - reluctant sleuth Ernie Cunningham is back trying to write that difficult second book. He gets invited to a writers convention on the Ghan and there's a couple of murders to help him out!

I enjoyed this as much as Everyone in Family has Killed Somebody. Well thought out plot, lots of clues and red herrings. A fun read.

I LOVE this book!

It is very similar to classic detectives. whodunnits and murder mysteries, but written with a very good sense of humor.
I did not see the twists coming at all and I hope we get more books in the series

I struggle with books written in the first person but this is such an unusual presentation of that style that I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story isn’t as gripping as the first book by the author but throws up twists right to the end. Can’t wait for the next one.

Following the release of his true crime memoir (aka the author's first novel) Ernest Cunningham is invited to attend the Australian Mystery Writers Festival along with his girlfriend, Juliette. Struggling to write his second novel, he hopes that the trip will provide him with fresh inspiration for a fictional mystery. Unsurprisingly, to us at least, he doesn't just find inspiration for a new book, he is once again in the midst of the mystery and it is down to him to solve it.

Similarly to his first novel, I really enjoyed the first-person narration where fictional Benjamin is recalling the events that have already followed. Usually, a first-person narrative has you questioning the reliability of what you are told, but that's not the case here and I find it to be a clever twist. He provides us with plenty of clues and pointers to help us but never divulges too much that gives the answer and ruin the surprise. Though he does make some glaringly stupid errors and same, Benjamin is a brilliant sleuth and well on his way to being one of the best I've read.

The modernisation of the Golden Age mysteries is done brilliantly. The clues are all there for you to work it out for yourself with plenty of red herrings to misdirect you. The other passengers are a perfect mixture of likeable and detestable.

Overall, I thought it was a wonderful book that matches, if not surpasses, the quality of the first one. I cannot get over how clever the reveal was at the end and how I was constantly misled and guided to the truth at the same time. This is hands down one of the best whodunnits I've read in my life!

Book Review:
Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
Published by Penguin Michael Joseph, 29th Feb 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Synopsis:
When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the famous Ghan train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out.
The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty, but when one of us is murdered, six authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime ... or commit one.

Review:
Oh - what a marvellous read! Relayed in first person from a unique perspective as a passenger on a train, this is a witty, twisty crime caper that's as amusing as it is unpredictable.
With fabulous characters and a glorious setting, all laid out in fantastic detail, Benjamin Stevenson leaves a tail of clues throughout, which makes you think that everyone has a motive for murder; which of course they do.
The humour and intensity play each other off nicely, and after reading this, I'm off to buy the author's first book, Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, which I somehow missed!
*I received an eARC from the publisher via Netgalley. This is my unbiased review.

#BookReview #EveryoneOnThisTrainInASuspect #BenjaminStevenson #NetGalley #PenguinMichaelJoseph #Bookstagram

What a damn fun time this was - a whodunnit where the main character is always alluding to the fact we know who the killer is but also trying to throw us off the trail at the same time….it’s meta-fiction at it’s finest. The characters are funny and complex, the plot snappy - who thinks to set a murder on a train full of crime writers!? - and the writing pulls us along so fast I couldn’t put this down. I’m not always a fan of murder mysteries, finding some authors try too hard to keep us guessing, however, this is almost farcical! For fans of Agatha Christie, especially ones who wished there was more humour with the Poirot!

I really enjoyed this really unique and interesting perspective!

It had all the makings of a man amazing murder mystery with an unusual warmth and charm that made it an exceptional read.

I do feel the twist was a little predictable but I had such a good time reading it that I really didn’t care!

Our absolute favourite writer, reliable narrator and survivor Ernest Cunningham is back in ‘Everyone on this Train is a Suspect’ by Benjamin Stevenson. In this follow up, Ern is on the programme for the 50th anniversary extravaganza of the Australian Mystery Writers’ Festival - an immersive experience on board a luxury cross-country train where he will sit on panels with fellow authors - a Blockbuster crime author, a Forensic expert, a Psychological profiler, a fine Legal mind and a Literary Heavyweight. While we might think Ernest deserves a nice holiday and to enjoy the recognition his true crime memoir earned him after everything that happened with his family, unsurprisingly it isn’t long until someone dies with foul play suspected.

