Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

In this long story, there actually are a little bit more than 23 clues, one quite telling.

I have deduced who the killer was, but couldn’t understand the whole story, the “second half” of it and the motivation between seemingly contradictive behaviour of one of the characters.

There is certainly psychological detective aspect mixed in, so you’ll have to make an important judgement call if you want to solve it on your own.

But anyway, this was an absolute banger. Better than the best old detective stories, in my opinion. Oh also, it will be not trivial to solve even if you’re good at puzzles!

I like how responsible Mr. Stevenson inserts social commentary into his books. In the train one it was self-aware meta-takes about about men being egocentric, and generally horrible (I’ll write about it more when I get to review that one), here it’s the social divide in first-world countries:

I don’t want to misrepresent regional Australia. The reason organizations like the Pearse Foundation [reviewer’s note: fictional charity for people suffering from substanse use disorder] existed here was not because any area was more susceptible to drugs or crime, but because the class divide was growing with the influx of tree-changers, and those struggling were being left behind by the gentrification. Ironically, it was the money in this very room that was causing much of that divide in the first place.

Even though this is a Christmas book, you should probably grab it before December if you want to read it "as intended." In theory it should be read one chapter a day, like an advent calendar. In practice? Yeah... I finished this a lot quicker. It's a much shorter installment than the prior two books in the series, clocking in at 175 pages. Our self-aware author Ernest explains to the readers that this is because it's a Christmas special, and like every Christmas special, it's should be fast-paced, and easy to skip. That being said, if you're a fan of the series, don't skip this!

Like the rest of the series, it's a tightly-plotted fair play mystery with plenty of drama and some really fun twists. There's also a brand new character introduced who I really hope will be a regular in the series, because he's terrible and hilarious. At this point in time, you know if this series is for you (unless this is your first encounter with Ernest Cunningham, in which case I heartily recommend starting at the beginning). This book features the usual meta commentary, self-effacing humor, and dry macabre sensibilities of the previous books, with the writing now honed even sharper than before.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for an advance copy. All thoughts in this review are my own!