Publisher: Penguin Australia (Hardcover – 22 October 2024)

Series: Ernest Cunningham – Book Three

Length: 229 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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One of my favourite Australian authors, the clever and eternally funny Benjamin Stevenson, returns with the third book in his Ernest Cunningham series, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret.

Over the last few years, one of the most impressive Australian crime fiction authors has been the exceptional Benjamin Stevenson.  After a successful career as one half of musical comedy duo The Stevenson Experience, Stevenson has successfully made the move to crime fiction author with several amazing books.  I was a big fan of his debut novel, Greenlight (also released as Trust Me When I Lie and She Lies in the Vines), which Stevenson expertly followed up a year later with the great sequel Either Side of Midnight.  While these initial books were really good, for me Stevenson’s best work has been his Ernest Cunningham novels.

The Ernest Cunningham series follows the titular character, a crime fiction expert from a notorious family, who finds himself caught up in some real-life whodunit situations.  The first book in the series, Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone, was particularly impressive, and it cleverly combined the author’s great sense of humour with a compelling mystery.  I really enjoyed this exceptional book (one of my favourite Australian novels of 2022), especially as the author successfully played to his comedic background to produce an outstanding read that satirised classic crime fiction conventions.  Stevenson continued to impress the following year, with the amazing book Everyone on this Train is a Suspect.  One of my favourite books and pieces of Australian fiction of 2023, Everyone on this Train is a Suspect was a worthy sequel to the first Ernest Cunningham book, and I loved how the author took the opportunity to further parody various crime fiction subgenres.  Due to how much fun I’ve had with the previous novels in the series, I was very excited when I found out Stevenson was releasing an Ernest Cunningham Christmas special.  This latest book, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret, was an excellent read that continued to showcase unique style and flair for outrageous stories.

Ernest Cunningham, amateur detective, novelist and all-round meddler, had been looking forward to Christmas with his highly dysfunctional family.  However, a surprising phone call from his ex-wive, Erin, forces him to journey to the Blue Mountains to solve another murder.  Erin has been accused of killing her new husband, a wealthy philanthropist and former actor dedicated to helping former drug addicts by introducing them to the performing arts.  Found upstairs covered in the victim’s blood, the case against Erin seems airtight, but Ernest isn’t willing to believe that the women he used to love is capable of committing murder.

Determined to prove Erin’s innocence, Ernest begins to investigate hoping to find anything that will clear her name.  His first stop is a large charity Christmas show headlined by a famed magician that the victim had been working on in the leadup to his death.  Exploring backstage, Ernest soon discovers that the staff of the charity show are a mixed bag of tricksters, manipulators and performers, each of whom had history with the victim.  But before he can investigate any further, another person dies publicly on stage.

With the police refusing to listen and time counting down to Christmas, Ernest once again uses his knowledge of the conventions of crime fiction to try and solve the case.  However, all his suspects have motive, and all of them know how to lie and misdirect.  Can Ernest work out which of these performers is concealing the truth, or will a killer get away with murder this Christmas?

This was another outstanding novel from Stevenson, who clearly has a ton of fun with his Ernest Cunningham books.  A brilliant Christmas special, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret proved to be yet another captivating and hilarious book that proved extremely hard to put down.

Everyone this Christmas has a Secret proved to be a very entertaining addition to the Ernest Cunningham series.  Using the conventions of a Christmas special, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret provides readers with a short standalone book that can easily be enjoyed by any reader, even those unfamiliar with the previous entries in the series.  Due to the limited length of the novel, Stevenson wastes no time diving into the plot, and you are soon presented with a new unique murder mystery, with the protagonist’s ex-wife painted as the killer.  After some effective introductions to the case, the protagonist travels to the charity show that seems to lie at the heart of the case and begins to learn more about the potential suspect.  This was a necessarily concise introduction, although it works to set up much of the future plot, and there are a ton of subtle clues hidden throughout the first half.  This first half leads to a dramatic and exciting second murder that changes the scope of the plot and forces the protagonist to up his game.

