Welcome back, friends! This month has finally been a little more chill for me. I put on an event for my work at the start of the month and just celebrated my 29th birthday last week, so it’s been fun! I’ve also read 4 books this month and am sitting at 34 books read for the year. And if you’re keeping track, that’s 10 more than my original goal of 24 and 2 less than my refigured goal of 36. But the book we’re focusing on this month is Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. And to accompany my reading this month, I made a Family Pearl cocktail.
Family Pearl Recipe
3 wedges Pineapple
1/2 barspoon (approx. 2.5ml) Allspice (ground)
2oz White Rum
1/3oz Lime Juice
1/2oz Caramel Syrup or Vanilla Simple Syrup
In a shaker without ice, muddle pineapple and allspice together. Then add ice and all other ingredients before shaking for approximately 10 seconds. Strain into a coupe glass. Before garnishing, add smoke to the cocktail. I chose to smoke my cocktail using a smoke lid and rum maple wood chips, but there are other options you can find online. Then, garnish and enjoy!
Smoke is this month’s secret ingredient. It’s a touch dark given that that’s how the murderer kills people in the story, but it works. I really liked this cocktail! This is definitely not something I would have tried making outside of doing this review, so it was fun to try something different. I liked how all the components meshed together. The spice with the pineapple was delicious, and the smoking added an extra layer to the flavour. This cocktail made me feel warm even though it’s cold (probably the allspice) and felt perfect for winter. Overall, this one was another big success and I totally recommend trying it out with or without smoking.
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone Synopsis
(from book cover)
Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.
I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.
Who was it?
Let’s get started.
Review
“Family is gravity.”
Wow, the title of this book just draws you in. And luckily for me, the book itself held up to the name! Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone was the perfect cozy mystery I was in the mood for. Obviously as a massive fan of Agatha Christie this novel was basically designed to draw me in, and it totally worked. I think this may end up being one of my favourite novels of the year, so without further ado let’s get into it!
I love the concept of this book. It’s a totally unique mystery that I was not expecting. There are tons of nods to the golden age of mysteries (Agatha Christie, Ronald Knox, etc.) but this novel is still very modern. I absolutely loved the fourth wall breaking, reliable narrator Ernest. Honestly, I almost always love metafiction and any sort of breaking of the fourth wall, so it’s not a surprise that this aspect of the novel stood out to me. I also haven’t really read any cozy, classic style mysteries that have done this before, so I thought that was cool!
The writing style mixing these elements of classic mystery and modern metafiction worked so well for this story. It made the novel unputdownable and completely immersive. And the conversational tone of the narrator helped with making this a quick and fun read. Plus, the concept of a reliable narrator is so fun and funny and such a nice break from the ever-persistent trend of the unreliable narrator these days (which I do enjoy but it’s been a lot lately). On that note, the epigraph and prologue hooked me immediately. Although I could not bring myself to dog-ear a page in the book as requested!
As mentioned above, the conversational tone and the meta aspects of this novel made me feel like I knew the narrator. I feel like it’s been forever since I last read a first-person narrative, so it was interesting to get inside of his head and understand him as a character in this way. Beyond that, I found that each character’s voice stood out, which is surprising given how many important characters there are. But seeing them through Ernest’s eyes gave so much insight into each character. Plus, it was interesting to see how Ernest’s perceptions of his family members changed over the course of the novel.
I will say that Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is a bit of a slow-burn at first. Personally, I was gripped from the get-go, but, despite that, I did find it took a while to really start getting into the mystery. However, I love some scene setting and good foreshadowing, so I can’t really complain. I also enjoyed how the clues were presented. Both in how they came up naturally throughout the story and in the itemized list the narrator presents us with at the end (to make sure we as readers can solve it before the big reveal).
And despite having been given a very clear list of the most important clues, I didn’t figure it all out. Granted, I did figure out the bulk of it. But there were still quite a few things that surprised me. I give extra points to any mystery I don’t figure out as it very rarely happens outside of Agatha Christie novels (she’s the queen of mystery for a reason). So, I was so happy that I didn’t completely solve this one. Unfortunately, the aspects I did solve I figured out quite early on, so that was a little disappointing. But that only dropped the rating for this one a little bit.
The main negative thing I’ve seen about this novel seems to come down to people not being able to follow it or assuming it’s a thriller. But in my opinion, if you read a lot of mysteries you can follow this one relatively easily. And if you go into this novel with the mindset of a cozy mystery you won’t be disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I can see why people could find this story convoluted but the narrative style worked to ensure that the reader knew what was important and was following along. So, my opinion on the negative reviews is if you don’t read many mysteries or you’re in the mood for a thriller maybe this one just isn’t for you.
Overall, I loved Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. It was no Agatha Christie, but it honestly came close. The concept and style of this mystery were so unique and just made for a truly fun read. If you don’t like fourth wall breaking metafictions, I’d say steer clear of this one. But if you want a classic style mystery with some modern twists definitely check it out. And as per usual, I highly recommend this month’s cocktail as well. And given that we’re getting into the winter months, I think making this flavourful, warm-feeling cocktail and sitting down with a good book is just what everyone needs.
My Rating:
Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading One By One, The Killings at Kingfisher Hill, and Finlay Donovan is Killing It if you liked this one!
Teghann
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