Ah, the romance of train travel. The gentle rocking of the carriage, the ever-changing landscape outside your window, the constant fear that one of your fellow passengers might be a cold-blooded killer… Wait, what? Welcome to Benjamin Stevenson’s “Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect,” a rollicking, meta-mystery that proves once and for all that you should never, ever trust a writer. Especially not a whole trainload of them.
The Setup: Murder on the Ghan Express
Our intrepid narrator, Ernest Cunningham, is back for another round of mayhem, this time swapping snowy mountaintops for the sweltering Australian outback. Ern’s been invited to a crime writing festival aboard the Ghan, a legendary train journey from Darwin to Adelaide. It’s meant to be a chance for inspiration, networking, and maybe snagging a coveted blurb from a bestselling author. Instead, it turns into… well, you can probably guess from the title.
Stevenson wastes no time throwing us into the thick of things. Before you can say “Agatha Christie on steroids,” we’ve got a dead body, a train full of suspects who all happen to be experts in fictional murder, and poor Ern once again finding himself reluctantly playing detective. It’s like “Murder on the Orient Express” if Hercule Poirot had to contend with a bunch of smartasses who’d read all his books.
The Cast: A Rogues’ Gallery of Wordsmiths
One of the joys of this book is the delightfully acidic way Stevenson skewers various writerly archetypes. We’ve got:
- Ernest Cunningham: Our protagonist, still reeling from the events of the first book and desperately trying to write his sophomore novel.
- Henry McTavish: The grizzled, hard-drinking Scottish crime fiction legend (any resemblance to certain real-world authors is, I’m sure, entirely coincidental).
- SF Majors: The queen of psychological suspense, with a chip on her shoulder and secrets to spare.
- Alan Royce: A former forensic pathologist turned gory thriller writer, whose medical credentials might be slightly… exaggerated.
- Lisa Fulton: Legal thriller author with a mysterious 20-year gap between books.
- Wolfgang: Pretentious literary fiction darling who thinks he’s slumming it with the genre crowd.
Add in a smattering of eager fans, put-upon train staff, and mysterious fellow travelers, and you’ve got a powder keg of egos and hidden agendas just waiting to explode.
The Style: Meta-Mystery Madness Strikes Again
If you thought Stevenson went meta in the first book, hold onto your deerstalker cap. “Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect” doubles down on the fourth-wall breaking, genre-savvy shenanigans. Ern is constantly second-guessing himself (and the narrative structure), characters bicker about proper detective novel etiquette, and there’s enough discussion of literary devices to fill a semester of creative writing classes.
It’s a high-wire act, and I’ll admit there were moments where I worried Stevenson might lose his balance. But he manages to pull it off with wit and verve, using the meta elements to both comment on and propel the actual mystery. It’s clever without being smug, playful without sacrificing tension.
The Plot: Off the Rails in All the Right Ways
I don’t want to give too much away (where’s the fun in that?), but suffice it to say that Stevenson keeps the twists coming at a breakneck pace. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on what’s going on, he throws another curveball your way. Bodies pile up, secrets are revealed, and poor Ern finds himself constantly two steps behind, trying to piece together not just whodunit, but what exactly was done in the first place.
The closed-circle setting of the train adds a delicious layer of claustrophobic tension. As the Ghan hurtles through the vast emptiness of the Australian interior, our cast of suspects is trapped together, their lies and evasions becoming increasingly desperate. Stevenson uses the unique geography of the journey to great effect, with stops in Alice Springs and the underground opal mining town of Coober Pedy providing fresh opportunities for mayhem.
The Verdict: A Worthy Sequel That Stays on Track
“Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect” proves that Stevenson’s debut wasn’t a fluke. He’s taken everything that worked in the first book and cranked it up to eleven, while skillfully avoiding the pitfalls that often plague sophomore efforts.
Is it perfect? No, but its imperfections are part of its charm. There are moments where the meta-commentary threatens to derail the actual plot, and some readers might find the constant genre deconstruction a bit much. But for my money, the sheer audacity and wit on display more than make up for any minor stumbles.
Comparisons and Context
While “Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect” stands confidently on its own, it does bring to mind some other works. There’s a clear debt to Agatha Christie (acknowledged cheekily within the text itself), but Stevenson’s voice is distinctly modern. Fans of Anthony Horowitz’s meta-mysteries or Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series will find a lot to love here.
It’s worth noting that this is the second book in Stevenson’s Ernest Cunningham series, following “Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.” While you could theoretically jump in here, I’d recommend starting with the first book to fully appreciate Ern’s character development and some of the running jokes.
Final Thoughts: Tickets, Please!
Look, I’m not saying you should be suspicious of everyone you meet on public transportation… but maybe keep an eye on that little old lady furiously scribbling in her notebook, you know?
All jokes aside, “Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect” is a joyride of a mystery. It’s clever, funny, and genuinely surprising in an age where it feels like every plot twist has been done to death (pun very much intended). Stevenson has managed to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, delivering a sequel that builds on the strengths of the first book while pushing into new territory.
If you’re looking for a mystery that’ll keep you guessing, laughing, and maybe side-eyeing your fellow passengers on your next train journey, this is the book for you. Just maybe don’t read it right before a long rail trip. You know, just in case.
A Note on the Series
With the success of the first two books, it’s clear that Stevenson has hit upon a winning formula. A third installment, “Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret,” is slated for release in October 2024. If the pattern holds, we can expect more genre-savvy mayhem, this time with a holiday twist. I, for one, can’t wait to see what trouble Ernest Cunningham gets himself into next. Though maybe someone should tell him to stop accepting invitations to gatherings with large groups of people. It never seems to end well for the poor guy.