Our unlucky narrator is again thrust into a whodunnit, this time surrounded by authors, agents and fans of crime novels who all want to solve the mystery!

I really enjoyed:
- The conversational and knowing writing style
- The puzzles and clues throughout the book
- The return of a few additional characters from the first book (though obviously not the dead ones!)
- The fun being poked at the literary world
- The way all of the disparate conflicts and backstories came together into a very satisfying conclusion

I did find the first 30% relatively slow going, but the pace picked up after that and I binged the rest of the story in one tense, eager sitting, chuckling to myself regularly. I’m rating this with four stars and think it’s an incredibly worthy sequel to one of last year’s most original crime books. Immensely readable and often hilarious, I have no hesitation recommending this one.

I have been super excited about this book from the moment I heard about it, as I really loved the first book in the series, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (2022). In this first novel the plotting, pacing, writing style, cluing and characterisation were all top notch. Today’s reviewed title is a sequel, with Ernest Cunningham once again narrating the tale and directly engaging with the reader.

Synopsis
‘When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out.

The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty:

the debut writer (me!)
the forensic science writer
the blockbuster writer
the legal thriller writer
the literary writer
the psychological suspense writer.

But when one of us is murdered, six authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

Or commit one...’

Overall Thoughts
In Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone the writer and the narrator, in the spirit of fair play, directly engage with all but one of Ronald Knox’s Decalogue. In Everyone on this Train is a Suspect (2024) I was interested to note that at the start of the book the author quotes the ninth rule from S. S. Van Dine’s ‘Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories’ (1928):

‘There must be but one detective — that is, but one protagonist of deduction — one deus ex machina. To bring the minds of three or four, or sometimes a gang of detectives to bear on a problem, is not only to disperse the interest and break the direct thread of logic, but to take an unfair advantage of the reader. If there is more than one detective the reader doesn't know who his co-deductor is. It's like making the reader run a race with a relay team.’

I wondered how the story would interact with this rule and I will leave you find out how it does.

In Golden Age style we get a map of the train and where each character’s sleeping quarters were, among others, and the story includes a copy of the programme for the writing festival the narrator is taking part in. I like this use of different text types and true to form these pieces of information do include important clues. The festival programme provides a brief intro to each writer involved as a speaker, revealing how these core characters embody a variety of different crime writing backgrounds.

Last summer I made a decalogue of my own for crime writers and commented on the role of prologues and how they can become rather generic and uninteresting. So, it was brilliant to read the prologue here, which is and is not a prologue, as it is an email from Ernest Cunningham to his editor at Penguin about how he won’t write the prologue suggested:

'It's a hard no on the prologue [...] I know how to do it, of course, the scene you want me to write. An omniscient eye would survey the cabin's destruction, lingering on signs of a struggle: the strewn sheets, the upturned mattress, the bloodied handprint on the bathroom door [...] It just seems overly pointless to me to replay a scene from later in the book merely for the purpose of suspense. It's like saying, "Hey we know this book takes a while to get going, but it'll get there." Then the poor reader is just playing catch-up until we get to the murder.'

Nevertheless, the email does indeed foreshadow what is to come and creates suspense, particularly in the multiple postscripts at the end. I like how this author takes a well-used element of the crime fiction novel and does something fresh and new with it. This is something we need to see more of in modern crime fiction.
This is a fictional story, but I enjoyed how both books in the series have a protagonist who is narrating events in the form of a dramatic memoir, which makes an interesting variation:

'So I'm writing again. Which is good news, I suppose, for those wanting a second book, but more unfortunate for the people who had to die so I could write it.'

The opening of the book directly mentions the rules for writing a sequel, and in a humorous way looks at some of the expectations readers can have of them:

'Besides, everyone hates sequels: they are so often accused of being a pale imitation of what's come before. Being that the last murders happened on a snowy mountain and these ones happened in a desert, the joke's on the naysayers: a pale imitation this won't be, because at least I've got a tan.'

