Review

Ernest Cunningham, mystery writer and amateur detective, has become a bit famous after a couple of successful cases/books. Just before Christmas, his ex-wife calls him up to the Blue Mountains, where she’s been arrested on suspicion of the murder of her wealthy philanthropist boyfriend. He was stabbed downstairs while she slept… or so she says. How, then, did she get his blood on her face and hands? The plot thickens, with Ernest’s own personal nuisance journalist buzzing around, not to mention the famous magician who’s been engaged to perform at a charity gala by the victim’s foundation. Everyone this Christmas has a secret. But will Ernest be able to find them out in time?

*

Another playful, lighthearted murder mystery by the author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect, both brilliant books that I enjoyed very much. This short (224 pp.) book is very much in the same vein: metafictional, with Ernest as first person narrator, and gleefully tapping into the rules of ‘Christmas specials’ as well as those of murder mysteries. It also makes good use of an advent calendar conceit, with one advent calendar window/clue each chapter. It’s not perhaps as good as the two fuller length books — just doesn’t have the same time to develop — but a perfect Christmas afternoon read. It’s also fun to read a book set in the heat of an Aussie Christmas.

Stevenson specialises in humorous similes of the Raymond Chandler variety (“He looked like a cross between a paratrooper and a one-man marching band. Which made sense because, to him, journalism was war.”) as well as riffs on mystery tropes (“One of the great annoyances of unsatisfying crime novels is when, after the killer is revealed and the murderers replayed, the movements of the villain, on reflection, seem geographically inconsistent [etc.]”). Not everyone enjoys that sort of thing, but I love it.

The book itself is beautifully presented, and I bet the cash registers have been ringing merrily as this book waltzes out of bookshop doors in the pre-Christmas sales. It’s hardback, with a gorgeous white, red and green dust jacket in the style of Stevenson’s earlier books. The endpapers have a cute red and green Christmas pattern (gingerbread men, candy canes, baubles, etc.), and the hardback beneath the dust jacket has an advent calendar theme. Love, love, love. Thank you to Santa (aka me) for this lovely Christmas present! Recommend. Christmas is crime, everyone!

P.S. Publisher’s line: “If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe…”

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Two violent deaths, but not too graphically described – standard adult murder mystery stuff; charity helps drug users turn their lives around, so there are mild mentions of previous drug use and crimes; one character is mentioned as currently using cocaine; some characters mention drinking alcohol in a normal adult manner; a tiny bit of swearing – nothing you’d particularly notice.

Age: 13+ … nothing here that the average teen murder mystery fan couldn’t take in their stride.

*

Stevenson, B. (2024). Everyone this Christmas has a secret. Penguin Books.

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• Cover design by Adam Laszczuk
• Images are used on this blog post under the “Fair dealing for criticism or review” provision of the Commonwealth Copyright Act, 1968.