Everyone on This Train is a Suspect DEALS
Everyone on This Train is a Suspect, published in 2023, is a sequel to Benjamin Stevenson’s award-winning novel Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone for which there will be an HBO limited series television adaptation releasing soon.
I really enjoyed Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone and had high expectations of this sequel in the Earnest Cunningham series. And Benjamin Stevenson delivered again! Everyone on This Train is a Suspect, is a fresh new take on the Agatha Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express.
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Summary
Ernest Cunningham has been invited by the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society to a crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous luxury train that travels between Darwin and Adelaide, the heart of the Australian desert outback. There are six writers on board:
- A debut writer (Ernest)
- A forensic science writer
- A blockbuster writer
- A legal thriller writer
- A literary writer
- A psychological suspense writer
If one of the six of us was to die right now, you’d have five suspects who all know how to get away with murder.
When one of the writers is found murdered, the remaining five writers turn into five detectives, using their expertise to try and solve the crime. While the mystery writers may be able to solve a crime, it goes without saying that they might also know how to get away with it.
Having published his first novel, Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone, which was more of a memoir, Ernest has been looking for inspiration for a second book. It seems he won’t have to look any further now that he’s involved in another murder investigation.
Strengths
The narration style used by Benjamin Stevenson for this series is a fourth wall break, whereby the narrator addresses the audience directly. I really enjoyed this style of narration as it gave a sense of involving the audience as the mystery is being slowly unraveled. It makes you feel like you’re part of the story.
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The narrator, Earnest, also discusses the rules of the genre with the reader, which helps give a more in-depth understanding of the work. The pacing was good throughout the novel, just like in the first book in this series. There were plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing at who the killer might be.
If you think you don’t already know the rules to writing a murder mystery, trust me, you do. It’s all intuitive. I’m writing this in first person. First person equals survival. The rules are simple: nothing supernatural; no surprise identical twins; the killer must be introduced early on and be a major enough character to impact the plot. To prove the point, I’ll tell you that I use the killer’s name, in all its forms, exactly 106 times from here.
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While I enjoyed the ‘breaking the fourth wall’ narration style, some readers might prefer a more traditional take on storytelling. But if you are a fan of Anthony Horowitz’s Detective Hawthorne series, then you’ll also like this series by Benjamin Stevenson.
Another thing that readers might not appreciate is that there were quite a few characters, which always makes it a little confusing trying to keep track of and distinguish them all.
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Key Themes And Takeaways
This novel highlights how the confines of a locked-room mystery can expose pettiness and deep-seated grudges in people and how a long-held grudge can be a motive for a crime.
Another takeaway for the reader was the humorous and insightful look we get into the lives of key players in the publishing industry, including authors and literary agents.
Verdict
This is a cozy closed-room murder mystery on a train with a fourth-wall-breaking narration style that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Anthony Horowitz’s Detective Hawthorne series.
*Disclosure: We only recommend books that we love and would read ourselves. This post contains affiliate links, as we are part of the Amazon Services LCC Associate Program and others, which may earn us a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
The Review
Everyone on This Train is a Suspect
Quick summary
PROS
- Good pace
- Fourth-wall break narration
- Re-invention of a classic
CONS
- Too many characters
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