6 days Ago
Ernest Cunningham is back in Benjamin Stevenson’s newest novel “Everyone This Christmas has a Secret.” You may remember my two earlier reviews of his books. Benjamin Stevenson is an Australian author, and his mysteries take place in Australia.
Cunningham is a mystery fan and an author of how-to books on writing mysteries. He’s back with another novel of his amateur crime solving. Ernest, also known as “Ern,” is preparing for his upcoming nuptials to Juliette and is called by his ex-wife to come to the rescue.
Stevenson’s novels are set in the first-person perspective of Ern. Ern walks us through the murder investigation and promises to hold no secrets like some mystery authors do so that the reader has no hope of solving the crime with the detective. Erin is in jail, having been arrested for the murder of her boyfriend, Lyle Pearse.
Lyle is a philanthropist who helps recovering addicts get clean and develop skills to become productive members of society. Erin woke up to being covered in his blood but doesn’t remember committing the crime. Lyle was found in the kitchen stabbed multiple times with one of their kitchen knives.
The blood droplets lead out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and the knife is laying at the top of the stairs. Ern immediately realizes with Christmas approaching he is now involved in a holiday murder and all the special rules that mystery authors follow for their holiday specials. Ern conveniently tells us at the end of each chapter the clue that he discovered so that we can solve the mystery alongside him: 24 chapters, and 24 clues.
I enjoy these novels immensely. Ern is humorous and normal. He makes mistakes.
He gets injured. He has a good moral compass. This story is more of a novella (not as long as the first two novels), but that makes sense.
It is a holiday novella in all the ways it can be one..
