Everyone on this Train is a Suspect - Benjamin Stevenson

 

"When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out. 

The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty: the debut writer (me!), the forensic science writer, the blockbuster writer, the legal thriller writer, the literary writer, the psychological suspense writer, But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. 

Together, we should know how to solve a crime. Of course, we should also know how to commit one."

What Worked for Me

I'll be honest - pretty much this whole book worked for me.  This was such an absolutely fantastic read that delivered exactly what I wanted.  I've been really wanting to read just some straight up mysteries instead of the mystery/thrillers I usually reach for.  This was exactly the type of mystery I was in the mood for and it was a hit.

This is the second book in the Ernest Cunningham series and our main character, Ernest, has a very distinctive voice and often speaks directly to the reader.  This was one of my favorite parts of the first book in the series and I was so glad to see it was consistent in this second book.  I know that sort of thing isn't for everyone and I've seen some reviews that even mentioned they don't like that sort of mechanic.  I think it works great and really makes for an engaging read that stands out from other mysteries.

I think the actual mystery case and investigation were also fantastic and I enjoyed the premise of all these different mystery writers in one place.  Of course, each of these different authors are involved in the investigation at some point and in some capacity and it was so much fun.  The investigation was very fast paced but had enough pauses where Ernest was basically catching his breath by reviewing what he had learned so far.  These pauses were staggered throughout the read in just the right places that I wasn't overwhelmed or annoyed with them. 

There are a lot of characters that seem to be constantly popping in and out of the book.  Stevenson does a great job of making them all distinct enough that I didn't have a hard time keeping them straight.  Stevenson also made sure to reference characters pretty equally by name and by their title or some sort of other descriptor. 

What Didn't Work for Me

As I said above, the majority of this book was a hit, so these are pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of the read.

Ernest's relationship with Julia was a little off for me.  They meet in the first book, but most of their relationship happens between the first and second book.  Stevenson does give us a brief rundown of how the time between the events of book 1 and book 2 developed, but there was something about how their relationship was presented that made me feel like I missed a romance novella or something in between.  

I also was surprised at how many plot points Stevenson was able to fit into this 320 page book.  When thinking back over all the different things that happened, it feels like it should be like a 450 page book.  While I think the pacing worked really well and I didn't exactly feel rushed, I do think that the read toed the line of pacing that may end up overwhelming some readers. I also read the book in one sitting, which may have made it easier for me to keep track of things since I didn't have to remember what I read a few days prior.  

Overall, this was another fantastic entry in this series and if you liked the first one, I think you'd like this one also.