This attention to the art of writing gives the novel a pleasing metafictional hue/tone. The metafictional component adds not just comedy to the narrative, but it also contributes to the overall puzzle:

'If you think you don't already know the rules to writing a murder mystery, trust me, you do. It's all intuitive. Let me give you an example. I'm writing this in first person. That means, in order to have sat down and physically written about it, I survive the events of the book. First person equals survival. Apologies in advance for the lack of suspense when I almost bite the dust in Chapter 28.'

The reader wonders why they are being told this, as it seems like a bold move to declare this at the beginning of the tale. Is the narrator trying to wrongfoot us with deceptive honesty? I like how the narrative assumes an intelligent readership.

Similar to the first book, Ernest Cunningham is a helpful and reliable narrator for the puzzle-solving reader. From the get-go Cunningham tells us:

'I'll tell you that I use the killer's name, in all its forms, exactly 106 times from here […] And so I promise to be that rarity in modern crime novels: a reliable narrator. You can count on me for the truth at every turn.'
Yet one of the many things this author is good at, is using an honest and upfront narrator to still get us looking in the wrong s and to misdirect us because we are on such high alert for clues. Furthermore, the fact we have a narrator who tells us so much beforehand, does not hinder the armchair detective, but instead it galvanises them into action.

I have touched upon the puzzle solving aspect of the book several times now, but this is no dry academic exercise to figure out. The characters are not simple ciphers to be decoded and emotions play their part in how events play out and how the ongoing situation is perceived. One aspect I was interested in was Cunningham’s complex feelings of being an imposter as a writer. Wrapped within these emotions is the trauma Cunningham went through in solving the case in the first book. The narrative does not become bogged down in such issues though. The first death in the book is not treated officially as a murder to begin with and Cunningham is rather on his own in wanting it to be murder. His motivations for this are ambiguous. Part of him wants it to be murder so he has a story to write for his second book, but there is always a drive within him to quickly resolve this situation so that the death rate does not escalate like it did in his first experience of solving a crime. I felt this mixture of motives made him more likeable as the selfishness is ameliorated to a degree by his concern and vulnerability.

Cunningham’s girlfriend also brings in another interesting theme into the narrative – that of the dangers of treating life like a detective story, as it can have damaging effects on relationships. In this novel the egotism of the amateur sleuth creates an interesting thread throughout the plot, increasing emotional investment, and importantly it does not derail the plot. At one point Cunningham writes:

'A Golden Age detective doesn't really need characterisation or motive, so to speak: intellectual curiosity is their raison d'etre. It's enough for them to scratch an itch, to solve a puzzle simply because it's there to be solved. I'd started in that place, merely curious at the piecing together, not invested in what the answer might mean. My motives had broadened - I'd wanted to build my book out of it - and then, Wyatt's death being so much more violent than McTavish's, plot-seeking had given way to fear. But all these motives - curiosity to cashing-in to safety - are selfish ones. It's exactly what Juliette had said about whose story I thought this was. Mine.'

I don’t know if I would wholly agree with the sentiment voiced in the first sentence. I think there are examples from the interwar years which would disagree with it. The narrative arc presented in the quote above has been done before in crime fiction. However, the framing of the crime investigation, as shown at the end of the passage is interesting. It brings out the idea of how amateur sleuthing can have its self-centred aspects.

Throughout the book Cunningham directly addresses the reader and one of the topics which crops up frequently in these moments is reader expectations. I think this is a topic that the writer engages with well and in an amusing way too, as the example below hopefully shows:

‘This may be a surprise, but everyone survives the night. I know that's not how things usually go in a mystery. There's the night before, in which halves of conversations are overheard (check) and the complex motives and backstories of everyone are introduced (check), then everyone retreats, as if Broadway choreographed, to their rooms, doors clicking in unison, only for dawn to rise on a tussle in the night, a blood-stained cabin and a victim. Alas, not here. Not yet.'

