Family is not whose blood runs in your veins, it's who you's spill it for.
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone is a 2022 novel by Benjamin Stevenson.
Ernie Cunningham is attending a family reunion, but he would rather not be there. Three years ago, his brother Michael was sent to prison for murder—-on his testimony. Now Michael is going to be a free man and welcomed back by his family—-but Ernie is persona non grata.
To make matters worse, the reunion is being held at an isolated Australian ski resort. The day before Michael is supposed to arrive, a dead body is found in the snow nearby. Thanks to Michael's crime and other events in the past, the Cunninghams already have a bad reputation with the police throughout the entire country. It isn't long before Michael becomes the chief suspect.
Ernie, who is extremely knowledgeable about crime fiction tropes (and even has written a how-to book for would-be mystery writers) realizes that it is up to him to solve the murder. He has plenty of suspects, because as a Cunningham and the title of the book tells us, everyone in his family has killed someone.
Stevenson's sequel novel Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect, with Ern returning as narrator/sleuth and with continued twisting within the rules of crime fiction, was published in 2023.
The book provides examples of the following tropes:
- Book Ends: The novel begins with Michael strangling a man in cold blood and telling his brother Ern "He just stopped breathing." It ends with Ern saying those exact same words—-"He just stopped breathing."—-after kneeling over the body of the killer. It is strongly implied that he has done the same thing.
- Clueless Deputy: Officer Crawford is clearly not cut out for a murder investigation and really needs the help of more experienced colleagues, who never show up. The real reason Crawford seems so out of his depth is that he's not a real policeman, but a serial killer who has assumed the identity of the REAL Officer Crawford.
- Direct Line to the Author: The story is described as a "real" event which is being published as a "true crime" non-fiction book. Ern will frequently make reference to his editors who give him helpful definitions and what information has to be redacted. There is even a fake list of Ernest Cunningham's books available on Kindle at Amazon.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: A murder taking place in an isolated mountain setting with lots of snow. Knowledgeable mystery fans who recognize the inspiration may have an advantage in guessing who the killer is.
- Fair-Play Whodunnit: Not only does this mystery follow the rules established by Ronald Knox in 1928, it posts those very rules at the beginning of the book. Everything that the narrator Ern needs to know to solve the mystery is available to the reader.
- First-Name Basis: Marcelo is only Ern's stepfather, so it is only to be expected that Ern only calls him "Marcelo", but it shows just how estranged he is from his family that he only calls his mother by her first name, "Audrey." Ern is actually on warmer terms with Marcelo than Audrey. Averted in the case of his brother who not only still calls Audrey "Mom", but Marcelo "Dad."
- Greater-Scope Villain: Edgar and Siobhan McAuley. It is never made clear whether their daughter Rebecca died as the result of an accident, negligence, manslaughter, or homicide, but their attempts to cover up her death with a fake kidnapping ultimately resulted in every major death in this book, even if they aren't revealed to be the killer.
- Infallible Narrator: Sort of. Ern is not deliberately lying to the reader, but some of what he says is misleading. In the introduction, he tells the reader that he everything he says is true as he knew it at the time. Also, the reader has to pay close attention to Exact Words.
- A good example of this takes place early in the book when Juliette, the proprietor of the ski resort where the Cunninghams are staying is introduced. Ern teases her as a potential love interest when he writes "You won't hear about us locking lips for another 89 pages, when I'm naked, if you're wondering." It turns out by locking lips, she was giving him CPR after he fell into a frozen lake. His clothes were removed to save him from hypothermia. Also, because his heart briefly stopped, Ern counts himself as a murder victim. That said, Ern and Juliette do end up together in the epilogue.
- Meaningful Name:
- Officer Darius Crawford. Darius was the king of Persia who originated the torture method used by the Black Tongue to kill his victims.
- Ernest: Ern constantly reassures the reader that he is telling the truth (he is "earnest") and that he is a reliable narrator.
- Katherine Millot: An anagram for "I am not the killer."
- Morning Sickness: Both lampshaded and averted by Ern after Sofia throws up. He reassures the reader that this does not mean that she is pregnant. However, it does turn out to be a symptom that she is suffering from withdrawal from oxycodone addiction.
- Never Trust a Title: In the introduction, Ern lists a number of his relatives whom he claims has killed somebody. He doesn't lie, but there are several grains of salt.
- "My Ex-Wife:" Erin's mother died during childbirth, and her abusive father never let her forget that he considered her responsible for her death. In addition to Erin still considering herself having killed her mother, this ultimately would lead to the death of her marriage when Ern discovered she was secretly taking birth control pills and hiding correspondence from a fertility clinic.
- "My Mother:" Audrey accidentally leaves her three kids in her car after going to work on a hot day. Ern wakes up in the hospital and believes that his brother Jeremy has died on heat stroke. He's actually been kidnapped by his father's gang, as a warning to Audrey not to turn over incriminated photos that they believe her husband possessed. She is led to believe that Jeremy is killed by the gang, but instead he is taken to a foster home. Ern does nevertheless believe that what happened eventually led his death at the end of the book.
- "My Stepfather:" To protect Michael from the Sabers, Marcelo sabotages the truck where Michael has brought crucial evidence so that it rolls into the lake. He does not know that Ern would be inside the truck at the time. Ern's heart briefly stops after being immersed in freezing water, so he counts himself as a death, even though he is revived by CPR.
- "My Uncle/Me:" Obviously both Andy and Ern could not have killed The Black Tongue/"Officer Crawford"/Jeremy at the end. However, Andy's actions were clearly done to save his wife and were justifiable in the eyes of the law. However, Jeremy was no longer a threat at the end, so if Ern does kill him in cold blood, he is likely to go to prison. For this reason, the book does not describe his actions, and he admits he is acting on the advice of his lawyers.
- Only Known by Their Nickname:
- The Black Tongue: the serial killer, based on his modus operandi of suffocating his victims in ash, which colors their tongues black.
- Green Boots, the anonymous murder victim of Black Tongue. The name comes from a famous corpse left on the slopes of Mount Everest. It turns out that Green Boots is the real Officer Crawford, whose identity Jeremy Cunningham has assumed.
- The Reveal: The incriminating photos that the Sabers were so desperate to acquire show men carrying Rebecca ]McAuley's body out of her home with her father Edgar's face clearly visible. In hindsight, it's clear that there was never any kidnapping at all and the Sabers were hired to cover up the real cause of death.
