Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect: A Novel

In similar style to his first book, this was a fun read. The placement of clues is engaging. Worth the read.

This was a fun and quirky read though I will admit that for me it really "took off" after page 175 - then it was unputdownable and all the predictions I had made were either validated or later dismissed by surprising twists and reveals! I enjoyed the setting and dry humour as well as the characters' bickering and bantering and it was also great fun reading this whilst onboard two trains - one to Bratislava and subsequently to Budapest! Overall comical and enjoyable - :)

“If you think you don’t already know the rules to writing a murder mystery, trust me, you do. It’s all intuitive. Let me give you an example. I’m writing this in first person… First person equals survival. Apologies in advance for the lack of suspense when I almost bite the dust in chapter 28. The rules are simple: nothing supernatural; no surprise identical twins; the killer must be introduced early on (in fact, I’ve already done that and we’re not even through the first chapter yet, though I expect you may have skipped the prelims) and be a major enough character to impact the plot. That last one’s important.” In the second installment of the series, Ernest Cunningham is back. Fresh from the success of his first, family-oriented murder novel, we join Ernest on a train serving as the setting for a book festival and... (dramatic music)... a MURDER. What's fun about this one is it is equal parts Agatha-Christie-style and Books-About-Books, since Ernest is navigating the publishing world, as well as writing his next novel as the murder mystery unfolds. Another good one.

Comedian Benjamin Stevenson’s novel “Everyone on this Train is a Suspect,” is part two of the Ernest Cunningham trilogy and an ode to the Golden Age of British mystery fiction (think Agatha Christie). Ernest “Ern/Ernie” Cunningham narrates this classic “whodunit” meta-murder mystery. Ernest, an author who “writes books about how to write books,” obeys Ronald Knox’s “10 Commandments of Detective Fiction” in order to “play fair,” with number one being the most important. 1. The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow. Ernest very tongue-in-cheekily boasts that the killer has been revealed before page eight (see photo of the Ghan for the list of suspects) and that their name will be mentioned exactly 106 times, in all its forms. He also lets the reader know that since he is writing this novel in first person, he survives the train. Punctuation is important in this novel, as Ernest says: “comma saves the day.” The fourth wall breaking narrator attends the fiftieth anniversary of the Australian Mystery Writers’ Festival (AMWF) on a famous luxury train (Ghan) honoring writer Henry McTavish. However, when the keynote speaker is murdered, Ernest must solve this mystery before one of them is the next victim. “Seven writers board a train. At the end of the line, five will leave it alive. One will be in cuffs.” The suspects 1. Douglas Parsons- Texan, mourning his partner. 2. Veronica Blythe- chief book critic for the Herald. 3. Simone Morrison- Ernest’s literary agent. 4. S.F. Majors- Psychologist and writer. 5. Wolfgang-Literary artist. 6. Ernest & Juliette. 7. Lisa Fulton-novelist. 8. Alan Royce- forensic science writer. 9. Jasper & Harriet. 10. Wyatt Lloyd -owner of Gemini Publishing. 11. Brooke- President of Morbund’s Mongrels (McTavish fan group). 12. Henry McTavish -keynote and author of Detective Morbund series. How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder? Ernest chronicles more than one murder (three to be exact, although the third may be accidental) and reveals a multitude of other crimes including evidence tampering, blackmail, burglary, and rape. If readers are following along with Ernest’s rules, the killer can be figured out partway through the novel, but thanks to Andy’s phone call on page 258, readers should know who it is without a doubt. But the climatic portion of the novel isn’t so much the killer’s identity, but rather during Ernest’s denouement (a mandatory part of any Golden Age mystery), where everyone’s motives and culpability are mentioned. Something irrelevant that I noticed but was never mentioned: Wolfgang lives in the Blue Mountains with his partner and two dogs (page 26). S.F. Majors also lives in the Blue Mountains with her partner and two dogs (page 27). I thought one of the big reveals in the novel would be the two were in a partnership/married, but nothing about their personal life is mentioned again.