Stevenson includes an epigraph at the beginning of his mystery novel, listing Ronald Knox's Ten Commandments for Writing Detective Fiction, from 1929. These commandments include: you can't look into the mind of the killer, you must have a reliable narrator, nothing supernatural, and no twins unless the author has prepared you for it. The book opens with two brothers, Ernie and Michael. Michael has run over the body of a man who had been shot. For some reason that will be made available later, Michael strangles the man. Ernie feels the need to call the police on him, which goes against the family. Their father was a small-town crook who was killed while trying to rob a gas station. After his death, the cops believed the family to all be crooked and would harass them with claims that one of them had committed a crime. So, Ernie's telling the cops what Michael had done was the ultimate in betrayal.
Michael has served his three years and is getting out, so Ernie's mother, Audrey's sister, Katherine, decides to hold a family reunion at a mountain lodge in Australia. The list of family members/ suspects includes Katherine's husband, Andy; Marcelo, the stepfather; Sophie, a doctor; Marcelo's daughter; Erin, Ernie's wife; and Lucy, Michael's ex-wife. They all get there a day before Michael arrives. Michael is being driven there by Ernie's wife, Erin. The morning of the day that he arrives, a body is found in the snow of the mountains. No one recognises him. Sophie is asked to examine the dead body by the local police officer. Everyone believes that he died of exposure, but Sophie suspects that he was murdered in the same fashion as the Black Tongue's victims were. While working in the hospital, she came across one of his victims who died within a week, and this dead body had similar markings. When Michael arrives, he is taken into custody by the cop who locks him up in the Drying Room until the detectives can arrive. Yes, the weather is keeping everyone from leaving or the police from coming up. It turns out that Michael got out of jail a day earlier and cannot account for his actions at the time of the murder. More people die in this book.
The title of this book is accurate: everyone in his family has killed someone. Not necessarily murdered, but killed. For example, you find out that Sopie is being sued for malpractice upon the death of a patient. The narrator has a voice that is hard to peg down. Ernie has a voice that is part sarcastic, part cynical, and filled with dark humor. He uses a lot of foreshadowing that you might not discover, and follows the rules faithfully. He gives you a fair shot at solving the mystery, though I didn't. I'm afraid that while he left clues, I didn't follow through on all of them, so the solution was a bit of a surprise to me. This is the first book in an Ernie series that, so far, contains four novels. I really enjoyed Ernie's voice and way of explaining things. It made the novel go along quickly. This book was very intriguing and fun, and I can't wait to read the next Ernie mystery.
Quotes
Infamy is easy to Google.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone p, 20)
It was the type of place where you could lick the windows instead of buying a drink and the sous chef was a microwave.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 20)
The wind was cruel; it found every crevasse in my clothes, invaded and patted me down like I owed it money.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 24)
There's a difference between being watched and being seen.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone,p 35)
Being a mother to fatherless boys is no small feat. Audrey had to be amorphous: the prison warden, the snitchy inmate, the bribe-taking guard, and the compassionate officer all rolled into one.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 35)
One day, you'll realise family isn't about whose blood runs in your veins, it's about who you'd spill it for.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 47)
I'll hold it here to mention that I know some authors are incapable of having a woman throw up without it being the clue to a pregnancy. These same authors seem to think nausea is the only indication of childbearing, not to mention their belief that vomit shoots out the woman's mouth within hours of plot-convenient fertilisation. By some authors, I mean male ones. Far be it from me to tell you which clues to pay close attention to, but Sofie's not pregnant, okay? She's allowed to throw up of her own volition.
Benjamin Stevensonn (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 56-7)
It was easier to tell where my dad had been than to see where he was. The empty armchair in the living room. The plate in the oven. Stubble in the bathroom sink. The empty holsters in a crack in the fridge. My father was footprints, residue.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 73)
Corporate law is just the next evolution of skullduggery: the criminals are the same, they just drive better cars.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 76)
Lucy smokes like she's siphoning gas, so I knew it was her from the short, desperate gulps.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 78)
It wasn't like we lost our spark; it was that we didn't have the tools to make it anymore.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 90)
Andy, Katherine's husband, who wears his wedding ring like some men wear Purple Hearts.
Benjamin Stevenson f(Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 106)
But a bad person who thinks they're a good one--that's what got him into trouble.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 112)
Time was not only borrowed, it was charging interest.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 203)
My editor had crossed out my first go at this sentence and written Hypo=Cold, Hyper= Hot in the margin, in that helpful yet smug voice editors are born with, wishing to both correct you and impart their correctness upon you at the same time.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 224)
The weather was only having a smoke and would return invigorated.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 236)
People have a habit of saying, "That's all I'm saying", when they're saying an awful lot.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 240)
It was as cold as a fridge inside a freezer.
Benjamin Stevenson (Everybody In My Family Has Killed Someone, p 273)
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