Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas.

Book Review: Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret
Benjamin Stevenson, 2024

New Release! I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review. 

This is a weird one. It's book three in a series, and I haven't read the others. However, I think the bigger factor here is that this book (and its series) is written in a particular style of extremely meta humor which... isn't for everyone.

Ernie Cunningham was a mystery buff before his life turned into Murder, She Wrote. With two solved murders under his belt (and written into the previous books, which exist in the world of the story), he's beginning to get a reputation. Enter - the Christmas Special. (The prologue literally has the narrator say that this is a Christmas special.)

It's the lead up to Christmas, and he's traveling to see a magician do a holiday benefit show, because the CEO of the nonprofit the benefit is for was murdered, and Ernie's ex-wife (currently the nonprofit guy's partner) is the top suspect. Following all that? 

The suspects and clues (and an additional murder) come thick and fast, and the writing skates along breezily. However, I admit that I found the meta humor more tedious than funny. The occasional direct asides to the reader about how much like a holiday special something is or commentary about a specific event were more distracting than enlightening or amusing to me. I liked it much more when it was just a mystery novel in first-person. 

The book tells you outright that you should be "able to solve the mystery," in case that matters to you. (It doesn't to me.) 

The cast of supporting characters is varied and interesting. I enjoyed following the twists and turns, but only up to a point. That point was the climax, when I found the contrived setup for the "reveal" to be so ridiculously stupid that I started wishing that somehow the narrator wouldn't survive. If you were more on board with the style and/or read the previous ones in the series, maybe this would work better. 

I got a copy of this book because I'd seen it on some "most-anticipated holiday books of 2024" list somewhere, but while I think it's largely fine, I wouldn't go out of my way to read another.