Moreover, like in John Dickson Carr’s The Nine Wrong Answers (1952), reader theories and assumptions are openly anticipated:

'Here's what you're thinking: [A] is your current primary suspect, by virtue of her being the only person who's been remotely nice to me so far on this trip. Her lack of incrimination is, ironically, incriminating. She was also the only person not in the room during [B’s] death. [C] is currently lowest on your list of suspects, given that he is the kind of reprehensible cockroach who normally winds up the victim in these books, and you consider him too obvious as a murderer.'

[I replaced character names with letters to avoid giving readers more info than they might like.]

Nevertheless, this mystery is not just a mental duel between the author and reader (although this feature is prominent). It also includes much drama and peril, even though at times the conventions surrounding activities such as dangerous stunts (of a Tom Cruise nature) are subverted for comedic effect. Unlike the first book I was hopeless at solving this second case. I did manage to figure some bits out though. Not that my ineptitude dented my reading enjoyment. Like the first book in the series this is a book I can heartily recommend. It is being published on the 29th February 2024, so don’t forget to make a note in your diary. I look forward to Stevenson’s next book!

Rating: 4.75/5
Source: Review Copy (Michael Joseph via Netgalley)

Thanks to Netgalley & the publishers for the Arc. I find myself a big fan of Mr. Stevenson's work, and absolutely LOVED the prequel to this book "Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone". BIG FAN! When I saw this book was finally on NetGalley, and they granted my requested, I screamed with joy! My husband thought I was crazy for being so excited about a sequel.
....
Unfortunately, yes, unfortunately; I was not a fan of this book at all. I was extremely let down. I didn't mind that his family wasn't a part (besides his weird uncle-and that plotline was a real stretch) as most of them were unlikable. What I did mind was that he basically did the exact same thing he did in the first book. Now, it was on a train; no one was related to him, and he was in a book rut. It was so predictable and often corny. Add his constant complaining about writing a book and being type cast as a certain kind of author. It was a long & tedious read. Reading a sequel about an author writing a sequel about how hard it is to write a sequel only for him to re-write the prequel was a bore. I'm sure people will eat this up, but why would I want to read the same book twice? Life's too short. What else is he going to do next? Ernest on a cruise trying to write a threepeat, struggling, and then people dying so he gets an idea? Whomp.

This was really good. I very much enjoyed the previous book in this series, Everyone in my family has killed someone, because it was so beautifully written, and so deeply meta. I was worried, coming into this one, that it would be hard to recreate what was so effective in the first book. I was somewhat correct: at it's core this had the same Golden-Age-turned-modern vibe and a meta, tongue-in-cheek humour that I really enjoyed, but this instalment wasn't as gritty, the characters weren't quite as well developed, and some of the interactions felt more farcical.

Stevenson has an exceptional talent for description: he is a master of the quirkily effective simile, and the way he layers in detail and energy, colour and texture, comes together to create deeply impactful imagery. I also really enjoy how he builds characters, introducing details like clues, letting our understanding of these characters grow with our suspicion. I do not know is Elmore Leonard's are another set of writing rules he subscribes to, but Stevenson does avoid physically describing his characters, beyond what they're wearing. This isn't a problem, but personally I find it harder to connect to them, because I can't really picture these people in a real way. He is an immensely talented writer, and that is as clear in this book, as it was in the first.

I really enjoyed the story of this one, the characters were not quite as realised as the last, but I don't think that hurt anything. These are all first person, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be as real and fully-fleshed to Ernest as his own family. Like the last, the mystery here was complex, the clues slotting together in a comedic, exciting and multi-faceted denouement. Ernest is a wonderful narrator, he is both actively and self-consciously pro-woman, he bows to superior understanding, he appreciates his role as accidental protagonist. In many ways Ernest is the anti-thesis of the Golden Age male detective, because he sees and understands the value of others, he is Watson to the universe's Holmes. In this second book we see Ernest trying to find his feet in this new space, and trying to unlearn some of his bad-habits, I loved seeing Ernest grow as a character, and the way he found confidence in himself.

