Finding the killer(s)

An awkward family reunion at a ski lodge goes ­horribly wrong when a corpse turns up on the snowy slopes. The catch: The person looks like he had burned to death. Ernest Cunningham, a how-to writer for aspiring mystery novelists and one of the least favored family members, becomes a makeshift detective with the help of bumbling Officer Crawford.

All clues point to the Black Tongue, a serial killer who leaves haunting calling cards. Everyone has a secret, and Ernest uncovers pieces of his family’s crime-ridden history. In the prologue, Ernest pledges to be a “reliable narrator” with no trickery, and to prove it he details every page where a murder will happen. He keeps his word—almost—every time.

These elements work together to make Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Mariner Books 2023) a real page-turner. While there are some suggestive remarks and two characters commit adultery, there are, as promised, “no sex scenes.”

First published in Australia, the novel was a hit there and in the United Kingdom, and it was highly anticipated in the United States. HBO has already acquired film/TV rights.

But before packing this book into beach totes, readers should know that some characters use bad language and, a few times, take the Lord’s name in vain. Stevenson also sounds like a feminist: “I decided there’s nothing sadder than a man trying to stick up for a woman who can stick up for herself.” Toward the end of the novel, one of the characters lies so that she won’t have to have children with her husband, but the narrator seems to herald the deception as a kind of “her body, her choice” judgment.

Due to Stevenson’s experience as an award-winning comedian, the book is funny and full of wink-wink asides to the reader: “You’ve read these kinds of books before.” In Chapter 14.5, Ernest pauses to recap everything important. Though Stevenson includes clever moments and leans into murder-mystery stereotypes (a snowstorm trapping guests at the ski lodge with the murderer, etc.), the writing is shallow in places with phrases like “family is gravity.” Whatever that means.