Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

Have read all his books he’s written so far. Love the way he writes. Hope another comes out soon.

Following the release of his novel Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, writer Ernest Cunningham finds himself in the company of an eclectic group of fellow authors trekking across Australia by train. The list of attendees is in the blurb and includes Juliette, the woman from the ski resort in EIMFHKS, who is now Ernest’s love interest.Ernest is facing his “sophomore slump,” an inability to write a follow-up novel. He needs inspiration, and as tends to happen, he gets it when one of the train’s most prominent passengers bites it. Driven by morbid curiosity, a need for his next plot, and perhaps out of self-preservation, Ernest is, again, on the case to identify the killer among them.Ernest offers readers his version of a fair-play mystery, detailing the rules of writing mystery fiction in the way Scream plays off horror tropes: the killer’s name appears a certain number of times, this many will live and this many will die, all will be introduced in the first act, there’s a puzzle, certain people cannot be guilty, Juliette among them, but who did it? And why?As a writer, I found this to be a fun follow-up novel. Much is made about the value of literary fiction, the disdain for pulp, advances, pen names, and how the publishing machine works—all of which are critical to the plot—but I feel lean toward writers as readers. I didn’t put the clues together. I’m lazy like that and rarely do, but if I had a shot at ever guessing one, Ernest gave me most of what I needed to do so. I enjoy the author’s conversational style, Ernest’s wit, and his propensity for landing in the middle of messes. I will definitely be picking up book three around Christmastime (since it’s themed). Highly recommended for readers of locked room mysteries, especially set on trains, and for fans of Benjamin Stevenson’s writing. A solid second in the series!

Like the author’s first book, this one reminds you that it will adhere to classic mystery rules. I really liked the train setting in Outback Australia and the banter and sniping among the book authors. Although the author gives you a couple of hints and summarizes new information, I did not get the correct murderer by the end of the book. The Kindle version also has the first four chapters of the author’s next book in the series (a Christmas mystery). I look forward to reading it too and seeing whether the main characters does get married.

I thought Juliette was the killer for nearly the whole book. I had correctly guessed the killer in the first book long before the reveal and thought that I was doing even better here. I figured she had many motives and was possibly doing either a twisted favor for Ernest or was secretly the Harley Quinn to the estranged brother killer from book one. I was wrong and didn't figure out the killer until the bottle scene. Oh well, It was a fun read and made me laugh a bunch. I look forward to book three.

A fun and clever locked-room-on-a-train mystery....my favorite kind of mystery. Well, a locked-room mystery is my favorite, it doesn't matter where it's set. Plus there's quirky characters, a reliable(?) narrator, red herrings, the revealing of whodunit and why, and the epilogue. I enjoyed it all.I haven't read the other books in this series, but I'll be checking them out.Read in Kindle Unlimited