Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone

As the title suggests, this book is chaotic. An oddly fun kind of chaotic, but chaotic all the same.    It can't be stressed enough that everyone in Ernest Cunningham's family has killed someone including Ernie himself. With a narrator who breaks the fourth wall (and an author who knows which format of the book you're reading...) and delivers his testimony with dark wit, it's a good time. Unfortunately, I couldn't follow a dang thing.    I blame a hectic month for my inability to retain any of the information being presented more than the book, but I just kept forgetting I was reading it. By the time I got back to it, I'd forgotten where I was. The writing/delivery is super fun and maybe if I'd chosen the audiobook I would have been more engaged. Wrong time for me I guess, but the hype is understandable. 

Eye-catching title, eh? Murder mystery with humor and lots of family drama. Dark comedy.

The gimmick is that the narrator is sort of an expert on the rules of conventional mystery writing and he uses his “knowledge” to solve several connected mysteries from his family's infamous history along with a “locked room” (more like an isolated resort) murder in their present.

It's entertaining and well structured. Some things are a tad implausible but nothing to spoil the overall experience.

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone is a fun satirical Aussie murder mystery. Perfect for fans of the genre, particularly those who delight in the works of the Golden Age. This story is told from the prospective of Ernest Cunningham, an author of how-to guides for mystery writers (despite not having written a mystery himself), begrudgingly attending a family reunion in the mountains. As you can imagine...a body appears and the locked room mystery commences. What distinguishes this novel from the many others like it is how self-referential and meta it is throughout. Ern constantly refers to Knox's rules, mystery classics, and even earlier and future passages in the book to continually remind the reader that they are, in fact, reading a mystery. While I can see how some readers might get annoyed by the frequent winks, nudges, and explanations; I marveled at the author's command of the style and form to be able to deconstruct it in a subversion of the normal mystery style, without sacrificing too much suspense. With that said, the middle dragged a bit and the plot got a little confusing in my opinion. Overall, I enjoyed this one and would likely listen to other books from this author, though I don't think it quite reached the standard of the golden age mysteries it frequently alludes to. 

all this bla bla about following the rules and it had a stupid “he wasn't actually dead lol!” loophole twist at the end. like for fucks sake

I should probably mark what I'm about to say on the calendar- Wait for the HBO series on this one. Personally, this book works too hard to be clever and what the kids these days like to call meta. As in- so self aware that he's a writer telling the reader that he's writing a book. And boy does that cutsieness get tedious in written form. I think it will be less so on the screen. Plus, there were many women in the protagonist's life that were hard for me to keep straight. HBO will make this a non-issue. While I was interested in the crimes- both the 30 year old one and the modern day one- overall this story just wasn't for me.

A lot going on here in what ends up being big, dramatic (Family) ways. I was supremely confused, perhaps because I read 3 books at a time and this requires more devotion.

To be honest, the story had a lot going on and was confusing. However, where it shined was the writing style. I have never read anything so meta, self-aware, and fun. My favorite parts of this book were the breakdown of the fourth wall. Such a unique way of storytelling. About halfway through there was a chapter just telling the reader the most important points and all the players (there were a lot) in the story. This was the point in the story where I felt the most confused and this little bit helped so much, and basically solidified a 4* at least no matter what happened. Loved the reveal at the end , it was surprising and done so well. Classic detective-style in the parlor. The setting was really fun, you could feel the same cold as the characters. I am so excited for book 2, and it's on a train! It can't come soon enough. Hats off to the author, this was so unique and absolutely brilliant. 

This is one of those fun mysteries in which you're aware that everyone is capable of the crime, but never quite sure who did it. Unfortunately it‘s just a bit too long for the content and starts to feel like it's dragging around the halfway point.

It reads as though it could be easily adapted into a miniseries, which might be a better medium for this story to be through.

#netgalley

Witty, fun organization, enjoyable narrator

Many thanks to Libro.fm and the publisher for the audio arc!

This was very clever! I liked the author's play on classic mystery tropes with a fresh twist. Lots of fun to listen to, would definitely recommend to fans of the genre who also appreciate a twist and some humor along with their murders.

i liked the start but the last half of the book didn't do it for me

i loved how the story adapts to what form you're reading it in, definitely recommend the audiobook for this one!