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Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect    by Benjamin Stevenson Amazon.com order for
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect
by Benjamin Stevenson
Order:  USA  Can
Mariner, 2024 (2024)
Hardcover, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Here's an engaging new perspective on the closed train murder mystery, Benjamin Stevenson's Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect, a sequel to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. Each of them is a memoir written by the lead, Ernest Cunningham, who shares tips on writing mysteries with readers as he recounts murder and mayhem.

As a result of his first effort, this debut author has been invited to join the Australian Mystery Writers' Society crime-writing festival. It's held aboard the Ghan train between Darwin and Adelaide, 'an opulent hotel on rails.' Ernest gives his readers a preview of the crimes to be committed, from 'murder, attempted murder, rape, stealing, trespassing, evidence tampering, conspiracy, blackmail' to headbutting and improper use of adverbs.

Ernest boards the train with his girlfriend Juliette Henderson (also a writer, and met during the events described in his first book). The other invitees cover psychological suspense, forensic science, legal thrillers, literary fiction and blockbusters. After one of them is murdered, the others all try their hand as investigators, but is one of them the also the perp?

As expected, there are regular red herrings and many twists and turns of plot, but the truth does come out at the end.

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