Author: Benjamin Steveson
Genre: Murder Mystery
Format: Hardback
Pages: 371
As the title says, everyone in Ernie's family has killed someone. Almost any way you could unalive someone is presented in this book in one way or another. There is also a cheat sheet in the introduction letting you know how many murders, and at which point in the book they will appear. What the narrator, and author, leave out, is when exactly those murders take place.
The timeline on this jumps from past to present but does so in a way that flows well with the plot as a whole. Making every single jump to the past important to the plot in some shape and form. Some of those forms are minor to the plot, almost throwaway moments to explain how a person murders someone else. However, by the end of the book, you realize those little moments were probably the most important.
I liked Ernie as the narrator for this. He's honest about being unreliable in places because at the time he didn't know what he knew now. I always enjoy little fourth-wall breaks here and there. I think using a first-person narrative was the best option for this book. It gave the story more life and made it feel more personal for one of the characters. And while I can't say I'm Ernie's biggest fan, he's a pretty good detective.
The author does an amazing job of connecting all of the points by the end of the book. I don't think there was a single plot hole by the end of the book. The best part I was able to nail who the serial killer was. Called from the minute their story was told. What I didn't unravel was the what exactly was those photos.
That was a nice little twist at the end that I did not see coming.
All in all, this was a great read, and I've already picked up the second book in this series. I liked Stevenson's play on the stranded in the middle of nowhere murder mystery trope. So I'm even more excited to see what he does with the murder on a train trope!
The timeline on this jumps from past to present but does so in a way that flows well with the plot as a whole. Making every single jump to the past important to the plot in some shape and form. Some of those forms are minor to the plot, almost throwaway moments to explain how a person murders someone else. However, by the end of the book, you realize those little moments were probably the most important.
I liked Ernie as the narrator for this. He's honest about being unreliable in places because at the time he didn't know what he knew now. I always enjoy little fourth-wall breaks here and there. I think using a first-person narrative was the best option for this book. It gave the story more life and made it feel more personal for one of the characters. And while I can't say I'm Ernie's biggest fan, he's a pretty good detective.
The author does an amazing job of connecting all of the points by the end of the book. I don't think there was a single plot hole by the end of the book. The best part I was able to nail who the serial killer was. Called from the minute their story was told. What I didn't unravel was the what exactly was those photos.
That was a nice little twist at the end that I did not see coming.
All in all, this was a great read, and I've already picked up the second book in this series. I liked Stevenson's play on the stranded in the middle of nowhere murder mystery trope. So I'm even more excited to see what he does with the murder on a train trope!
HAPPY READING!!
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