Week 43 Review: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect

From Goodreads:

For fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz, a fiendishly fun locked room murder mystery from the author of the indie darling Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone —this time set on a train full of mystery writers, agents, editors, and fans.

Ernest Cunningham returns in a deliciously witty locked room (train) mystery.

When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out.

The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty:

the debut writer (me!)

the forensic science writer

the blockbuster writer

the legal thriller writer

the literary writer

the psychological suspense writer

But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

Of course, we should also know how to commit one.

How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?

My Review:
Reading this book was so great! I really enjoyed the first one, it was so clever, and this book was just as good, and given that it's taking place with a bunch of mystery writers, that it got to poke at Ernest's insecurities as a writer, given that he's contracted to write a fiction novel, but just hasn't been able to.

I do think that I should have read the first book in any other format then audio, because I was able to follow along with this story much more easily, and understand what was going on better, since my whole concentration was focused on reading. And boy, was this a mystery! 

This again takes place in a setting that is pretty closed, they're on a train, there's not many opportunities to add to the cast. And what a cast! I loved seeing them all together, with their own motivations and backstories that affecting what's going on, including Ernest and Juliet. And of course Ernest was giving just enough to keep me on the edge to find out what was going to happen next! 

I wouldn't mind having more in this series! I mean, it would suck for Ernest to have more death happen around him to give him something to write about, but the way that this series is written, that the books we're reading are what "Ernest" writes about his experiences, I enjoy it so much and I would love more! 

This was such a great read, and I can't wait to read more by Benjamin Stevenson, whatever comes! 

Author: Benjamin Stevenson
Series: Ernest Cunningham #2
Read: October 21st, 2023
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: Loved the first book, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2023 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Mariner Books
Expected Publication: January 30th 2023

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars