Linzie (suspenseisthrillingme)'s Reviews > Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

Author and self-professed knowledgeable crime connoisseur Ernie Cunningham has been told in no uncertain terms to be present at this year’s annual family reunion. His excuses may have worked in the past, but this year is different. Ernie’s big brother, Michael, will be joining them for the first time in over three years now that his prison sentence for the murder of stranger, Alan Holton, is over. And to make matters worse, in the Cunningham family’s eyes, the only reason that Michael found himself locked up to begin with was down to Ernie. For Ernie witnessed Michael kill a man in cold blood. And, despite their sibling bond, Ernie quickly turned his brother in to the police. After all, murder was not something so easily overlooked. At least for Ernie, that is.

Arriving at the isolated mountain resort, Ernie quickly feels the cold shoulder of many of his family members. Some who even refuse to acknowledge him. But things quickly go down hill when he wakes up the next morning to learn that someone has been found dead out on the snow covered golf course behind the resort. The unknown man has apparently succumbed to hypothermia, at least that’s what most of the family assumes. That is, however, until Ernie’s surgeon stepsister, Sophia, takes one look at the body and notices a bizarre detail: ash not only covering the man’s face, but clogging his airway. The only explanation is that he must have died by fire. What is even odder is that the snow surrounding his body shows no signs of melting and there’s not a single burn mark to be seen.

With the detectives unable to make it to the resort thanks to an impending winter storm, the local policeman, Officer Darius Crawford, must handle the case without backup. But the longer the dead man goes unidentified, the more it appears to Ernie that Crawford may not be up to the task. Instead, he decides that only he, with his superior knowledge of crime, will be capable of putting the pieces together to solve the case. But will he be able to successfully stop a the culprit from getting away with murder? Or will the dead man only be the first in a long line of victims that could even including Ernie himself?

Wholly original with a dark, gothic vibe, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone was nevertheless a somewhat mixed bag for me: some extreme highs followed by several instances of great frustration. With a truly clever, mind-boggling plot that was as complex as it was convoluted, the Golden Age of crime style tale followed Ernie, the standard smarter-than-police narrator, as he worked out the who’s, the what’s, and the why’s.

The rub of this, however, existed in the fact that it often felt like Ernie was also smarter than me and I found myself rather befuddled and confused more times than I’d like to admit. This also meant that the overly complicated plot obscured the many twists, which caused them to land somewhat flat (there were no gasps of surprise, for example). Don’t get me wrong, each time a new clue was revealed, the entire hypothesis was laid out for the reader, but it often seemed to be written in code and I may have had to work a little harder than I would’ve liked to follow along here and there.

Despite this, I found myself thoroughly hooked by this book. Told in a colloquial, conversational manner that was laced with deliciously dry, dark humor, this twisted family had more secrets and lies than words in the dictionary. To top it off, there was also a wonderfully high body count, a suspect list longer than the phone book, and theories for days. Even the layout of the book was ingenious, which should be the overarching word for this novel, by the way.

What I loved the most (besides the giggle-worthy oft sarcastic quips), however, was how the reader was taken on a beguiling journey alongside Ernie as he methodically worked to untangle the clues. Better still, the back-and-forth theorizing about who was behind the deaths kept me on tenterhooks until the bitter, bitter end when the evil-doer is finally revealed…or most evil-doer that is. In the same breath, however, the dénouement felt anything but dragged out. Just properly and methodically organized to get the best bang for the buck as each new detail was slotted into place.

Last thoughts? Let’s see… for all of you decidedly eager armchair detectives, this novel is going to be one hard nut to crack and I would be surprised if you’re able to put it together before Ernie lays it all out (after all I took notes and still was unable to). Addictive, shrewdly written, appropriately over-the-top without feeling over-the-top, slowly ratcheting suspense, and a delightfully eccentric family, this was a perfectly updated, modern Agatha Christie-like story, which was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. So, if the premise sounds at all intriguing, snap this one up before the soon-to-be HBO TV series comes out! Because the twists and turns of this superlative mystery will give you the ride of your life. Rating of 4 stars.

Trigger warning: infidelity, fertility issues, suicide, drug addiction, mention of: child abuse, drunk driving