4.25* 

Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph/Penguin Random House for a digital review copy of "Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

I wanted to check out this sequel to Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone because I liked the fresh take and highly meta approach taken in that first book. At times it didn't work for me but this time I would say that Benjamin Stevenson has nailed the approach and narrative voice and for me it was better than the first book!

In this second instalment, set shortly after the first, our fourth wall-breaking narrator, Ernest, has been invited to a crime writers convention on a luxury train travelling the length of Australia. However, amongst the myriad of writers and fans he finds himself caught up in effectively a locked room murder mystery when one of the keynote speakers is killed and it's a race against time to solve the case before more victims are claimed.

I really enjoyed the case, the perspectives and the secrets unravelled in this story and felt that Ernest's character was much better balanced this time. Maybe it's because I read the first one and was used to it, but this time the direct commentary felt less jarring to me as a reader and I definitely felt more invested in keeping up with the clues and mini spoilers provided throughout. Despite everything being given to us I still didn't guess the who or the why and felt very satisfied with the denouement.

My main reason for a 4.25 instead of higher is that I did feel that the story was a little drawn out in places and for me took a while to get going. By the half way mark I was fully all in but it took a little while for me to get there. Despite that I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and I will definitely be reading more - after all, after struggling with his second novel how on earth is Ernest going to handle a trilogy, I'm so intrigued?!!

Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect is released on February 29th 2024