One of my very first ARC reviews was Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. I still remember inhaling it on the plane last year, amazed at every new twist and turn. It had been so long since a modern mystery excited me, and I felt so lucky to be reading it. And I haven’t read anything quite like it on both the puzzle and tonal front since…

So when I saw that Stevenson wrote a sequel, Everyone on this Train is a Suspect, I was thrilled. I grabbed the ARC as quickly as I could (thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the gift copy). It has been a huge act of self discipline to wait until 2024 to read it. But here we are, I’ve finally allowed myself to read it… can it live up to all my hopes for Ernie and his amazing mysteries?

A fair play train mystery…

As readers know, I love a good train mystery. The closed circle cast, the picturesque scenery, the implicit deadlines – for me they all add up to the perfect mystery recipe. Here Stevenson has added another layer of intrigue with a literary festival on a luxury train. It’s almost too perfect an escapist fantasy – gorgeous train car through breathtaking scenery surrounded by writers and readers.

Train mysteries are a classic Golden Age trope, and Stevenson shows he knows them well. As in Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, he literally announces major milestones, showing his work. These milestones comes at time points, locations, and word counts – blending the traditional signposts with more modern / transparent ones. Every clue is perfectly placed and easily referenced as part of the denouement; Stevenson literally calls out when important information has been shared.

Incredibly, even with this level of transparency, the mystery itself is quite knotty. There are multiple layers that click together in quite a satisfying way. Despite this complexity, Stevenson writes his characters such that the overall story feels believable and their connections sound. I love that there are multiple puzzles to solve in this one, and that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. These books really do feel like reading the best Golden Age mysteries when it comes to puzzling, but with more modern sensibilities on character and storytelling. And unlike many modern mysteries, it’s not quite so easy to simply “meta-guess” the answer, due in large part to these layers of complexity.

…that doesn’t take itself too seriously

It’s not just that Stevenson writes an excellent, puzzling story – he’s also a master entertainer. As before, Ernie narrates this book in first person, and it’s full of asides and musings that make the read feel like a conversation. The narration is full of moments where Ernest reacts to himself in real-time, correcting or adjusting a phrase or sentence to better clarify his point. This feels remarkably like how my actual conversations work, and I found myself sliding into the narration so easily it almost surprised me.

The humor not only makes this a joy to read, it also helps hide the clues. Here Stevenson solves a common issue with lower tier Golden Age mysteries: for clues to stay hidden, they need to be obscure. Stevenson instead chooses to hide clues into observational humor or wry character details. Instead of minimizing them, he points out important elements and laughs at them. And as you’re laughing along, it’s easy to miss the salient points – until you start to put the pieces together at the end. Stevenson effectively uses humor (and other emotions) as a clue-hiding tactic. In my opinion, it makes for a naturally entertaining read that feels even more fair.

Time for a vacation

One other element to note here is a cast shift that drives a tonal difference. Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone followed a fraught and murderous family gathering. I still remember reading at top speed, jaw hanging slightly, amazed at how much these family members despised each other. The book portrayed the kind of fervent animosity you really only get with families. Add to that the idea that each family member was responsible for a death, and you end up with high drama.

But Everyone on this Train is a Suspect does not follow that family dynamic. Instead, you have crime writers, each with their own specialty. Instead of a family reunion, the setting is a literary festival – and try as they might, the writers just can’t snipe as hard as the family did. Instead of understanding each character’s murderous past, we profile their area of crime expertise (forensic, psych, legal, etc.). Plus, a luxury train through a gorgeous desert landscape is much less claustrophobic than a snowed in ski resort. The result is a much mellower vacation read.

The best comparator I have is the difference between Knives Out and Glass Onion. Where the former was full of anger and feelings running amok, the latter is more puzzly fun. Your preferences will vary, but on the whole I think I prefer the mellower luxury vacation read…

Reader’s notes and rating (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

It almost feels too early in the year to have a five star review to give, yet here it is. I didn’t think it was possible to top the prior book, but Everyone on this Train is a Suspect somehow managed. I would recommend it to basically anyone curious about the modern murder mystery – it’s fun, engaging, with a real set of puzzles inside. Perfection – five stars.

Everyone on this Train is a Suspect will be published on January 30, 2024. You should read it.

*This will meet “picked without reading the blurb” for my 52 Book Club challenge this year!