A last little issue, this is not a romance. It isn't trying to be a romance. But Ernest's relationship with Juliette is possibly the only weak element of this book. Juliette tells us she is not the stereotypical sidekick girlfriend, Ernest tells us she is talented, she is helpful, they are in love. We as the reader see very little of this, we see, in fact, very little of them together. When they are together they converse, they kiss, they don't really seem any closer than any other two people. Given that we didn't see them get together, and we have no real insight into their day-to-day together, Stevenson needs to give the reader a little more to understand why these two are together at all. His lack of physical description is also an issue. Ernest tells us Juliette is beautiful, but we don't know what she looks like, she is not lovingly described. In fact, the only detail we get is that she is 'a head' taller than him. What I'm saying, is that it's hard to picture this loving couple, when you don'y know what they look like, or why they're in love. I hope this series continues, I would love to read another, but I would hope if it does that their relationship is more fully realised.

Overall, this was a fantastically written, well-formed, exciting mystery novel. I throughly enjoyed reading it, and I will be reading any further instalments.

I really enjoyed everyone in my family has killed someone, so I was really excited to be offered the opportunity to read the next instalment.
This time the setting is aboard a luxury train hosting the 50th Australian Mystery Writers Society festival. The story follows Ernie who, once again, finds himself in the midst of a murder mystery! Using the murder as inspiration for his novel, he takes on the role of an investigator in order to uncover the truth behind the crime.

Another fantastic read! I really hope there is a third instalment in the pipeline

Benjamin Stevenson’s first book, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, was refreshingly unusual. The author directly addressed the reader and swore to abide by the Golden Age of Detection “rules of fair play”, even helpfully giving, in Chapter One, the page references for all the forthcoming deaths in the book. Stevenson’s follow-up book, Everyone on This Train is a Suspect, adopts a similar technique.

The scenario is that the protagonist from the first book, Ernie Cunningham, has been invited to be on a writers’ panel for a literary festival, accompanied by his partner, Juliette. The festival will take place on a luxury train (the Ghan) that travels through Australia from Darwin to Adelaide. Ernie, as he tells us, is proud to be a very reliable narrator. I’d use the adjectives precise and accurate. For example, Ernie keeps reminding us that he promised, in Chapter One, “I use the killer’s name, in all its forms, exactly 106 times from here.” He also tells us there that the case is solved by a comma – and he’s deadly serious: it really is. You can be 100% sure that, if you read the text carefully enough, there will be enough clues for you to identify whodunnit. If you pay attention to the text, you’ll realise the significance of that comma and may deduce the murderer too. I told you Stevenson writes very carefully indeed!

I really enjoyed the author’s approach to writing the book. The emphasis upon abiding by “the rules” and keeping nothing back from the reader is evidence of very careful writing. However, I didn’t try to work it out for myself. I just enjoyed the plotting; the dialogue; and the playful narration. Yes, there are quite a number of characters involved, but several of them are identified in the Festival Program inserted before the Prologue; and they are all quite different personalities. Ernie is a very human hero (I think that’s an appropriate word for him) and freely admits to messing up. There is one scene involving Ernie and Juliette that I had to read between my fingers, thinking “No! He’s not really going to say that, is he?! NO! STOP DIGGING!” but he did – stupid boy!

This is a really well-written whodunnit and I cannot recommend it more highly. Although it’s stylistically similar to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, I felt the plot was quite different. I do hope Benjamin Stevenson finds inspiration for a third, I really do.

#EveryoneOnThisTrainIsASuspect #NetGalley

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

When I saw this book was available to request, I had to request it straight away. I thoroughly enjoyed the first in the series, and this second book was so so good. The style of writing I find quite unique, and even with all the hints and tips throughout the book I still never guessed who the culprit was! A five star read for me.

Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect followed neatly on from the previous novel - Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, and finds main character Ernest, having authored a successful book about the events at the ski resort, taking part in a book festival with a twist: it’s held on a cross-country train journey through Australia.

I really enjoyed the meta elements - wherein the previous book becomes the book the character of Ernest has written - and the setting works well as a Golden Age of Crime homage. While I didn’t find it quite as gripping as the first book, it was still a fun read and recommended for those who enjoy their crime on the cosier side.