Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect
Ratings34
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings34
Average rating4.3
From the bestselling author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a fiendishly fun locked room (train) murder mystery that "offers a tip of the hat to the great Agatha Christie novel while at the same time being a modern reinvention of it" (Nita Prose) -- perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz
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, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.
Of course, we should also know how to commit one.
How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?
Featured Series
3 primary booksErnest Cunningham is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2022 with contributions by Benjamin Stevenson.
Reviews with the most likes.
I think it is generally hard to write a very good sequel. Especially for a book that is quite inventive, funny and a very good mystery all in one. So, I was wary of this sequel and I was more critical with this book while I read it.
Suffice to say, I absolutely loved this one.
Ernest Cunningham is back. He lays out the rules. He hands us all the clues. And is more than happy for us to solve it with him.
Ernest - I mean Benjamin Stevenson - has given us a lovely new narrative that builds on the previous story, with a fresh new mystery and new characters. He utilises the classic mystery tropes and, just as the previous one, puts his own twist on them. There are enough red herrings to go around, but one thing is for sure, Stevenson provides us with all the clues necessary to solve the case.
(Let me say, I did think I solved the case, but as he was doing the explaining, I realised I had gotten it all wrong and had called for the red herrings.)
I really liked this one - engaging mystery, humour, and some delightfully frustrating characters. It didn't quite have the emotional impact of the first book, but I guess that makes sense in the context. Though I did have fun exploring Ernest's relationship and seeing just how how much of an idiot he is - very enjoyable.
Unfortunately, like the first one, I found there to be way too much info dumped on me right at the end. Too much for me to ever guess it all, even if I can guess whodunnit based off vibes. Which is kind of annoying, because Stevenson is good at drip feeding clues - I just wish we got more of those big revelations throughout the book, so it wasn't such a leap to the solve at the end.
I hope he writes another one.
4.5 ⭐️
Ich fands sehr erfrischend, der Schreibstil unterscheidet sich sehr von anderen Autor*innen in dem Genre.
Was on track to rate this a 3-3.5 until the ending, which bumped it up. There were parts in this which dragged a little, and I did have to flip to the beginning to distinguish between characters (which I am so thankful that was included). The ending answered all my questions and cleverly threw away some red herrings, making for a surprising reveal. The last few pages added an unexpected zinger, and really just had me so impressed with the cleverness this entire book is written in. This is a series (author) to watch, it is so much fun and still meta unlike anything I've read. Waiting patiently for the next one!
