Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: Review & Summary (My Ultimate Gym Book)

Sometimes, life is just a series of happy little accidents.

For example, it was a complete accident that I decided to recommend The Inheritance Games to Stani as one of the first books she should read this year. It was an accident that she loved it. And it was a very happy accident that this led us on a massive mystery bender—taking us through all the Knives Out movies and culminating in our curated list of 7 Witty Murder Mysteries for Fans of Knives Out & Benoit Blanc.

Everyone in my family has killed someone by Benjamin Stevenson was the second book we put on that perfect mystery TBR list. If you remember what I said back then, you’ll know exactly why I immediately had to pick it up: the title alone sold me.

What I didn't expect was that this brilliant, self-aware murder mystery would accidentally become the greatest fitness motivator of my life.

The Book at a Glance

Title: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

Author: Benjamin Stevenson

Genre: Meta-Mystery / Whodunit

Series: Book 1 of the Ernest Cunningham Series

Audiobook Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins (Narrated by Barton Welch)

My Status: Finished (And listened to exclusively at the gym).

The Meta-Mystery Brilliance

I love meta-fiction books that know exactly what they are. Benjamin Stevenson doesn’t take himself too seriously here, even though some pretty serious (and deadly) stuff happens within the Everyone in my family has killed someone family tree.

It’s the exact same reason I loved They Both Die at the End. You know exactly what the premise is before you even open the cover, yet you still end up completely surprised and in awe of how the author manages to get you there.

Right out of the gate, Stevenson frames the narrative around the famous "10 Commandments of Detective Fiction" (a real set of rules written in the 1920s by Ronald Knox). The narrator, Ernest Cunningham, constantly references these rules throughout the story to reinforce a point, promising the reader that he will play fair. It is a brilliant structural choice that makes you feel like you are solving the puzzle alongside him.

The "Gym Book" Audiobook Experiment

I am particularly happy with how I approached reading this book.

If you follow the blog, you probably already know that I wasn’t the biggest fan of audiobooks. Notice my use of the past tense? The truth is, I decided to give them a go with the Dungeon Crawler Carl series earlier this year, and I’ve been fully converted ever since.

But with Everyone in my family has killed someone, I tried something new. For 34 years, I have been a dedicated monogamist when it comes to reading. I am a one-book-at-a-time kind of guy. I used to laugh and gently judge people who spread their attention across multiple titles at once.

However, as those following our Instagram know, I am currently making my way through the massive physical copy of Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff. I wanted to keep reading it, but I also desperately wanted to start Stevenson's mystery. So, I made a rule: Everyone in my family has killed someone would be my exclusive "gym book." I was only allowed to listen to the audiobook while working out.

The result? This murder mystery has gotten me into better shape over the last two weeks than all the self-help books in the world combined. I literally couldn’t wait to get to the gym just so I could hear what happened next. I will absolutely be keeping up with this method!

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: Characters, Pacing, and Twists ⚠️

(If you haven't read the book yet, skip down to the final section!)

The pacing of this novel is absolutely relentless, and the plot twists just kept coming. It was such an awesome puzzle to get through.

Honestly, I’m kind of sad I nudged Stani to go for Babel instead of this one. She would loooooove this book! Instead, she’s been slogging through Babel and might actually DNF it (but I’m getting distracted—I’ll let her tell you all about her struggles with that one in another article).

As a reader, I am genuinely proud of myself for piecing together the Everyone in my family has killed someone summary of clues. I managed to guess exactly who the killer was, as well as—major spoiler alert—who actually takes him down in the end. When a mystery plays fair with its audience and still makes you feel like a genius for figuring it out, you know you are reading top-tier crime fiction.

The Ernest Cunningham Series Continues

I was thrilled that the book ended on a cliffhanger. Since I am the type of reader who refuses to Google anything about a book or an author before finishing it, I was doubly excited after the Epilogue.

It turns out, this is officially the Ernest Cunningham series, and Benjamin Stevenson has two more books following our highly observant narrator: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect and Everyone This Christmas has a Secret.

Given the titles and the setups, if I were a betting man, I’d wager good money that Benjamin Stevenson’s favorite novel is Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, because the man is following a classic mystery theme like a bloodhound. And honestly? I cannot wait to download the next one for my upcoming gym sessions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to memorize the Everyone in my family has killed someone family tree? The Cunningham family tree is definitely complicated, but you don't need to take notes. Benjamin Stevenson brilliantly includes the family tree at the start of the book, and the narrator, Ernest, constantly reminds you who is who (and exactly who they killed) as the story progresses.

Are the Everyone in my family has killed someone characters believable? Yes, but they are highly eccentric. The characters lean slightly into classic mystery tropes (the shady lawyer, the estranged brother, the criminal patriarch), but the self-aware, meta-fiction writing style makes them feel incredibly fresh and entertaining.

Is the book too dark or gory? Despite the title, no. The Everyone in my family has killed someone summary sounds like a dark thriller, but it actually reads more like a witty, cozy mystery (think Knives Out). The violence is mostly off-page or handled with a heavy dose of dark humor.