Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret
ISBN: 9780241716090
Description
My name is Ernest Cunningham. I’m not a detective. I just happen to have a knack for what makes mysteries – and murderers – tick. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any killers out there might be willing to take a break for the holidays. I was wrong. So here I am, backstage at the Christmas show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. From the magician’s assistant to the hypnotist, my suspects are all professional tricksters. Masters in the art of misdirection. My clues are even more of a mystery: A suspect covered in blood, with no memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know. It’s Christmas. Solving the murder is the only gift I want this year. But can I catch a killer, and make it home for Christmas alive?
Reviewed on 28th December 2024
In this self-described “Holiday Special”, we revisit Ernest as he receives a concerning phone call and is dragged off to another grisly murder scene.
I really enjoy the first person narratives of this series, which refuses to take itself very seriously while dealing with serious subject matter.
It’s a clever mystery with a lot going on and I raced through the novella in two days, despite its suggestion that it could be read over December like an advent calendar.
I wonder if I had gone slower whether I would have worked more out along the way, but the chapters are short and my approach to reading is much more enthusiastic than that when I enjoy something.
