★ 11/27/2023
Stevenson’s brilliant and creative second closed-circle mystery featuring author Ernest Cunningham (after Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone) toys with golden age mystery tropes while delivering its own hugely satisfying whodunit. Cunningham’s published account of the murders detailed in the previous book has netted him an invitation to the 50th Australian Mystery Writers’ Festival. He’s been asked, along with five much-better-known authors, to be a panelist aboard the Ghan, a luxury train whose route bisects the Australian desert. Soon after the journey starts, one of the writers turns up dead, and each of the train’s other panelists—including Cunningham himself—becomes both suspect and sleuth. As the investigation unfolds, Stevenson plays scrupulously fair: as in the previous book, Cunningham addresses readers directly, promising “to be that rarity in modern crime novels: a reliable narrator.” Even before the first murder, he reveals that a comma will be a crucial clue, and that there will be more than one victim. Dashes of humor (while introducing his fellow panelists, Cunningham pokes wicked fun at the publishing industry) light the way as Stevenson charges toward the deliciously clever final reveal. This is another triumph from a gifted genre specialist. Agent: Pippa Mason, Curtis Brown. (Jan.)
"Sparkling with wit and witticisms about the world of writers and writing, Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect offers a tip of the hat to the great Agatha Christie novel while at the same time being a modern reinvention of it. Leave it to Stevenson to make high-jinx and murder deviously good fun." — Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest
“Fun and diverting, with a plethora of red herrings.” — New York Times Book Review
"Another clever spoof of the mystery genre." — Washington Post
“Witty.. Readers should find the ride on the Ghan well worth the price of the ticket.” — Wall Street Journal
"Clever and twisty....an intoxicating murder mystery puzzle." — Seattle Times
"An outstanding and exceptional mystery from start to finish . . . everything fans would hope for. It’s a spectacular sequel, every twist and turn as fun and fiendish as the first novel." — Jane Harper
"Clever, satisfying, impossible to put down and gloriously inventive. It's fantastic. Books like this are why we love reading." — Stuart Turton, author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
“A fresh take on the classic whodunnit. In developing Ernest Cunningham, Stevenson has brought a modern-day Poirot to the mystery scene, and his newest novel is not one to miss.” — CriminalElement.com
“Stevenson’s brilliant and creative second closed-circle mystery toys with golden age mystery tropes while delivering its own hugely satisfying whodunit… This is another triumph from a gifted genre specialist… deliciously clever.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Stevenson rivals his golden age models in his willingness to sprinkle every scene with clever clues, outdoes them in setting up a dazzling series of false conclusions, and leaves them in the dust for modern-day fans with an appetite for self-reflexiveness.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Perfectly structured and suspenseful...Readers who wondered whether Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone was lightning in a bottle, whether the author could recreate that feeling of freshness, now have their answer, and it’s a resounding Yes.”
— Booklist
“A delightful locked-room mystery that is rife with references to classic detective fiction. What sets this novel apart, though, is Ernest’s unique voice and humor … a meticulously plotted and enjoyable mystery that lives up to the high standards set by Stevenson’s first mystery.”
— BookPage
“This is just as cleverly written as the previous book, with wit, laugh out loud moments and humorous asides and observations on the nature of writers and festivals. … If you enjoy meta fiction and Stevenson’s previous novel featuring Ernest, then you will surely enjoy going along on this wild and deadly train trip with him.” — Mystery & Suspense Magazine
“A witty twist on classic whodunits… Stevenson not only ‘plays fair,’ he plays the mystery game very, very well.” — Washington Post on Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
"An ingenious and hilarious meta-murder mystery." — Sunday Times (London), best crime of the year on Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
“I absolutely loved it. Utterly original, hugely entertaining, and a must-read for every fan of the mystery genre. What an exceptionally fresh, smart, funny book—I’ve never read anything like this before.” — Jane Harper on Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
“Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is a jaunty and clever mystery with unexpected twists. Absolutely not to be missed.” — Karin Slaughter
★ 2023-11-17
The 50th annual Australian Mystery Writers’ Festival, taking place aboard a long-distance train bound from Darwin to Adelaide, is punctuated by snarky dialogue, murder, and a zillion inventive misdirections.
“Why [am] I here?” wonders Ernest Cunningham, whose struggles to write his second book are interrupted by his invitation as a headliner at the festival-on-wheels, which will turn into the setting of his new book. Thriller writer S.F. Majors, former forensic pathologist Alan Royce, and artsy one-named Wolfgang are all much better known than he is. So is Lisa Fulton, even though she hasn’t published a novel in 20 years. And of course Henry McTavish, the bestselling creator of Detective Morbund, is in a different league altogether. After making a series of disingenuous promises about future developments—since he’s narrating the tale in the first person, for instance, he will definitely survive, and the killer’s name will be mentioned exactly 106 more times going forward—Ernest gets down to business with a combination of zeal and obliviousness. True to his word, he chronicles more than one murder, reveals a multitude of other felonies from burglary to rape, links the current mystery to a much older case, and sets the stage for a series of escalating reveals, one of them interrupted so many times that the self-anointed detective complains, “There’s not normally this much heckling in a denouement.” Stevenson rivals his golden age models in his willingness to sprinkle every scene with clever clues, outdoes them in setting up a dazzling series of false conclusions, and leaves them in the dust for modern-day fans with an appetite for self-reflexiveness.
No, it’s not for everyone—but if you want to read a supercharged meta-pastiche like this, this is exactly the one to read.