Stevenson doesn’t waste any time after this second death, moving the plot at a murderous pace (pun intended), and bombarding the reader with clues, reveals and intrigues.  There are several great twists here as we get closer to the conclusion, and I loved how the protagonist worked his way through the Christmas mystery in his own unique way.  Everything leads up to the big reveal, where Ernest brings all his suspects together in a single location and talks them through the solution to the murder.  There are some brilliant moments here as Ernest eliminates suspects, bringing all the hidden secrets to life and slowly whittling down the field of potential killers.  The big reveal about the real killer was well handled and extremely clever, as the author brings together the multitude of clues he sprinkled throughout the plot in an entertaining manner.  While the identity of the murder was a tad obvious to me thanks to one clue in particular, the route the protagonist takes to get there is fun, and I loved seeing everything come together.  The resulting final confrontation is a little over-dramatic and follows the pattern of the other novels in the series, but it proved to be a great ending to this shorter, Christmas-themed Ernest Cunningham book, and I loved how well this book sat as a standalone entry to the series.

As with the previous books in this series, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret is a cleverly written and highly entertaining read that seeks to blend a complex murder mystery with comedic writing that satirises classic fiction tropes, especially those around golden-age crime fiction.  Perfectly set in the iconic Australian setting of the Blue Mountains and told from the first-person chronicle perspective of protagonist Ernest Cunningham, this book has a compelling, quick-fire narrative enhanced by the protagonist’s amusing observations about the situation and the people involved in the case.  Stevenson expertly utilises his comedy background to keep the mood of Everyone this Christmas has a Secret light, and you will love the fantastic way he keeps the audience laughing, while also providing some very clever in-jokes for those readers familiar with classic murder mysteries and whodunnits.

Stevenson also leans into the Christmas theme of this book by including a range of themes and tropes from holiday special novels/shows, which helps to give this third book a unique and memorable edge.  The author’s rules for holiday specials, which are set down at the end of the novel, are cleverly overlayed over his established rules for detective fiction, and I really appreciated how Stevenson incorporated them into the plot.  As such, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret has a distinctive change in style compared to the previous novels, which I think worked extremely well.  If I had one criticism, it would be that the shorter length of this novel ensured that Stevenson didn’t have as much space or time to try to implement some of his classic meta-hints (like revealing on what page a murder was going to occur, or how many times the killer’s name is mentioned in the book), and the entire book did feel a bit rushed at times.  Still, this was a great read, and one that works both as a continuation of the Ernest Cunningham series, as well as a compelling, holiday standalone read.

Due to its nature as a standalone holiday special, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret doesn’t feature a massive amount of character development, and apart from the protagonist there is a noticeable lack of recurring characters physically appearing here (it’s one of the rules of a holiday special).  That being said, it was fun to see protagonist and humorous point-of-view character Ernest Cunningham again, especially as he is starting to lean into his role as a detective.  While his investigation style is still quite chaotic (earning him the moniker “the Slapdash Detective”), Cunningham proves to be a much more skilled sleuth, although he once again makes some foolish mistakes at the grand reveal at the end.  Aside from Cunningham, the rest of the cast is fun, with an intriguing mixture of suspects, victims, and related characters.  While Stevenson does a good job introducing these characters and setting up some competing motivations, I did think the speed of the plot didn’t allow the reader to really appreciate this extended cast as much, and as such the big reveal at the end loses a little punch.  Still, Stevenson features a solid cast for a shorter holiday special, and I enjoyed seeing how Ernest dives through their chaotic lives to find the killer.

Benjamin Stevenson once again shows why he is one of Australia’s top crime fiction authors with another captivating and clever murder mystery book, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret.  Once again featuring the author’s trademark humour and satirical take on classic whodunnit tales, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret was a great read that was both gripping and fun.  I look forward to seeing how the author continues the Ernest Cunningham books in the future, although I must admit I do wonder how far Stevenson can take this concept.  An overall excellent and funny murder mystery that anyone can enjoy this Christmas.

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