Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his Ernest Cunningham mysteries.

My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped this Christmas that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

The magician

The assistant

The executive

The hypnotist

The identical twin

The counsellor

The tech

My clues are even more abstract: a suspect covered in blood, without a 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.

If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?

Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe.

Endorsements

"deviously good fun" — Nita Prose