Comedian’s crime tale more amusing than alarming
Everyone in My Family Had Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson, Michael Joseph, $37
Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning standup comic.His first two novels have been shortlisted for Australian and international awards. This is his third novel.
The author is narrating the story.
The family have got together for a reunion, organised by the narrator's Aunt Katherine, at a ski resort on the highest Australian peak.
Robert, a policeman and the father of Ernest and his two brothers, was shot by a fellow officer during a petrol station robbery. It appeared Robert was a part of a corrupt group of officers but in fact he had infiltrated it as part of senior officers' attempt to stem police corruption.
The family have had to live with the public perception that their father was a corrupt policeman.
Stressed, trying to work and look after three little boys, Audrey, Robert's widow, accidentally left the boys locked in a carpark one very hot day. Jeremy, the oldest, managed to get out and went to look for help for the others. He was never seen again.
Years later Ernest witnesses his now older brother, Michael, murdering a known villain.
Because of the victim's history and some clever wheeling and dealing by his stepfather-cum-lawyer, Michael gets a three-year sentence.
He is now released and, accompanied by Ernest's ex-wife, joins the reunion.
The next day a tortured body is found dead in the snow. The police are contacted and a Mr Plod sort of policeman joins the party.
Ernest has an all-consuming interest in crime stories, especially Agatha Christie tales. He writes notes and strategies for would-be crime writers.
The other guests have fled the resort due to weather reports of a bad snowstorm. Aunt Katherine, known for her parsimonious ways, feels the family need to get their money's worth and stay. This is reinforced by Mr Plod, who is unwilling to let them leave the scene of the crime.
Ernest now feels because of his knowledge he should take over the investigation. Everybody is carrying some sort of baggage. The scene is set and the reader is now about chapter three.
I will let the story unfold for itself. I don't really read many crime stories that I would call entertaining, but this is. It is very readable and highly entertaining. The narrator keeps the reader in the story with his many offside quips. The gathering of all in the library to uncover the real victim, a la Agatha Christie, does rather stretch credibility, but that would be my only small criticism. Still, if Ernest is running the investigation what else could he do?
Stevenson appears to have a rather droll sense of humour. It was certainly a novel experience for me reading a crime story that I found much more amusing than scary.