The first installment in what promises to be a witty, fun new detective series. Ernest uses his skill at teaching others how to write mystery novels to help him solve a series of suspicious deaths at his family reunion. The other thing that helps his detective skills is his familiarity with death because, as he plainly states, everyone in his family has killed someone.

Written in a first person narrative, we dive into a book where the author/narrator has no problem breaching the proverbial 4th wall and letting us know he’s fully aware we’re reading his story. The book is divided into parts by family member, which helps that narrator stay focused on the problem at hand. For me, this made the narrative easy to follow and it didn’t have to do any flipping back to remind myself of various details like I sometimes do when reading a detective novel.

A little predictable for someone who loves to read this type of book but that did not make it any less enjoyable.