What a joy this read was! Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson is a breath of fresh air. We have a very unique narrator, a narrative style and delivery unlike anything I have read before and an enigmatic family history is filled with secrets, sketchy activity and death. It’s a party over here and I implore you to join in.

Benjamin Stevenson simply has a way with creating relatable characters you want to see succeed, or at least wriggle around trying to avoid rather deadly situations for a while. His writing is witty, crisp and flows in a way that makes the carnage make sense. I say carnage in the most positive way by the way because the action in this book had my eyes whipping across the page, fingers flicking to the next so quick I almost got a cramp. Arguing semantics and adding flare to chapters by creating variation and hindsight is something I love to read and I couldn’t put this book down – I had to know what was next, even if I got baited with a couple of plot points or details.

The breaking of the fourth wall throughout this novel made this feel so vivid and digestible. It was almost like a TV show in the sense that the narrator would say something or address the reader as he retells the events which makes you keep something in the back of your mind to recall later and when it comes you’re laughing or adjusting your clues and linking up new bits of red string to the details revealed. As soon as I finished this I had to request the next one from the library. I could not rest until I was sure my name was on the list for it.

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone is one of those books that, while its a crime fiction, feels like much more than that. It feels a bit like a dark comedy with the narrator’s dry sense of humour and behaviour that doesn’t fit in with surrounding company. It also isn’t restricted to an adult audience, I feel like a YA reader wanting to branch out and delve into more kinds of crime fiction would be able to read this easily. It’s light and simple, with just the right amount of blood and gore, while still being family-friendly and enjoyable.

I highly recommend this to everyone, a veteran to the crime genre and a greenie looking for their first read. You will not regret it.